1977), based on the French version on NA film T84, roll 272.
49 They were certainly not filmed: The Nazi microfiche camera-operator assigned a serial
number to each glass fiche (plate), and wrote this number also on the top left corner of the
first diary page filmed on that plate. For example page 55 of the entry for Sep 10, 1943 is the
first page filmed on fiche 118 of 1943, and the page is endorsed 118 and mikrokopiert as well
(NA film T84, roll 265).—In box No.72 of the Moscow collection (‘Fond 1477’) are twenty
complete fiches, serial numbers 121–127 and 129–140, covering the period from June to
Jul 18 and Jul 23–24 (fiche 128 is for Jul 15). Jul 25–31, 1944 is covered on the fiches 141–
144 in box No.73.
50 At 4:55 P.M. on Jul 19; see W J Donovan to FDR, Jul 22, 1944 (FDR Libr., PSF box
168).
51 The page for Jul 20, 1944 is also missing from the Milch diary.
52 He confirmed this to Luftwaffe General Barsewisch, whose MS is in the Irving collection
(IfZ).—Guderian confirmed to Milch (diary, Oct 28, 1945) that he had known of the
bomb plot as early as Jul 18, 1944 (author’s film, DJ-59).
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 839
Goebbels
54: Valkyrie
THE day started routinely. The Goebbels ministry once again lectured outposts
that the word propaganda was not to be used synonymously with ‘lies, duping
the public, hypocrisy, and rabble-rousing.’1 At nine A.M. the court martial of Colonel
Martin, Goebbels’ liaison officer to the Wehrmacht, began; Goebbels’ enemies, who
were legion, had rigged the bench to ensure that his man got a stiff sentence.2 After
Goebbels presided over his regular eleven o’clock conference Speer came over to
show to the Cabinet ministers assembled in the theatre of the propaganda ministry
some graphs demonstrating how arms output was increasing.3 Goebbels rounded off
with a few well-chosen words and took Speer and Funk back to No.20 Hermann-
Göring Strasse for a chat.4
At one o’clock the intercom buzzed. ‘Herr Minister is wanted by the Führer’s
HQ—Lorenz is on the line.’ Heinz Lorenz was Dietrich’s deputy at the Wolf’s Lair.
He said: ‘Herr Minister, there has been an attempt on the life of the Führer. He has
ordered an immediate announcement broadcast that he is alive and well.’ (The radio
news was Goebbels’ exclusive domain.) Lorenz dictated the proposed text down the
line.5 Goebbels had a direct phone link to the HQ via the Winterfeld-Strasse telephone
exchange. Not many people were aware of that—least of all, apparently,
those who had just tried to kill Hitler.6
Although Lorenz shortly phoned again to stress the urgency, Goebbels seemed not
to grasp that point at all. He chose caution. A plot against their Führer? ‘You’ve got to
soften such a psychological shock,’ he explained, and detailed Hans Fritzsche to draft
840 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
a well-modulated commentary to that end.7 Troubled by a recurring ear-ache, he
turned to other business;8 he dispatched a telegram of condolences to Leni Riefenstahl
on the death of her father, then withdrew, evidently for his regular nap.9
Nothing is known about his actions for several hours. It is true that soon after the
assassin’s bomb exploded at Hitler’s feet at 12:45 P.M. he had ordered all regular
telephone links cut while Himmler and Göring were called in.10 Goebbels had his
own secret line; yet he appears to have done nothing more about the news until five
P.M. Did he perhaps speculate on Hitler being dead?11 Was he waiting to see which
way the cat jumped?
BY mid-afternoon suspicion at the Wolf’s Lair had narrowed to Colonel Claus Count
Schenk von Stauffenberg, Fromm’s one-eyed chief of staff: he had slipped out of
Hitler’s conference and flown pell-mell back to Berlin. Upon arrival there he assured
Fromm, General Olbricht, and their fellow plotters that he had seen Hitler
dead. The plotters’ signals began to go out at four o’clock, putting the army’s operation
Valkyrie, which Goebbels had already encountered after that air raid eight months
before, into effect. The scenario was that recalcitrant Nazis had bumped off their
beloved Führer, necessitating martial law. The city commandant General Paul von
Hase ordered Remer’s guards battalion to cordon off the government district, and
he detailed other units to seize the radio station and propaganda ministry and arrest
Dr Goebbels as one of the plotters—but in fact the biggest obstacle to any putsch in
Berlin.12
When Remer, accustomed to obeying orders, issued them in turn to his men at
Moabit one of them, Lieutenant Hans Hagen, smelt a rat. Formerly a member of the
propaganda ministry and now the Nazi indoctrination officer attached to Remer’s
battalion, he obtained permission to ask Goebbels himself what was going on. Arriving
at the ministry on a motorbike pillion at five o’clock he told Regierungsrat Dr
Heinrichsdorff, an old friend, that something very fishy was going on. Heinrichsdorff
brought Hagen straight round to No.20 Hermann-Göring Strasse. Hearing of Remer’s
unusual orders Goebbels sprang to his feet. ‘That’s impossible!’ he exclaimed. Floun-
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 841
dering between panic and mistrust he asked Hagen whether this Major Remer was a
loyal national socialist? He sent for Remer, then phoned the S.S. Leibstandarte, the
most Hitler-loyal unit in Germany, at its barracks in Lichterfelde and told them to
stand by.13
Goebbels’ chief of staff Gerhard Schach arrived, puffing and out of breath.14 He
had received a telex from Bormann at the Wolf’s Lair warning all gauleiters that a
full-scale military putsch was under way. At four o’clock the Wolf’s Lair had monitored
strange orders issuing from the war department in Bendler Strasse, with the
code word Valkyrie. (At four-fifteen Keitel had already begun notifying the Wehrmacht
districts that Hitler was alive, that Fromm was dismissed, and that Himmler was
replacing him—exactly as prefigured by the news flash to Stockholm the day before).
At five P.M. the plotters in Bendler Strasse were still issuing mutinous signals to
army districts signed by ‘Stauffenberg’ and ‘Witzleben’—a field marshal whom Hitler
had long ago relieved of his duties. Was there no end to the treachery? Schach told
Goebbels he had tried to reach Count von Helldorff, the police chief, but without
success. Suspecting foul play Goebbels told Police General Wunenberg to stand by to
take over, and sent for Speer.
Speer arrived hatless and more dishevelled than usual. Goebbels received him in
his first-floor study and briefed him on what was going on. ‘I want you with me,’ he
said. ‘We’ve got to act prudently.’ Since he hardly consulted with Speer at all in the
hours that followed it is evident that he wanted the ambitious young man where he
could see him.15 Each time he phoned Hitler, Goebbels sent Speer out of the room.16
Taking up position in the street below they could see soldiers in full combat gear,
slung with machine guns, ammunition belts, and hand grenades; trucks with more
soldiers rattled past towards the Brandenburg Gate. Goebbels pull
ed his 6·35-millimetre
pistol out of his desk and cocked it, ‘Just in case.’
One of his staff, sent out on an errand, returned with word that a soldier had
prevented him from leaving the building. Goebbels began to wonder what was keeping
Remer.
842 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Only now did he telephone the Wolf’s Lair. Hitler, still shaken by the bomb blast
but stoical, was meeting with Mussolini. Goebbels spoke with Julius Schaub, Hitler’s
adjutant, but Schaub simultaneously received an incoming call from Hitler’s personal
adjutant in Berlin, Alwin-Broder Albrecht. Albrecht reported that a detachment
of soldiers had just tried to occupy the Reich Chancellery.17 Schaub passed
Goebbels on to Hitler. ‘Mein Führer,’ exclaimed Goebbels, ‘Has the army gone mad?
The guards battalion here is standing guard on my ministry. It’s bad for my image,
people might think I need military protection.’18
Hitler was puzzled by Goebbels’ naïvete. ‘Doctor,’ he croaked into the telephone,
‘they’ve tried to kill me.’
His head swimming with pain, his ear drums perforated, Hitler ended the conversation.
Around 6:15 P.M. he phoned Goebbels again. ‘Where’s that radio communiqué?’
he asked. It had slipped the minister’s attention completely. He explained that he
would release it as soon as Fritzsche had drafted a reassuring commentary.
‘I want that out now!’ exclaimed Hitler. Goebbels picked up another phone and
screamed at Fritzsche. Fritzsche no doubt did the same because at 6:28 P.M. the
German home service was interrupted with the special announcement that an attempt
had been made on the Führer’s life, but that he had survived.19
BY that time, as ordered, Remer had his cordons in place and General von Hase was
taking steps to arrest Goebbels. Remer overheard him briefing Lieutenant-Colonel
Hermann Schöne to do so.20 Hase also sent a colonel to the army bomb-disposal
school, commanded by a fellow-conspirator, with orders to organize three hundred
men into squads which would seize the radio building and propaganda ministry and
arrest Goebbels.21 At this moment an emissary arrived from Lieutenant Hagen, who
had remained with Goebbels, asking Remer to come to see Dr Goebbels at once, as
a putsch attempt was under way. Hase naturally forbade Remer to go; equally naturally,
Remer was at first less inclined to trust the Machiavelli of Hermann-Göring
Strasse than his own commanding officer, but after wrestling with his dilemma he
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 843
decided to go, while leaving instructions on what to do if Goebbels should detain
him. With that decision, the putsch in Berlin was doomed.
At 6:35 P.M. Remer’s car drove into Goebbels’ forecourt; five minutes later he was
brought up to the minister’s study.22 Stiffly at attention, he explained that the Führer
had been assassinated.
‘I just spoke with the Führer myself a few minutes ago,’ Goebbels contradicted
him. Then: ‘Are you a true national socialist?’
‘Through and through, Herr Minister! But are you loyal to the Führer?’23
Goebbels gave his word of honour. Remer was still unconvinced. Might he speak
with the Führer himself?
It was about seven P.M. The call was put straight through. Hitler knew Remer personally
—he had pinned the Oak Leaves on him only a few weeks earlier. ‘Do you
recognize my voice?’ he said.
‘Jawohl mein Führer!’ shouted Remer, and slammed his heels together.24
‘Until the Reichsführer gets there,’ said Hitler, ‘I am making you personally responsible
for crushing any plot against the state’s authority.’
Major Martin Korff, commander of a bomb disposal company, arrived with his
squad and told Goebbels he had come to arrest him on Hase’s orders. Goebbels and
Remer burst out laughing and enlightened the unfortunate major.25 Korf’s comrade
Captain Alexander Maître had taken his squad to the propaganda ministry, but
promptly placed his men under Remer’s command instead. Remer ordered his men
to muster in the garden beneath Goebbels’ windows, then set off back to the traitorous
Hase’s HQ, telling the minister that he would phone every twenty minutes to be
on the safe side. Hase however had transferred to the Wehrmacht district HQ on
Hohenzollerndamm.
On General Olbricht’s orders a Major Friedrich Jacob with troops from the infantry
school at Döberitz had occupied the main radio building in Masuren Allee; Olbricht
had ordered Jacob to report back when he seized the building. Instead, he phoned
Goebbels. The latter sized up the situation in an instant and told the major to accept
orders only from him. ‘Nobody broadcasts without my express permission.’26 Wit-
844 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
nessing this exchange Speer marvelled at Goebbels’ composure. He was ‘as coldblooded
as a warlord on a battlefield,’ he would say the next day.27 Hans Fritzsche
sent two or three hundred S.S. men over to the radio building under an S.S.
Obersturmbannführer. Together with Jacob they secured the building against the
traitors all night and this enabled a recording of Hitler’s speech, made with a sound
truck at the Wolf’s Lair, to be piped through from East Prussia and transmitted nationwide
at one A.M. This dealt a further death blow to the plot.
NOT for nothing had Goebbels had a company of his senior officials given infantry
training after Mussolini’s overthrow in 1943.28 Around seven-thirty P.M. they were
ordered to pick up their machine guns and report to No.20 Hermann-Göring Strasse.
Major Remer transferred his command post from Hase’s former HQ to Goebbels’
address as well, a more than symbolic move. Eventually there were about a hundred
and fifty soldiers trampling around in Goebbels’ garden in the gathering dusk. He
went down and spoke briefly to them, illuminated by the light flooding through the
open garden door, arousing a fire of holy indignation in these elderly soldiers about
the traitors in high places.
Confusion reigned in Berlin even now. When the ministry staff tried to leave their
building at about eight-fifteen the soldiers still detained them. Major Rudi Balzer,
Martin’s successor, phoned Hase’s HQ; here a Major Baron von Massenbach put him
through to a Colonel Fritz Jäger who said he was just on his way over to the ministry.
29 In fact Hase, making one more attempt to get his man, had ordered Jäger with
two units of military police to arrest Goebbels and occupy S.S. Gruppenführer Ernst
Kaltenbrunner’s R.S.H.A. building; however these units also joined forces with
Remer.30 When a Gestapo official shortly told Major Balzer that the army was staging
a coup, he was incredulous, and protested at this peddling of ‘unfounded rumours’
against the army.
There were unsung heroes in these confusing hours, Hadamowsky later told
Goebbels.31 When Colonel Mertz von Quirnheim had falsely announced at Bendler
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 138
