been taken prisoner.73
SEVERAL times Lieutenant Oven heard Goebbels preface his remarks with the remark,
‘If I were foreign minister…’74 He intently followed the Soviet-inspired rumours
in the neutral press about Nazi feelers to Moscow and often speculated on
Stalin’s reasons for refusing to join in the Allied demand for unconditional surrender.
75 The Japanese, he knew, were aghast at recent events like the bomb plot and the
military collapse in France, and they too expressed dismay at the lack of flexibility in
Ribbentrop’s foreign policy. The Japanese ambassador General Hiroshi Oshima urged
Naumann to tell Goebbels that Germany must make peace with the Soviets; Japan
was even willing to make concessions to that end.76
The topic was dynamite, but Goebbels immediately asked both Himmler and
Bormann to convey Oshima’s message to Hitler. ‘We’ve got to revitalize our foreign
policy,’ he noted.77 He was not alone in this view. He found that Dr Ley, rattled that
enemy troops had reached German soil, shared his concerns. Ley mentioned that
many people hoped to see him replacing Ribbentrop eventually.78
The upshot was that Goebbels drafted a twenty-seven page pitch for Ribbentrop’s
job—a memorandum spelling out brutal home truths for Hitler on foreign policy.
They had held neither the eastern front nor the Atlantic Wall, he said. They had lost
most of their occupied territories. The only positive factor was the disunity among
their enemies—redolent of 1932, when clever tactics had ultimately enabled Hitler
to outsmart them. ’We did not wait then,’ he pointed out, ‘for them to approach us:
we approached them.’ Germany, he reminded Hitler, had never yet won a war on
two fronts.
There was however little prospect of negotiating with the western powers although
that would, he conceded, conform with Hitler’s own ambitions. ‘Even if for instance
Churchill secretly desired such a solution,’ observed Goebbels, ‘which I doubt, he
864 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
would not in practice be able to implement it as he’s hog-tied by domestic politics.’
Britain was in a truly tragic situation, he argued: ‘For her, even victory will equate to
defeat. Not so the Soviet Union,’ he continued, reaching the real burden of his memorandum.
Stalin had no such inhibitions and the eastern solution would please Tokyo
too.
‘I cannot conceal,’ wrote Goebbels, ‘that I do not consider our foreign minister
capable of initiating such a development.’ He mentioned his ninety-minute row with
Ribbentrop in July over his foreign policy articles in Das Reich.79 ‘With him,’ wrote
Goebbels, ‘it is prestige über alles.’80
Goebbels suspected that Hitler would be astonished to see such a brutally frank
exposition. He signed it on Friday September 22, sealed it into a large white linen
envelope, and sent it off by courier to Hitler’s HQ.81 Meanwhile he tried to score off
Ribbentrop for one last time, spitefully directing his total war office to dissolve the
foreign ministry’s press, propaganda, and cultural departments. Ribbentrop countered
by demanding that Goebbels disband his foreign department. Goebbels retorted
retorted that he had acted not in his capacity as propaganda minister, but as
the Führer’s special plenipotentiary for total war: and if Mr Ribbentrop ventured to
complain to the Führer then he would tender his resignation and the Führer could
whistle for the next seventy divisions.82
Perhaps—thus he day-dreamed—he would be foreign minister before another week
was out. He drove out to Lanke on Saturday morning imagining Hitler opening that
white envelope around midday (but he doubted that he would actually find time to
read it before evening.)83
On Sunday Schaub told Naumann that Hitler had ‘carefully read’ the document,
put it away to study again that night, and asked Dr Goebbels to come to the Wolf’s
Lair in four days’ time.84
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 865
1 Sündermann, ‘Jul 26, 1944,’ 76f.
2 Diary, Jul 23; Oven, ‘Jul 25, 1944,’ 432ff.
3 Diary, Jul 24, 1944: a fragment of the original pages, pp.27–52, is also in Hoover Libr.,
Korf papers, box 1.
4 Cf. Lammers to Keitel, Jul 17, 1944 (NA film T175, roll 71, 0772f).
5 Minutes of the staff conference on total war, Jul 22, 1944 (BA file R43II/664a, 82–91).
Those present were JG, Bormann, Keitel, Speer, Funk, Sauckel, Boley, and Dr Fricker of the
Chancellery.—Interrogation of Gottfried Boley, Sep 15, 1945 (NA film M.1270, roll 2).
6 Diary, Jul 23, 1944 (the diary on microfiche resumes after the unexplained four day
break).
7 See JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).
8 Sündermann, ‘Jul 26, 28, Aug 1, 1944,’ 76ff.
9 Diary, Jul 23, 1944.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Lammers’ briefing of Hitler, Jul 23, 1944, with Göring, Keitel, Lammers, Bormann,
Funk, Speer, Sauckel, Klopfer, Naumann (BA file R43II/664a); for the resulting inter-departmental
disputes see R43II/665, /666a, b, c.—This was Göring’s last visit to HQ for
several weeks.
13 Führer decree on Total Mobilisation, Jul 25, signed Hitler, Göring, Lammers. (BA file
NL.118/106); published in RGBl, I, 1944, No.34, 161f; VB and NYT, Jul 26.—The British
FO was impressed: ‘He [JG] and Himmler between them now seem to hold all the reins of
power’ (PRO file FO.371/39062). But the Americans were not: ‘The crucial question for
Germany is combat manpower, and this cannot be provided by decree.’ OSS R&A Report
No.2456, ‘An Evaluation of the Goebbels Program for Total Mobilization in Germany,’ Sep
1, 1944 (USAMHI, Donovan papers, box 35a).
14 JG to Lammers, Jul 27, 1944 (BA file R43II/664a)
15 Note on a conference held by Lammers, Jul 31 (IfZ, F82, Heiber collection); Milch
diary, Jul 31 (author’s film DJ–59); Sündermann, ‘Aug 1, 1944,’ 82f.
16 These two committees were coordinated by a secretariat under Regierungspräsident Dr
Faust of the ministry of the interior.
17 JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).
18 Oven, ‘Aug 5,’ 445f; NYT, Jul 28.—And JG, broadcast script, ‘The first steps,’ Jul 1944
(ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.761).
19 As the Speer chronicle, Jul 24, 1944, makes plain.
20 Speer chronicle, Aug 1, 1944.
21 JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).
22 Hadamowsky to JG, Aug 31 and Sep 7, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.62 Re 3, vol.1)
23 NYT, Aug 11; diary, Sep 2 (‘Berlin’s entire stage has now been put to work on munitions’);
circular to gauleiters, Aug 3, 1944 (NA film T81, roll 154, 8506).
24 JG, information for Führer, Aug 9 (published in H A Jacobsen, Dokumente, No.144);
Sündermann, ‘Aug 11, 1944,’ 100.
25 NYT, Aug 25, 1944.
26 Hierl to JG, Aug 13, 1944 (IfZ film MA.356).
866 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
27 Directive by JG and B ormann, Aug 18, 1944 (IfZ film MA.434, 3552ff).
28 NYT, Aug 25, 1944.
29 Oven, ‘Aug 16, 1944’; the figures are broadly confirmed by JG diary, Se
p 2, 1944.
30 Jodl diary, Aug 1, 5 P.M. (author’s film DI–84); see the JG diary fragment, Aug 1(?),
1944, p.22, published in Der Spiegel, Jan 24, 1951, p.9, and the entry for Aug 31, 1944 on the
People’s Court trial of Stülpnagel and his liaison officer Cäsar von Hofacker: ‘In all these
testimonies Field-Marshal Kluge and, in part, even Rommel are gravely implicated.’
31 Kaltenbrunner to Bormann, Jul 24, 1944 (NA film T84, roll 19, 0153, 0159); Helldorff
was interrogated by the Gestapo on Jul 27, 1944 (ibid., 0269); his last letter before execution
will be found quoted in BA file NS.6/44.
32 Dr Immanuel Schäffer, interrogation, PWB report SAIC.16, Jun 6, 1945 (NA file RG.332,
entry ETO, Mis-Y, Sect., box 116).
33 Oven, ‘Aug 5,’ 448; Giesing MS; Dr Georg Kiessel, ‘The Plot of July 20, 1944, and its
Origins,’ Aug 6, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ, Irving collection); and CSDIC interrogation
of SS HStuf Otto Prochnow (ibid.)
34 Transcripts in Trevor Roper papers (IfZ, Irving collection.)
35 Diary, Aug 31, 1944 (fragments).
36 Hadamowsky to JG, Aug 11 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.62 Re 3, vol.1). In Jun 1944 the
German officers Seydlitz, von Daniels, Schlömer, Lattmann, von Lenski, Korfes, etc., had
signed a declaration ‘to the generals of the German Wehrmacht’ (Yivo, Occ E–FD–6); about
fifty captured German generals also signed a ‘declaration to the people and Wehrmacht’
(ibid., FD–7).—Diary, May 18, 1944: The SD had asked JG to discuss the matter in public,
but JG declined.
37 See Hitler’s conference with Jodl, Jul 31, 1944 (Heiber, Hitler’s Lagebesprechungen.)
38 JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).
39 Ibid.; Sündermann, ‘Aug 3, 5, 1944,’ 87ff.
40 Monitoring reports on broadcasts of the NKFD, Aug 1944–Jan 1945 are in ZStA Potsdam,
Rep.50.01, vols.1210 and 1205.
41 E.g. Aug 23, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.956).
42 On this network Aug 1944–Jan 1945 see ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.826; Oven,
‘Aug 16,’ 460f.; and Sündermann, ‘Aug 11, 1944,’ 100.
43 Darré diary, Auf 28; Milch diary, Aug 28, 1944 (author’s film DI–59).
44 Diary, Sep 19, 1944: ‘I get a real headache when I try to finish off my twenty pages of
typescript. But the public awaits the Friday evening broadcast of my leader article like its
daily bread ration.’
45 JG, ‘In den Stürmen der Zeit,’ Das Reich, Aug 20.
46 Kaltenbrunner to JG, Aug 26, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.1052).
47 Magda Goebbels to Alwin Broder Albrecht, Nov 18, 1944 (Albrecht papers).
48 Speer chronicle, Aug 11; on Aug 28, 1944 Milch noted after one JG speech at the
Chancellery, ‘Speer doesn’t like my conciliatory manner!’
49 Oven, ‘Sep 1,’ 463ff; JG circular to gauleiters, Aug 11, Speer to JG, Aug 31, 1944; Speer
chronicle.
50 Oven, ‘Sep 1, 1944,’ 463ff.
51 Diary, Sep 2 (‘Speer … spielt die gekränkte Leberwurst’); Oven, ‘Sep 3, 1944,’ 467f.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 867
52 Itinerary Sep 13, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.956).
53 Diary, Sep 2, 1944.
54 Afterwards JG wrote that Speer already regretted his mulish stand on Sep 2. ‘He …
finds now that the party regards him to a degree as an outsider if not indeed as an enemy’
(Diary, Sep 8, 1944).
55 Hadamowsky to JG, Sep 3 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.62 Re 3, vol.1); JG quoted this dictum
to Oven, ‘Dec 3, 1944’, 518.
56 On which see Keitel’s circular, Aug 31; Bormann’s circular, Sep 4; and Hadamowsky to
JG, Sep 3 and 14, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.863).
57 Diary, Sep 2, 1944.
58 Ibid., Sep 19, 1944.
59 Forschungsamt monitoring report RW.29107, Sep 6; telex from Haupt Abteilung Propaganda,
Kraków, to Immanuel Schäffer (RMVP), Sep 7, 1944 (Yivo, Occ E2–68); Freies
Deutschland, (Moscow) No.37, Sep 10, 1944.
60 JG’s name appeared in the preamble to the United Nations War Crimes Commission’s
first list of major war criminals, who were to be punished ‘by joint decision of the Allies,’
whatever form that decision might take (PRO file FO.371/51013).
61 Hansard, House of Commons Debates, Oct 4; NYT, Oct 5, 1944. Churchill sent a memo
after Quebec to Stalin urging the execution of the top Nazis without trial; Stalin rejected it.
62 Diary, Sep 20, 1944.
63 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944.
64 Interview of Max Winkler by Frank Korf, May 1, 1948.—Korf established that no
Goebbels testament was filed with the Amtsgericht either in Berlin-Mitte or in Rheydt, nor
did his lawyer Dr Alfons Knetsch know of one. Korf to Harold Lee, US Dept. of Justice, May
29, 1948 (Hoover Libr., Korf papers.)
65 NYT, Sep 8, 9, 1944.
66 Diary, Sep 8, 19, 24; Speer chronicle; Speer to JG, Sep 15; JG briefing for Führer, Sep
25; Speer’s comments on this, Sep 26; Speer to Bormann, disowning responsibility for arms
production, Oct 1; Speer to Htler, Oct 3, 1944.
67 Diary, Sep 20, 1944.
68 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944.
69 Kaltenbrunner to JG, Aug 26, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.1052).
70 Diary, Sep 24, 1944.
71 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944.
72 Berger to Himmler, Sep 26, 1944 (Hallein files: OMGUS report, Nov 8, 1945: NA file
RG.407, entry 427, box 1954k).
73 Diary, Sep 23; Oven, ‘Sep 25,’ 483.—On Nov 17, 1944 they heard that Harald was in
British captivity (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.90, Go 1, vol.4).
74 Oven, ‘Sep 20, 1944,’ 479.
75 Diary, Sep 19, 1944.
76 JG was in fact Oshima’s last, not first, port of call. Japanese offers to mediate had been
reaching Berlin since Aug 25 (see David Irving, Hitler’s War, 685), and on Sep 4 Oshima
personally put similar proposals to Hitler (see Ribbentrop to Stahmer, Sep 6, in Pol Archiv
des AA, Ritter papers, serial 1436). See naval staff war diary, Sep 5, 1944 too.
868 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
77 Diary, Sep 20, 1944.
78 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944. Ley’s mistress Madeleine Wanderer wrote (SAIC.40) that after
Aachen fell to the Americans, he became silent and depressed. ‘Goebbels,’ Ley said, ‘was of
the same opinion’ (NA file RG.332, box 73).
79 See diary, Jul 23, 1944.
80 JG to Hitler, Sep [22] (BA file NL.118/107); Oven, ‘Sep 22,’ 479ff; Semler wrongly
dates this important memorandum months earlier (‘Apr 10, 12, 20; May 2, 1944’).
81 Diary, Sep 23–24, 1944.
82 Oven, ‘Sep 28, 1944,’ 483ff; Steengracht conversation, Jun 27, 1945. CCPWE No.32,
X–P.18 (NA file RG332, ETO G–2 Sect., box 97).
83 Diary, Sep 24; Oven, ‘Sep 22, 1944,’ 480ff.
84 Diary, Sep 25, 1944.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 869
Goebbels
56: The Spectre of the Hangman
BEFORE that day came Hitler was taken seriously ill. By Thursday September 28,
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 142
