But he will not hear of divorce in the Reich’s ‘happiest family.’ He sends for Goebbels.
The minister’s stock is beginning a decline from which it will take six years to recover.
‘I then have a very long and grave conversation with him,’ records Goebbels,
without being more specific. ‘It shakes me to the core. I am deeply moved by it. The
Führer is like a father to me. I am so grateful to him. I take grim decisions. But they
are final.’113 Goebbels is hoist by his own petard; trapped by the ‘family image’ that he
has himself created.
He telephones Lida Baarova immediately afterwards at her rented Grunewald villa.
She will never forget his words. ‘My wife is a devil,’ he exclaims. ‘She’s just been over
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 461
to the Führer and told him everything. She has persuaded him that you’re the evil
one. I’ve had to give my word of honour that I won’t ever see you again.’ ‘I love you,’
he croaks between sobs. ‘I cannot live without you.’ He phones her best friend Hilde
Körber to go over and console Lida. Afterwards he drives off aimlessly into the summer
evening, half enjoying the suffering he has to endure. Not since Anka Stalherm
has he experienced such a delicious torment to his soul.
‘I am living as though in a trance,’ he writes the next day, analysing his own emotions.
‘Life is so cruel and harsh… But ones duty must come first.’ After the ‘very
long and very doleful’ farewell phone call (to Lida), he soliloquizes: ‘I remain firm,
though my heart bids fair to burst. Now let my new life begin. Harsh and cruel, but
subservient only to my duty. My youth is now over.’114
1 See e.g. Král, 63, No.9; Prof. Carl Burckhardt’s opinion, quoted in Geneva telegram to
FO, Jan 27 (PRO file FO.371/21660); and JG unpubl. diary, May 21, 1938.
2 On this decree see OSS R&A report No.113, Feb 22, 1943 (USAMHI, Donovan papers,
box 35c). On the new theatre academy see BA file R.55/264.
3 Diary, Jun 5, 1937.
4 Ibid., Jun 5–7, 12, 1937.
5 JG to Ziegler, Jun 30, cit. Peter-Klaus Schuster, Die ‘Kunststadt’ München 1937.
Nationalsozialismus und‘entartete Kusnt’ (Munich, 1987), 37ff; Reuth, 367; diary, Jun 30, 1937.
6 Ibid., Jul 24, 25, Aug 1, 1937.
7 Ibid., Sep 1, 1937.
8 Ibid., Oct 28, 1937.
9 Ibid., Sep 22, Nov 5, 1937; unpubl. diary, Mar 15, May 17, 1938. The law: diary, Jan 13,
14; unpubl. diary, Feb 12, 14, Mar 15, May 17, 18; diary, Jun 5, 1938.
10 Unpubl. diary, May 18, 16; diary, Jul 29, 1938.
11 Ibid., Mar 14, 21, 24, 1938.
12 Ello Quandt says this was in the last weeks of this pregnancy. Hans-Otto Meissner, 175f.
13 Unpubl. diary, Apr 13, 14; and see Apr 3, 1938.
14 Ibid., May 3, 1938.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid., May 5, 1938.
17 Ibid., May 6. The nobility, Hitler remarked later, were good only for marrying off to
wealthy Jewesses (ibid., Jun 16, 1938).
18 Ibid., May 7, 1938.
19 Ibid., May 4, 1938.
462 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
20 Ibid., May 5, 1938. Aboard the Conte Cavour, Hitler told Mussolini that Germany would
step out along the ancient teutonic road to the east. See Ciano’s letter to Ribbentrop, Aug
13, 1939 (Loesch files, NA film T120, roll 610).
21 Unpubl. diary, May 7, 1938.
22 Ibid., May 7-8, 1938.
23 Ibid., May 11, 1938.
24 Ibid., May 12, 1938.
25 Ibid., May 5, 1938; the late Captain H Friedrichs to the author, Apr 4, 1989; Behrend,
op. cit., No.19, May 10, 1952.
26 Unpubl. diary, May 12, 1938.
27 Diary, May 13; incorrectly dated May 12, 1938 in Fröhlich edition.
28 Unpubl. diary, May 15, 1938.
29 Ibid., May 17, 18, 19, 23, 27, 31; diary, Jun 2, 3, 15, 16, 17, 19, 1938.
30 From a well-informed article by a Forschungsamt official in Neue Presse, Coburg, Aug 3,
1946; and see NA file RG.226, file XE.4986).
31 Interview of Thomas Harlan, Jan 13, 1994; Lida Baarova remembers two Gestapo cars
shadowing her sometimes.
32 Julius Schaub, MS (IfZ Irving collection, ED.100/202).
33 Ibid., Jun 17, 1938.
34 Ibid., Jun 21, 1938.
35 Author’s interview with Lida Baarova, Salzburg, Jul 4, 1993.
36 Meissner, 141.
37 Diary, Jun 30, 1938.
38 Ibid., Jul 3, 1938.
39 Ibid., Jul 5, 7, 1938.
40 Ibid., Jul 8, 1938.
41 Hanke told his later wife, the then Baroness Freda née von Fircks, that while he was
willing, Magda was not. (Interview of the late Freda Rössler, Mar 5, 1990).
42 Cabinet, Jan 26; diary, Jan 27, 1937.
43 Unpubl. diary, May 12, 1938.
44 Diary, Jun 16, 1938.
45 Ibid., Aug 13, 1938.
46 Ibid., Jul 30, 1930.
47 Wünsche diary, Jun 19 (BA file NS.10/125); JG unpubl. diary, May 1, 3, 1938.
48 Unpubl. diary, Apr 21, 1938; programme, BA file NS.10/44.
49 Guest list in Cooper C Graham, Leni Riefenstahl and Olympia (London, 1986), 186ff.
50 Unpubl. diary, Apr 22, 23, 1938.
51 Diary, Aug 13, 1938.
52 Unpubl. diary, Apr 5, 1938.
53 Ibid., May 29, 1938. ‘He is happy when I speak a few friendly words to him.’
54 The author was Ernst Wiechert. Diary, Aug 4, 30; unpubl. diary, Sep 11, 1938.
55 Diary, Jan 6, 1938.
56 Unpubl. diary, Feb 12, 1938.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 463
57 Ibid., Mar 6; he was aware how many top Nazis’ wives purchased in Jewish stores,
including Emmy Göring. ‘Women sometimes can’t distinguish between them.’ Apr 22, 1938.
58 Yivo file G-61.
59 Unpubl. diary, Mar 20, 1938.
60 Ibid., Mar 23; he used the same turn of phrase in his Vienna speech of Mar 29, 1938.
61 Unpubl. diary, Apr 23; and Helldorff’s report to JG on his anti-Jewish operations, Jun
20, 1938 (Princeton Univ. Libr.: Seeley Mudd Libr: Adolf Hitler collection, box 2).
62 Diary, Jun 2, 3, 1938.
63 DrJulius Dresel. See Heydrich to Himmler, Jul 22; Himmler to Helldorff, Jul 30, 1938
(BDC file, Helldorff).
64 Ibid., Jun 4, 1938.
65 Under Regierungsassessor Brümmel.
66 Helldorff’s report, loc. cit.; JG diary, Jun 19, 1938: ‘Helldorff is now taking radical steps
on the Jewish Problem. The party is helping him in this… The police has understood my
instructions.’—See the United Press report from Berlin, on NA film T120, roll 4357, 5162ff.
67 Lochner to family, Jul 10, 1938 (loc. cit., box 47). He and his wife witnessed ‘orgies of
window smearing’ on Kurfürstendamm.
68 Diary, Jun 21, 1938.
69 Ibid. JG diary, Jun 22–23; Henderson to FO, Jun 22, 1938 (PRO file FO.371/21663).
Three thousand Jews had actually moved into Berlin in the last three months, he shrilled.
‘They must not behave as if there had never been a National Socialist revolution.’—DAZ, Jun
23, 1938: ‘Goebbels über die Auseinandersetzung mit den Juden. Eine Rede bei der Berliner
Sonnwendfeier.’ (BA file Schumacher collection, 115)
70 Diary, Jun 21, 1938.
71 Ibid., Jun 24, 1938.
72 Ibid., Aug 5, 8, 1938. ‘I don’t want that.’
73 Ibid., Jul 6, 1938; see Ribbentrop, Zwisch
en London und Moskau, 275.
74 Diary, Jul 24; on July 26 Helldorff handed him a report on steps so far taken against
Berlin’s Jews, and on Aug 3 about subsequent operations: ‘They are proceeding to plan.’
(Diary.)
75 Unpubl. diary, Apr 15, 1938.
76 Ibid., Apr 23, 1938.
77 Unpubl. diary, May 3, 1935. On May 21 he wrote, ‘Poor Prague, we’re going to see to
you.’
78 Ibid., May 22, 24, 1938.
79 Ibid., May 25, 1938.
80 Ibid., May 28, 1938.
81 Ibid., May 29; the NYT noted, May 28, 1938, ‘As if by order, the German press ceased
abruptly its blasts against Czechoslovakia..’
82 Unpubl. diary, May 30, 1938.
83 Ibid., Jun 1, 1938.
84 Ibid., Jun 3, 4, 1938.
85 Diary, Jul 16, 17, 1934.
464 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
86 Ibid., Jul 17; JG, Hitler, and Ribbentrop had all assured Ambassador von Dirksen of
their desire for an understanding with Britain. Henderson to Cadogan, May 2, 1938 (PRO
file FO.800/269).
87 Diary, Jul 19, 1938.
88 Ibid., Jul 9; Max Wünsche diary, Jul 8, 1938 (BA file NS.10/125).
89 Diary, Jul 10, 11; Wünsche diary, Jul 9, 10, 1938.
90 Author’s interview with Speer, May 20, 1968; see Speer, Inside the Third Reich (New York
1970), 218f.,
91 Diary, Jul 16, 17, 1938.
92 Ibid., Jul 23, 1938.
93 Ibid., Jul 25; Wünsche diary, Jul 24, 1938. Author’s interview of Speer; Speer’s memoirs,
218f., put this episode in July 1939. Wünsche’s diary leaves no doubt that it was 1938.
94 Diary, Jul 26; see Wünsche diary, Jul 25, 1938.
95 Diary, Jul 26, 1938.
96 Ibid., July 27, 1938.
97 Ibid., Jul 28, 1938; Magda phoned twice from Bayreuth. Diary, Jul 29, 30, 1938. There
is one unexplained diary entry, Jul 29, 1938: ‘The Bronnen Case comes up again. I now
squash it for good.’ Arnolt Bronnen397
was a (Jewish?) radio official with whose fiancée Olga JG had had an affair years earlier.
98 Ibid., Jul 30, 1938.
99 Ibid., Aug 3, 1938.
100 What follows is based on Lida’s various recollections. The amethyst ring is the key to the
chronology. Ibid., Aug 4, 1938: ‘I give Magda a beautiful ring. We have a long discussion.’
101 Baarova.
102 Author’s interview of Lida Baarova, Salzburg, Jul 4, 1993. ‘I wanted to get out of the
whole thing.’
103 Diary, Aug 5, 1938.
104 Ibid., Aug 6–9, 12, 14, 1938.
105 Ibid., Aug 5, 1938.
106 Ibid., Aug 9, 10, 12, 1938.
107 Meissner & Ebermayer, in Revue, No.22, Apr 1952; see diary, Aug 12: ‘A long parlaver
with Magda and Auntie Ello.’
108 Ibid., Aug 14, 1938.
109 Baarova.
110 Diary, Aug 15, 1938: ‘Rain, rain, rain. And the whole house full of guests.’
111 Ibid., Aug 16, 1938.
112 Behrend, op. cit., No.18.
113 Bahls (Hitler’s adjutant) to RMVP, Aug 16, 1938 (BA file NS.10/45).
114 Diary, Aug 16, 1938.
115 Ibid.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 465
Goebbels
30: Duty put on Hold
IT was to Goebbels that Hitler subequently gave the credit for the bloodless vic
tory over Czechoslovakia in 1938.1 The ministry artfully developed the theme
that Czechoslovakia was Moscow’s aircraft carrier in the heart of Europe. Taubert’s
anti-Comintern unit published a book, ‘Europe Betrayed,’ to hammer home this line.2
Later Goebbels flooded the media with Czech atrocity stories concocted by Berndt
with the aid of address books, maps, and telephone directories.3 The Nazi newspapers
along the frontier with Czechoslovakia supplied further raw material.
This did lead to local difficulties. Konrad Henlein’s press chief Franz Höller objected
to one particular story about Czech attacks on Sudeten Germans pointing out
that this was his own village, and it enjoyed particularly good ethnic relations.4 ‘Tell
me,’ retorted Goebbels, grinning, ‘how big is your village?’ Höller told him. ‘Right,’
said Goebbels, grinning evilly. ‘So three hundred people know we are lying. But the
rest of the world still has to find out!’5
For Czechoslovakia the clock was already ticking. On the day of Magda’s lachrymose
performance at Bayreuth late in July Hitler had predicted that he would have
to use force. ‘Prague won’t come to terms,’ Goebbels wrote afterwards.6 But Hitler’s
fortifications against France, the West Wall, were still incomplete. This, wrote
Goebbels, was why Hitler had just sent an adjutant to London for informal talks with
Lord Halifax—he had to play for time.7 ‘Of course,’ he continued, ‘our Berlin gener-
466 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
als are all shitting their pants again… The Führer wants to avoid actual war. That’s
why he’s preparing for it with everything we’ve got.’
Five days later, both Goebbels and Hitler spoke at the athletic festival in Breslau.8
Reassuring the twenty thousand madly cheering Sudeten Germans present, Goebbels
bragged that their enemies now had to take Germany ‘bloody seriously.’ ‘Too cowardly
to open fire on us with machine-guns and artillery,’ he shrilled, ‘they set upon
the Reich with printer’s ink.’ Yet privately he foresaw problems even in victory. What
was Germany to do with the six million Czechs, he pondered, once they had overrun
Czechoslovakia?9
War psychosis gradually permeated Europe’s capitals including Berlin. Addressing
thegauleiters, Göring argued against panicking. Goebbels, listening in his capacity as
gauleiter of Berlin, wondered uneasily whether the German people would stand for
a long war. They would have to rely on rapid surprise tactics. He could see Hitler’s
mind constantly turned to Britain—how dearly he would like to be on good terms
with her—and to the south-east. ‘We don’t want these peoples,‘ Hitler commented
later in August, discussing Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. ‘Just their land.’10
HIS family life momentarily a shambles, Goebbels throws himself into his other tasks.
For the four weeks until the Sudeten crisis peaks in mid September he wallows in
self-pity. He has barely eaten since that dreadful rainy Sunday, August 14. He lies
awake, hollow-eyed, takes sedatives to sleep. ‘If only the sun would not shine. If only
the day were not so bright and radiant! I draw the curtains and try to work.’11 A
second man-to-man talk with Hitler leaves him badly shaken. ‘I cannot think of any
way out, almost,’ he writes, the casual almost being a clue that this dramatic baring of
feelings is largely sham. Indeed, each such heartrending passage is followed by humdrum
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 76
