Goebbels: A Biography

by Peter Longerich

  150. TB, 23 October 1940.

  151. BAK, ZSg 158/40, Erich Bandekow: on cases of tax corruption involving Reich ministers, Reich Party leaders etc. 1948.

  152. TB, 28 October 1943.

  153. See, in particular, TB, 20 January, 20 March, 26 April, 24 May, 9 and 24 June, 20 August, 29 September, 1 October 1942, 20 and 21 March, 7 and 11 May, 25 June, 9, 21, and 23 August, 23 September 1943, 6 and 22 June, 1 December 1944.

  24. “WE CAN SEE IN OUR MIND’S EYE A HAPPY PEOPLE”

  1. Wegner, “Der Krieg gegen die Sowjetunion 1942/43,” 841ff.; VB (B), 20 May 1943.

  2. TB, 25 May 1942.

  3. Wehrmachtberichte, vol. 2, 23 May 1942.

  4. TB, 26 May 1942.

  5. See TB, 20, 21, and 30 May; also 6 June 1942.

  6. Das Reich, 31 May 1941. See TB, 21 May 1942: “I make that clear in a leader with the title ‘What’s it all for?’ in which for the first time I set out our war aims in general terms for the German people.”

  7. TB, 28 May 1942.

  8. TB, 2 June 1942; On Heydrich’s state of health, see 29 and 31 May, also 1 June 1942. On Heydrich’s assassination, see Brandes, Tschechen, 251ff.; Deschner, Reinhard Heydrich, 273ff.; Haasis, Tod in Prag; Calic, Reinhard Heydrich, 476ff.

  9. TB, 2 June 1942, also 4 June 1942.

  10. TB, 30 May 1942.

  11. TB, 30 May 1942.

  12. TB, 5 June 1942.

  13. VB (N), 10 June 1942, “Der Führer am Sarge Heydrichs.”

  14. TB, 10 June 1942.

  15. Brandes, Tschechen, vol. 1, 262ff.

  16. TB, 12 June 1942; BAK, ZSg 102/38, 11 June 1942 (M), TP 2: “The punitive measures being taken in the Protectorate against those supporting the murderers of Heydrich are not to be referred to in the Reich press.” Unfortunately they had already been announced on the radio.

  17. TB, 12 June 1942, and 14 June 1942.

  18. BAK, ZSg 102/38, 11 June (M) TP 2. On further German retaliatory measures, see TB, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 26 June.

  19. Gottwaldt and Schulle, Die “Judendeportationen” aus dem Deutschen Reich 1941–1945, 213.

  20. Longerich, Heinrich Himmler, 587ff.

  21. Longerich, Davon, 201ff.; Das Reich, 14 June 1942, “Der Luft- und Nervenkrieg.”

  22. TB, 1 June 1942.

  23. BAK, ZSg 102/38 (E), 12.

  24. TB, 1–4 June 1943; Wehrmachtberichte, 31 May 1942; for press reports, see VB (B), 1 June 1942, “44 Flugzeuge kostete der Terrorangriff auf Köln,” 1; 2 June 1942, “Reuter zum Angriff auf Canterbury: ‘Ein Vergeltungsschlag von besonderer Wildheit.’ ” (headline) and 3 June 1942, “Teuer bezahlter Terrorangriff” (headline).

  25. TB, 2 June 1942; BW, 1 June 1942.

  26. Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 60ff.

  27. Das Reich, 14 June 1942; see also TB, 3 June 1942.

  28. See the overview in Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 76f.

  29. TB, 9 and 13 June 1942; also 11, 17, 20, 21, 27, and 29 June 1942. See also Meldungen aus dem Reich, 4 June 1942, 3787ff., 11 June 1942, 3802ff., 15 June 1942, 3823f., 18 June 1942, 3836ff., 22 June 1942, 3852, 25 June 1942, 3872f. The last two reports reflect the relaxation in the mood as a result of positive reports from North Africa.

  30. TB, 30 May, 6, 18, 26, and 27 June, 2, 10, 11, 18, 23, and 31 July 1942.

  31. TB, 29 May 1942 (on the conversation with Backe), 28 May, 4, 5, and 6 June (on the potato situation in Berlin), 22 June (conversation with Backe), 24 June (on the conversation with Hitler) and 25, 27 also 28 June, 4, 8, and 26 July, 1 August 1942.

  32. Stumpf, “Krieg,” 648ff.

  33. Wegner, “Krieg,” 868ff.

  34. Wegner, “Krieg,” 861ff., 927ff. (Caucasus operations), 962ff. (advance on Stalingrad).

  35. TB, 7 July 1942; the minutes of the MK show that Goebbels partially modified the instruction to play down the situation in the East, which was still operative on 17 and 19 September; BAK, ZSg 102/39, 8 July (M), TP 1, (E), TP 1; 13 July (M), TP 1; 20 July (M), TP 1; see the VB (B) and the DAZ, which on 1 and 3 July and 1 July, respectively, were publishing reports of successes on the North African front, but during the rest of the month were full of headlines about the war in the East.

  36. TB, 7 July 1942, also 8 and 9 July 1942.

  37. MK, 9 July 1942; see also TB, 10 July 1942.

  38. Das Reich, 19 July 1942; TB, 10 July 1942.

  39. TB, 28 July 1942.

  40. TB, 15 July 1942.

  41. Examples: TB, 2, 3, and 4 August, also 27 October (Düsseldorf) 1942; 3, 4, and 7 June, 15, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28, 31 July, 2, 3, and 8 August, 8 and 18 September 1942 (Duisburg); 3 and 7 June, 25 and 30 July, 8 August, 20 October 1942 (Bremen); 15 October 1942 (Hamburg).

  42. TB, 7 August 1942.

  43. TB, 8 August 1942.

  44. Das Reich, 16 August 1942; Westdeutscher Beobachter, 8 August 1942 (M), “Es gibt nur eines: Sieg um jeden Preis!” (headline).

  45. The first reference to the planned conversion is in Goebbels’s diaries of February 1940. At that time Gauleiter Florian (whom he had met shortly before while visiting Rheydt, TB, 26 January 1940) visited him and discussed with him and his architects, Fahrenkamp and Gebauer, the conversion of the Rheydt palace into a guest house, which in future would be at his disposal on his visits to his home town. It was evidently Florian who had taken the initiative in providing this accommodation (TB, 17 February 1940). The palace was to be provided with a large number of costly art works and a library. R 55/766. Wittmann, “Das ‘Gästehaus.’ ”

  46. TB, 9 August 1942.

  47. TB, 11 August 1942.

  48. TB, 12 August 1942.

  49. TB, 20 August 1942.

  50. TB, 23, 25, and 28 June 1942.

  51. PAA, HA Schmidt 12 Amt Ausl. Abwehr to Propaganda Ministry, 6 May 1942 (copy); Longerich, Propagandisten, 293ff.

  52. Already in TB, 3 and 28 May, 2 June, 9 and 11 July 1942. See also BW, 16 July 1942, where he advocated pre-censorship; see also PAA, HA Schmidt 12, Krümmer report on the ministerial briefing of 16 July 1942.

  53. TB, 16 July 1942; also 18 and 24 July 1942. On 22 July the head of the Foreign Press Department, Brauweiler, had sent the Foreign Ministry a set of working directives for correspondents, which amounted to the introduction of pre-censorship. (The document has not survived, but there is a response to it from Schmidt, HA Schmidt 12, 30 July 1942.) The press department of the Foreign Ministry responded with a lengthy memorandum: HA Schmidt 12, Denkschrift zur Frage der Einführung einer Vorzensur für Auslandskorrespondenten, 31 June 1942. In fact the Foreign Ministry feared that by introducing pre-censorship the Propaganda Ministry would secure control of the foreign correspondents (ibid., Notiz Schmidts für Ribbentrop, 14 September 1942; see also TB, 5 August 1942).

  54. PAA, HA Schmidt 12, Bekanntmachung an die Auslandspresse über die Verstärkung der Sicherungen über den Telefon- und Telegrammverkehr, 7 September 1942.

  55. MK, 2 July 1942.

  56. TB, 17 July 1942; and 23 July, also 14 and 20 August 1942; see Longerich, Propagandisten, 114.

  57. TB, 20 and 22 August 1942.

  58. TB, 23 and 24 August 1942, on the drafting, see 25 August 1942. Also 27 August (with Amann concerning the dispute), 28 August (with Schaub), and 29 August 1942 (unable to receive Dietrich because of a prior engagement).

  59. TB, 29 August, 3, 9, 10, 16, and, in particular, 17 September 1942 (on final conversation with Dietrich); R 55/969, Vereinbarung zur Durchführung der Verfügung des Führers zur Sicherung der Zusammenarbeit zwischen Reichspropagandaminister und Reichspressechef of 23 August 1942, 15 October 1942.

  60. Bonacker, Goebbels’ Mann beim Radio, 144.

  61. On this continuing dispute, see TB, 22 and 28 April 1941, and BAB, R 55/1254, Fritzsche to Dietrich, 21 August 1944, from which it is clear that Dietrich was still claiming responsibility for the “Wireless Service.”

  62. MK, 27 September 1942; BW, 27 September 1942.

  63. TB, 28 September 1942. The lengthy passage in his
diary largely corresponds to the minutes of the MK from the previous day.

  64. Bonacker, Goebbels’ Mann beim Radio, 153.

  65. BAB, R 55/20617, Nachrichtenblatt no. 27/42: TB, 5 and 6 October, also 4 November 1942; Bonacker, Goebbels’ Mann beim Radio, 150f.

  66. TB, 24 February 1942.

  67. TB, 25April 1942.

  68. TB, 10 May 1942.

  69. TB, 22 May 1942; this occurred during the meeting with Rosenberg, Hitler, and Bormann on 8 May 1942, to which Goebbels’s entry of 10 May 1942 presumably refers. 1520-PS, IMT 27, 286ff.

  70. TB, 11 May 1942.

  71. TB, 11 May 1942.

  72. Dallin, Deutsche Herrschaft in Rußland 1941–1945, 492ff., and Römer, Der Kommissarbefehl, 535ff.

  73. TB, 17 July (quotation) and 26 July 1942.

  74. TB, 13 August, 3, 15, 20, 21, and 22 September 1942.

  75. TB, 23 October 1942.

  76. TB, 25 and 27 September 1942.

  77. TB, 18 October, 1 December 1942. On 6 December Goebbels concluded that he must bring the matter to Hitler’s attention once more, which he duly did in March 1943.

  78. TB, 14 January 1943; he had already received a memorandum from the General Staff in which such ideas were discussed in December 1942 (TB, 10 December 1942).

  79. TB, 23 January 1943; Goebbels produced the requisite document: TB, 31 January, 1, 5, 6, and 8 February 1943.

  80. TB, 11 February 1943; see also TB, 9 and 16 February 1943. Rosenberg naturally objected to such criticism and demanded that Goebbels instruct his staff “to refrain from any further activity in the field of Eastern policy” (Rosenberg to Goebbels, NS 6/1435, 9 [?], February 1943). Complaints about the failure to issue the Eastern Proclamation also in the entries of 26 and 27 February, 5 May 1943; for further unsuccessful approaches to Hitler in this matter, see 9 and 21 March 1943.

  81. TB, 27 September, 6 October 1940.

  82. TB, 3 March 1942, and 26, 29, and 30 March, also already 20 December 1941.

  83. “Im Herzen seines Volkes. Rede zum 150. Todestag Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts,” published in Herz, 105–10.

  84. TB, 6 December 1942, and 5 December.

  85. TB, 5 December 1941.

  86. TB, 28 December 1941.

  87. TB, 27 January 1942.

  88. TB, 14–16 March 1942.

  89. TB, 14 March 1942.

  90. TB, 27 March, 23 May 1942.

  91. TB, 23 and 30 May, also 1 and 23 June 1942.

  92. TB, 1 June 1942.

  93. TB, 30 May, 10 June 1942.

  94. TB, 22 November 1941.

  95. TB, 24 May 1942.

  96. TB, 22 November 1941. On the preparations, see TB, 13 March, 14 August, 9 October 1941, also 20 August, 29 September 1942.

  97. TB, 1 and 2 December 1941, 24 and 30 May, also 23 June 1942.

  98. TB, 22 November 1941.

  99. TB, 20 August 1942; also 17 November, 9 December 1942.

  25. “DO YOU WANT TOTAL WAR?”

  1. TB, 15 August 1942; also 16 and 19 August 1942: “The excessive optimism of the German people about the situation at the front, which is growing grotesquely day by day, is positively disastrous.” See also 22 and 25 August 1942.

  2. Wegner, “Krieg,” 976ff.

  3. TB, 15 September 1942. On the start of the battle, see 28 August, 5, 6, 7, and 14 September 1942.

  4. MK, 15 September 1942.

  5. Press directives BAK, ZSg 109/37, 15 September 1942, TP 1; BW, 369, gives as an example a special edition of the Stuttgart NS-Kurier.

  6. TB, 16 September 1942; see also MK, 16 and 17 September 1942.

  7. BAK, ZSg 102/40, 16 September 1942 (M), 1 TP 1.

  8. MK, 19–21, also 23, 24, and 26 September 1942.

  9. MK, 26 September 1942.

  10. TB, 1 October 1942.

  11. TB, 27 September 1942, and 1 October 1942 (reproaches about Dietrich’s staff). For his remarks to Colonel Martin, see TB, 1 October 1942.

  12. TB, 4 October 1942.

  13. TB, 29 September 1942; Meldungen aus dem Reich, 5 October 1942, 4279; Kershaw, Der Hitler-Mythos, 230.

  14. TB, 2 October 1942; and 4 October 1942, on a meeting with Hitler in which the latter once again reiterated his goals.

  15. TB, 2 October 1942.

  16. Das Reich, 18 October 1942, “Der Segen der Erde”; TB, 8 October 1942.

  17. TB, 27 and 29 September 1942 (about a conversation with Luftwaffe officers) and 30 September 1942 (about conversations with Hewel und Schaub).

  18. TB, 12 October 1942.

  19. TB, 8, 11, 15, 16, and 23 October 1942. See Meldungen aus dem Reich, 8 October 1942, 4291f., 12 October 1942, 4309ff., 15 October 1942, 4329ff.; reflecting on the seriousness of the situation on the Eastern Front, ibid., 19 October 1942, p. 4342f.

  20. TB, 26 October 1942.

  21. Das Reich, 1 November; see also TB, 23 October 1942.

  22. TB, 15 and 21 October 1942.

  23. TB, 30 October 1942.

  24. TB, 6 October 1942, also 8 and 20 October 1942.

  25. Wegner, “Krieg,” 994ff. The deteriorating situation is clearly reflected in the diary entries between 21 and 24 October.

  26. Stumpf, “Die alliierte Landung in Nordwestafrika,” 702ff.; TB, 25 October 1942, also 26 and 27 October 1942.

  27. Stumpf, “Landung,” p. 704; TB, 2–4 November 1942.

  28. Das Reich, 30 January 1942, “Der 30. Januar”; examples from the year 1941: TB, 1 and 11 January, 9 and 16 July 1941; also TB, 13 January 1942 (in a speech to Berlin Party functionaries); 30 May 1942 (to Hitler).

  29. Das Reich, 8 November 1942, “Vor die Probe gestellt”; see also TB, 26 October 1942.

  30. Thus, for example, in his article “Der Totale Krieg” (Das Reich, 17 January 1943), in his speech on the tenth anniversary of the “seizure of power” on 30 January 1943, published in Goebbels, Der steile Aufstieg. Reden und Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1942/43, 138–50, and in his article “Damals und heute,” Das Reich, 7 March 1943.

  31. TB, 23 January, 10 September, 27 October 1943 (with Hitler).

  32. TB, 8 November 1942; Stumpf, “Landung,” 710ff.

  33. TB, 9 November 1942. “The Führer is not yet quite clear about what he should do.”

  34. This offer, which Abetz was supposed to submit to the French government on Hitler’s behalf, is published in ADAP E IV, no. 151, Weizsäcker to Ribbentrop, 8 November 1942.

  35. TB, 9 November 1942; text of the speech in Domarus II, 1933ff.

  36. TB, 10 and 11 November 1942.

  37. Stumpf, “Landung,” 743ff.; TB, 11, 12, and 13 November 1942.

  38. Stumpf, “Landung,” 721.

  39. TB, 15 November 1942.

  40. Stumpf, “Landung,” 725ff.; TB, 14–19 November 1942.

  41. TB, 16 November 1942.

  42. Westdeutscher Beobachter, 18 November 1942 (E), “Der Feind zerbricht an unserer Härte!”

  43. TB, 18 and 19 November 1942.

  44. TB, 26 November 1942, and 27 November. Eighteen Gauleiters had already been appointed Reich Defense Commissioners on 1 September 1939; on 16 November this arrangement was extended by declaring all the Party Gaus to be Reich defense districts. Up until then the Brandenburg Gauleiter, Sturz, had been responsible for the Defense District III (Berlin).

  45. TB, 28 November 1942.

  46. TB, 24 October, 30 November 1942.

  47. TB, 24 November 1942.

  48. Longerich, Davon, 240ff., 255ff.

  49. MK, 8 December 1942; the press was informed: BAK, ZSg 102/41; MK, 9 December 1942 (betr. Kundgebungen schwedischer Studenten gegen die deutsche Judenverfolgung). See the ministerial briefings of 12, 14, and 16 December and also the excerpts from the minutes published in Wollt Ihr den totalen Krieg?

  50. MK, 12 December 1942; see TB, 13 and 14 December 1942.

  51. MK, 14 December 1942, also 16 December; see also TB, 17 and 18 September 1942.

  52. BAK, ZSg 102/41, 17 December 1942 (daily slogan); ibid., 18 December 1
942 (daily slogan).

  53. Details in Longerich, Davon, 260.

  54. MK, 18 December 1942.

  55. MK, 19 and 29 December 1942; BAK, ZSg 109/40, 17 and 19 December 1942; Longerich, Davon, pp 260f.

  56. TB, 23 November 1942.

  57. Wegner, “Krieg,” 1026ff.

  58. E.g. TB, 27 November, 4 and 18 December 1942.

  59. TB, 22 and 23 December 1942.

  60. TB, 18 and 23 December 1942.

  61. Das Reich, 27 December 1942, “Die Vollendeten”; TB, 16 December 1942.

  62. TB, 29 December 1942.

  63. He spoke to Ley about this on 28 November and 17 December: TB, 29 November, 18 December 1942.

  64. TB, 5 January 1943.

  65. TB, 3 January 1943; BAB, R 43 II/655; see Herbst, Der Totale Krieg und die Ordnung der Wirtschaft, 199ff.

  66. TB, 5 January 1943, with Unruh and with Lammers.

  67. BW, 4, 5, and 6 January 1943.

  68. TB, 5, 7, and 8 January 1943.

  69. BAB, R 43 II/655 (invitation); on this and the following measures, see also Rebentisch, Führerstaat und Verwaltung im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 474ff.; Herbst, Der Totale Krieg, 199ff.; Kroener, “ ‘Menschenbewirtschaftung,’ ” 847ff.; Reuth, Goebbels, 511ff.

  70. TB, 10 and 13 January 1943 concerning conversations with Bormann and Speer; the diaries during these days are full of further statements by Goebbels on the need for “total war.”

  71. On the background to the article, see TB, 3 January 1943. See also “Die Heimat im Kriege,” 3 January 1943, also in Zeit ohne Beispiel, 113–20, in which he had written generally in positive terms about the home front’s performance.

  72. Das Reich, 24 January 1943; TB, 13 January 1943.

  73. Moll, “Führer-Erlasse,” doc. 222. Registration for conscription was envisaged for men from 17 to 65, for women from 17 to 50; TB, 15 January 1943.

  74. TB, 5 January (after a conversation with Lammers) and 15 January 1943.

  75. TB, 8 January 1943; see also 17 January 1943.

  76. TB, 21 January 1943.

  77. On the state of morale, see TB, 3, 4, 8, 9, 13 January 1943. This still relatively stable state of morale is also reflected in Meldungen aus dem Reich, 4 January 1943, 4617f.; the reports for 7 January 1943, 4628ff., 11 January 1943, 4650ff., 14 January 1943, 4670ff. reveal an increasing sense of disorientation. On the deterioration in morale, see TB, 15 and 16 January 1943.