goals.’60
GOEBBELS’ chronic ailment, eczema, had returned. He tried to rest out at Lanke. Magda
returned to her clinic and remained there, bedridden and despairing, for several
weeks.61 She began drafting her will; once she joined her husband out at Lanke, but
he found the melancholy of the Brandenburg landscape getting him down. Morell’s
assistant Dr Richard Weber gave him a course of the hormone treatment Homoseran
and the eczema began to go.62
Round-the-clock bombing by the British and Americans had now begun, giving
him a headache which no jabs could cure. The British rained fake ration cards on the
cities too.63 True, Germany had still lost only sixteen thousand dead in the raids, but
they eroded Nazi prestige and they added to Goebbels’ work load as chairman of the
inter-departmental committee which directed relief operations.64 He had accepted
this post in January as a stepping stone to power; now it was proving anything but a
sinecure. Among his proposals was one that the most heavily bombed cities be granted
the right to wear the Iron Cross in their coat of arms.65 Goebbels had to suppress
untimely song-hits like the one which regularly ended Monday broadcasting—‘And
so another Fine Day is Over’; and the radio band was no longer allowed to play ‘I
Dance in your Arms right up to the Skies.’66 Once Fritzsche boasted that despite the
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 761
latest raids on Essen the Krupps works was still working flat out. The bombers returned,
and Goebbels got the blame.67
THAT April he made a well-publicised tour of Essen. On the way over Göring’s deputy
Milch, who had spent two traumatic weeks on the Stalingrad front, remarked that if
he had been Paulus he would have disobeyed Hitler and brought the Sixth Army out
to safety.68 Disobey Hitler? Goebbels—for the record—disputed the very notion in
his diary, but it clearly gave food for thought. His mother also told him about growing
public dissatisfaction with their commanders.69 Conversely, captured Russian
soldiers’ letters provide evidence of the enemy’s high morale. Stalin’s slogan—‘Better
to die on your feet that survive on your knees’—had taken root, nurtured by the
brutality of the Nazis in the east.70
There were thus fundamental problems that Goebbels needed to discuss with Hitler,
still recuperating from the winter’s strains on the Obersalzberg.
He set off for Berchtesgaden late on April 11, ostensibly for a manpower conference
called by Göring with Speer and Ley.71 The next morning however he learned
that Hitler would not see him, pleading lack of time.72 Goebbels took this snub very
hard; he declared that he would leave at once, and ducked the Göring conference.
He dictated a petulant note in his diary that he must have an entire afternoon with
the Führer. He masked his injured feelings with a real or imaginary kidney-stone
attack. Ley, taken in (again), sent a posy of hand-picked flowers to the train. Morell
was summoned to inject morphine; aboard the rattling train Werner Naumann administered
two more shots during the night. The minister had the train halted some
distance from Berlin’s Anhalt station so that nobody would see him alighting, and he
took to his bed moaning with pain.73 Still sulking, he refused to allow the stockpiled
‘Adolf Hitler is Victory’ posters to go up for the Führer’s coming birthday.74 By the
fourteenth the illness had passed; although an X-ray examination had found nothing,
he toyed with taking a cure in Dresden or Karlsbad.75
At the end of the month he was still angling for that audience with Hitler, but
Bormann kept fobbing him off again. He had a healthy respect for Martin Bormann
762 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
and recognized his inherent weakness in his dealings with him. Once over lunch he
accurately described him as ‘a primitive OGPU type’ like, the Russians who had
escorted Molotov to Berlin in 1940; two days later he warned his staff never to
repeat what they heard him say at table.76
1 Schirmeister interrogation, May 6, 1946 (NA film M.1270, roll 19).
2 Unpubl. diary, Feb 1, 1943 (author’s film DI-52; IfZ).
3 Ibid., Feb 16, 1943; Gutterer interrogation, Oct 24, 1947 (NA film M.1019, roll 23).
4 Ernst von Weizsäcker to his mother, Feb 21, 1943 (Hill, 325).
5 Generalluftzeugmeister conference, Feb 16, 1943 (Milch Documents, vol.18, 4461,
4481); JG diary, Feb 16, 22 (p.19); and Milch diary, Feb 15, 1943 (author’s film DI-59).
6 Göring diary, Feb 1943 (author’s film DI-171).
7 With to Himmler, Feb 11 (NA film T175, roll 124, 9607f); and see too the diary of
Colonel Gerhard Kühne, chief of staff of the Allgemeines Heeresamt (general army office),
Feb 9, 1943: ‘[JG] felt himself under attack, turned nasty and went over to the counterattack…’
(IfZ archives).
8 On this speech see in general Helmut Heiber’s text in Goebbels Reden (Düsseldorf, 1972),
vol.ii, 172ff; Willia Boelcke, ‘Goebbels und die Kundgebung im Berliner Sportpalast vom
18. Februar 1943,’ in Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands, 1970, 19; Tiessler’s
file on the propaganda background of total war in BA file NS.18/26, and above all Günter
Moltmann’s paper, ‘Goebbels Rede zum totalen Krieg am 18. Februar 1943,’ in VfZ, 1964,
13ff.
9 Diary, Feb 13, 1943.
10 Ibid., Feb 14, 15, 18, 1943.
11 Semler. Hitler had certainly endorsed JG’s Total War policies (see MinConf., Feb 8); but
although both Werner Stephan and Moritz von Schirmeister told Moltmann in 1959 that
they believed JG had first obtained Hitler’s approval for the speech, see JG’s own diary for
Feb 18: it was difficult to contact the Führer as he was at the Werewolf HQ—but they
‘thought alike’. And Feb 25: a proclamation by the Führer was very much in line with his
speech, ‘So there’s no danger of my being disowned in any way… From this one again sees
that it’s best to create faits accomplis.’
12 Edward L Deuss, ‘The Effect of Total Mobilization on German Morale,’ Feb 22, 1943
(NA file R.226, entry 16, box 0354, file 35653).
13 BA, Fritz Sänger collection.
14 In his diary on Jun 6, 1943 JG would however write, ‘While on Feb 18 it was mainly the
party, this time it is Berlin’s munitions workers…’—Walter Hagemann, writing in Publizistik
im Dritten Reich. Ein Beitrag zur Methodik der Massenführung (Hamburg, 1948) suggested that
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 763
the audience had been bussed in and instructed how to act. Not so. Hagemann judged that
the radio audience found the ‘hysterical screaming’ of the audience irritating. The Allies
were however deeply impressed by the broadcast. See Alexander L George, Propaganda Analysis.
A Study of Inferences made from Nazi Propaganda in World War II (Evanston, Illinois, 1959).
15 Moltmann.
16 Dr Hans Joachim Kausch, 1962, to Moltmann.
17 Diary, Feb 19, 1943. A photo in the Hamburger Tageblatt also showed the popular actors
Eugen Klöpfer, Theodor Loos, and Franz Grothe.
18 At his MinConf on Feb 8, 1943 he directed his staff to keep secret the fact that the 300
mile wide breach in their front had begu
n with the failure of a certain ally.
19 For the text of his speech see the newspapers of Feb 19, 1943; and A I Berndt and H v
Wedel (ed.) Deutschland im Kampf No.83–84, Berlin, Feb 1943, 80ff; and A I Berndt (ed.),
Das Archiv. Nachschlagewerk für Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur (Berlin, 1942–3), 975ff.—It was issued
as a brochure, Nun Volk steh’ auf und Sturm brich los! , though belatedly because JG kept
altering the title and planned a foreword describing the atmosphere in the Sports Palace
(Scheffler to gau propaganda officials, May 28, 1943, on NA film T84, roll 24, 1878). A
partial audio recording is in the German radio archives, Frankfurt (No.53 A 688); a complete
record is in BA, No.650/1943.
20 Diary, Feb 19; Milch diary, Feb 18 (author’s film DI.59) and Speer chronicle, 1943
(IWM file FD.3049/49).
21 Göring diary, Feb 18, 1943 (author’s film DI-171).
22 See CSDIC(UK) report SIR.1025, the interrogation of Grenadier Kieburg, an agent of
the Gestapo Leitstelle in Posen since Jan 10, 1943 (NA file RG.332, Mis-Y, box 5).
23 Summary of RPÄ reports, Feb 19, 1943, in BA file R.55/612.
24 Diary, Feb 21; see SD report, Feb 22, 1943 (NA film T175, roll 264, 8775f). Ribbentrop
was shown a letter from Oberveterinär Dr Michael which doubted the propaganda effects
of the speech. Lammers felt it would be ‘unwise’ to forward the letter to JG (NA film T120,
roll 2474, E.255481).
25 Dittmar diary, Feb 18, 1943: ‘Barely satisfactory, very coarse, typical Sports Palace
rhetoric. G may well have had his reasons to speak like this, but many of his arguments were
too cheap to generate more than frenzy.’
26 Diary, Feb 19, 1943.
27 MinConf., Feb 22, 25; diary, Feb 18, Mar 1, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 263; BA file
NL.118/54).
28 MinConf., Mar 12. He had to defend himself against the charge that he dealt in ‘studied
pessimism’ (Zweckpessimismus). FCC Foreign Broadcast Service, Special Report No.84,
‘Nazi Predictions and the Present Propaganda Crisis,’ Jun 26, 1943 (NA file RG.226, entry
16, box 0384, 37319).
29 MinConf., Feb 22, 1943.
30 JG to Hitler, Jul 18, 1944 (BA file NL.118/107).
31 Berndt, Propaganda Parole No.55, May 7, 1943: as point 16 of the party programme
proved, he said, it had always supported a strong middle class (NA film T81, roll 672, 0761f).
32 MinConf., Feb 8; Hitler regarded much of this as over-zealous (diary, May 10, 1943).
33 Diary, Feb 28, 1943.
764 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
34 Unpubl. diary, Feb 14, 1943; Oven, ‘Jul 25, 1944,’ 437.
35 Note scribbled by Morell on Stadtkrug’s menu, Feb 10, 1943 (Morell papers, NA film
T253, roll 39).
36 Author’s interviews of Otto Horcher, and of Speer, Dec 7, 1968; Semler diary, Mar 18,
1943; Oven, 162.
37 Diary, Mar 1–2, and Speer chronicle, 1943. JG was careful to end his diary account of
these three-way dialogues with suitably loyal remarks about their complete solidarity with
the Führer.
38 Diary, Mar 2, 1943; the quotation is from Shakespeare, Richard III, act iv, scene 2.
39 Ibid., Mar 7, 10, 12, 1943.
40 MinConf., Mar 10, 1943. Later he regretted the executions as they created the impression
that looting was rife. But see too his remarks (diary, Apr 3, 1943) about the death
sentence passed on the RPL’s Herr Ostholt: ‘This corrupter deserves only to have his block
knocked off.’
41 Eichmann MS, ca. 1956 (BA, Irving collection).
42 Diary, Mar 9, 1943. For further papers on this trip see Hoover Libr., Goebbels papers,
box 2.
43 For JG’s anti-communist tactics see his MinConf., Feb 12; his Propaganda Parole No.49
of Feb 17 laid down the new theme of ‘Victory or Bolshevik Chaos!’ (NA film T81, roll 672,
0688ff), and Parole No.50 of Feb 23 (ibid., 0686f) noted the success of this new tactic:
Churchill and Eden were warning against allowing JG to drive a wedge between the Allies.
See General Dittmar’s diary of Mar 1 and MinConf., Mar 10, and the OSS report on JG’s
foreign press briefing of Mar 15 (see diary, Mar 13–16, 18, 1943) in NA file RG.226, entry
16, box 0290, 31183.
44 Diary, Mar 17; Speer chronicle, 1943.
45 Diary, Mar 18, 1943.
46 Ibid., Mar 20, 1943.
47 Helldorff to Himmler, and reply Jul 8, 1943 (BDC file, Helldorff).
48 SS Ogruf Heissmeyer to Himmler, Jan 14, 1943 (ibid.)
49 US FCC, Special Report No.49, op.cit.
50 Wächter, Propaganda Parole No.48, Feb 9, 1943 (NA film T81, roll 672, 0690f.)
51 Diary, Feb 18, 1943.
52 Ibid., Mar 1, 1943.
53 Ibid., Mar 11, 1943.
54 Unpubl. diary, Mar 11, 1943.
55 Diary, Mar 6, 1943.
56 Dittmar diary, Mar 8, 1943 (author’s film DI-60); JG was away at FHQ.
57 MinConf., Feb 26, 1943.
58 Semler, ‘Aug 16, 1943’; Semler reported that out of 150 letters received in the second
week of Aug 1943 sixteen protested at reviving the Jewish problem. ‘Antisemitism,’ he noted,
‘is as unpopular as ever among the mass of the people.’
59 Diary, Mar 9, 15, 20, 1943.
60 Ibid., Apr 18, 1943.
61 Ibid., Mar 3, 5, 7, 8, 10–12, 15, 17, 18, Apr 9, 1943.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 765
62 Ibid., Mar 10, Apr 2, 4, 5; Weber to Morell, Jan 25 (NA film T253, roll R45, 8901) and
May 25, 1943 (NA film T253, roll 34, 3460), and interview of Jul 21, 1989.
63 JG circular No.126 to gauleiters, Mar 17, 1943 (NA film T81, roll 24, 1920).
64 Diary, Jan 16, 21, 1943; Oven, 84.
65 Diary, Jan 21, 1943. Churchill had awarded the George Cross to Malta.
66 MinConf., reported by Tiessler to Bormann, Mar 24, and note, Mar 25, 1943 (NA film
T81, roll 671, 9792ff)
67 Diary, Apr 12; SD report, Münster, Apr 21, 1943, in PID report DE.63/DIS.202 of Jul
21, 1945 (Hoover Libr., Lerner papers.)
68 Diary, Apr 9–10; Milch diary, Apr 8–10, 1943 (author’s film DI-59). For JG’s speech in
Essen see e.g. Frankfurter Zeitung, Apr 11, 1943.
69 Diary, Apr 11, 1943.
70 Ibid., Apr 4, 5, 13, 1943.
71 Ibid., Apr 12; Speer chronicle, 1943.
72 Apart from dinner with Antonescu, Hitler’s appointment calendar was in fact wide open
(Diary of SS Ustuf Hans Junge/SS OStuf Heinz Linge, Hoover Libr.)
73 Diary, Apr 13–14, 1943.
74 See his directives on NA film T81, roll 24, 1903, 1906.
75 Diary, Apr 15–16, 24, 30, 1943.
76 Semler, ‘Nov 20, 21, 1943.’
766 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels
49: The Katyn Massacre
UNTIL the spring of 1943 two broad streams had carried his propaganda message
out to the world, antisemitism and anti-communism.1 In April 1943
these streams converged in the forest of Katyn, near Smolensk. ‘The great surge in
antisemitic propaganda,’ Fritzsche would testify, ‘only really began after Katyn.’2 After
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 125
