Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  42. VB (N), 11 November 1938.

  43. Der Angriff, 12 November 1938, ‘Empfang im Führerbau’; Goebbels TB, 11 November 1938.

  44. Domarus, 1, 973ff., quotes 974.

  45. Longerich, ‘Davon’, 129ff.

  46. Goebbels TB, 17 and 24 November 1938.

  47. Longerich, ‘Davon’, 136ff. On the carrying out of the campaigns see among others Goebbels TB, 17–25 November 1938; PA 1938, No. 3275; VB (N), 14 November 1938, a Goebbels leading article, which was recommended to the press for reprinting, and 24 November 1938, ‘Keine Kompromisse in der Judenfrage!’. See also Herbert Obenaus, ‘The Germans: “An Antisemitic people”. The Press Campaign after 9 November 1938’, in David Bankier (ed.), Probing the Depths of German Antisemitism: German Society and the Persecution of the Jews 1933–1941 (New York, 2000), 147–80.

  48. PA 1938, No. 3310. Goebbels made clear his dissatisfaction with the, in his view, still too moderate tone of the reporting at the press conference on 22 November (No. 3336). See also Nos 3334, 3337, 3378, 3388, 3398, 3418, 3450, 3483, and 3612, also PA 1939, No. 68. Sänger, Politik, 64.

  49. See the internal Party instruction ‘For speakers’ use only’, quoted in Christian T. Barth, Goebbels und die Juden (Paderborn, 2003), 267.

  50. Decree concerning the Atonement Contribution by Jews of German Nationality (RGBl. 1938 I, 1579); First Decree to Exclude Jews from Economic Life (ibid.,1580), and First Implementation Decree of 23 November 1938 (ibid., 1642); Decree concerning the Re-establishment of the Streetscape by Jewish Businesses (ibid., 1581).

  51. See in detail Adam, Judenpolitik, 212ff.; Joseph Walk (ed.), Das Sonderrecht für die Juden im NS-Staat. Eine Sammlung der gesetzlichen Massnahmen und Richtlinien (Heidelberg, 1996), Section III.

  52. IMT 28, 1816-PS, 499ff.

  53. Götz Aly and Susanne Heim, ‘Staatliche und organische Lösung. Die Rede Hermann Görings über die Judenfrage vom 6. Dezember 1938’, in Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 2 (1993), 378–414.

  54. ADAP D 4, No. 271.

  55. On the Fischböck Plan see ADAP C 5, No. 650. The transfer of the assignment to Schacht was announced by Göring at the meeting on 6 December.

  56. ADAP D 5, No. 659: According to Schacht, on 2 February Hitler had agreed to the discussions in London and instructed him to continue them.

  57. BAB, R 2501/6641, Rublee to Schacht, 23 December 1938; ADAP C 5, No. 661. On the Schacht–Rublee negotiations see Weingarten, Hilfeleistung, 127ff.; Albert Fischer, Hjalmar Schacht und Deutschlands ‘Judenfrage’. Der ‘Wirtschaftsdiktator’ und die Vertreibung der Juden aus der deutschen Wirtschaft (Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna, 1995), 216ff.

  58. Weingarten, Hilfeleistung, 135ff.

  59. See Herbert A. Strauss, ‘Jewish Emigration from Germany. Nazi Policy and Jewish Responses’ in Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 25 (1980), 313–61 (I) and 26 (1981), 343–409.

  60. On 14 November, on Heydrich’s instructions, department II of the SD Main Office had already prepared four versions of a badge for marking Jews. See OA Moskau, 500-1-659.

  61. Aly and Heim, ‘Ordnung’. The conference held in the Interior Ministry on 16 December 1938 was important for the further administrative implementation of the anti-Semitic measures. See Susanne Heim and Götz Aly (eds), Bevölkerungsstruktur und Massenmord. Neue Dokumente zur deutschen Politik der Jahre 1938 bis 1945 (Berlin, 1991), Doc. 1.

  62. IMT 25, 069-PS, 131ff.

  63. Walk (ed.), Sonderrecht, Section III, No. 154.

  64. Law on Tenancies with Jews, 30 April 1939 (RGBl. 1939 I, 864).

  65. Circular Decree from the Reich Interior Minister. See Reichsministerialblatt der inneren Verwaltung (RBliV) 1939, 1291, 16 June 1939.

  66. Walk (ed.), Sonderrecht, Section III, 273ff.

  67. Thus, at a meeting on 28 February 1939 ‘the wartime service of Jews’ was considered and confinement to barracks was contemplated. See OA Moskau, 504-2-2 [20], Minute of the Chief of the Security Police, 1 March 1939, published in Konrad Kwiet, ‘Forced Labour of German Jews in Nazi Germany’, in Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 36 (1991), 408ff. See also Gruner, Der geschlossene Arbeitseinsatz deutscher Juden. Zur Zwangsarbeit als Element der Verfolgung 1938–1943 (Berlin, 1997), 83f.

  68. Tooze, Ökonomie, 343f.

  69. BAF, RM 7/1207.

  70. Mason, Arbeiterklasse, Doc. 152.

  71. See Tooze, Ökonomie, 342.

  72. Mark Spoerer, Vom Scheingewinn zum Rüstungsboom. Die Eigenkapitalrentabilität der deutschen Industrieaktiengesellschaften 1925–1941 (Stuttgart, 1996), 90.

  73. Peter Kirchberg, ‘Typisierung in der deutschen Kraftfahrindustrie und der Generalbevollmächtigte für das Kraftfahrwesen. Ein Beitrag zur Problematik staatsmonopolistischer Kriegsvorbereitung’, in Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte (1969/2), 117–42; Decree concerning the Standardization of Types in the German Motor Industry (RGBl. 1939 I, 386).

  74. If Z, 1276-NG, Göring to Todt, Appointmnent of a general plenipotentiary for the construction industry, 9 December 1938.

  75. BAF, RL 3/2198, Minute of meetings with Göring on 26 October 1938, 7 November 1938, which resulted in the construction programme of 6 December 1938; see Budrass, Flugzeugindustrie, 557ff.

  76. BAF, RL 3/1011, Aircraft construction programme No. 11, first to third drafts, see Budrass, Flugzeugindustrie, 566f.

  77. Salewski, Seekriegsleitung 3, No. 1; Dülffer, Weimar, 488ff.; Salewski, Seekriegsleitung 2, 39, and 57; Deist, ‘Aufrüstung’, 550 and 559.

  78. Salewski, Seekriegsleitung 1, 59; Dülffer, Weimar, 492ff.; Deist, ‘Aufrüstung’, 562f.

  79. BAF, RM 7/1207, Naval Command Office, Plan of the monthly fuel requirement for the navy; see Wilhelm Meier-Dörnberg, Die Ölversorgung der Kriegsmarine 1935 bis 1945 (Freiburg, 1973).

  80. Salewski, Seekriegsleitung 1, 60.

  81. BAF, RM 7/1207, Raeder memorandum (3 September 1938); Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 220.

  82. If Z, Da 03.03, Budget 1939 (Berlin 1941).

  83. IMT 27, 1301-PS, 166ff.

  84. IMT 36, 363-EC, 365ff.; Geyer, ‘Rüstungsbeschleunigung’, 145.

  85. IMT 27, 1301-PS, 166ff.

  86. BAF, RH 15/151, Reports Nos 1 and 2, 10 February 1939, and Brauchitsch to Keitel, 10 December 1938.

  87. See the Reich Bank’s memorandum concerning inflationary tendencies composed a few days after the Munich agreement in BAB, R 2501/6521; Tooze, Ökonomie, 334ff.; IMT 36, 611-EC, 582ff.

  88. Considered in detail in Tooze, Ökonomie, 349f.; IMT 36, 369-EC, 365ff., here p. 365.

  89. Kopper, Schacht, 327ff.

  90. The Reich Bank’s statutes were altered in June 1939. The money supply could now be increased at will. See Tooze, Ökonomie, 351.

  91. ADAP D 5, No. 119; Schmidt, Statist, 433f.

  92. Kotowski, ‘Piemont’.

  93. Ibid., 67. See also PA 1938, Nos 3432, 3627, and 3635.

  94. ADAP D 5, No. 119.

  95. Ibid., No. 120.

  96. Ibid., No. 126; Schmidt, Statist, 434f.

  97. In response to a query from King Carol II of Romania as to ‘Germany’s attitude towards a Ukrainian state that made itself independent of the Bolshevik regime in Moscow’, Göring responded on 26 November 1938 significantly ‘that we would support a Ukrainian freedom movement in every way’. See ADAP D 5, No. 257. Horthy spoke to the German ambassador about the ‘anticipated German involvement in the Ukraine, which, together with similar action byItaly and Japan, must happen at some point in order to resist the Bolshevik threat.’ See ADAP D 4, No. 118. The fact that the Chief of the General Staff, Halder, had already referred to the impending annexation of the Ukraine in December 1938 is confirmed by the statement of the former US Consul in Berlin, Geist. See IMT 28, 1759-PS, 234ff.

  98. Goebbels TB, 1 February, and 3 February 1939, on Hitler’s intense preoccupation with foreign policy issues.

  99. ADAP D 5, No. 272.

  100. Rönnefahrt, Sudetenkrise 1, 714; Heinrich Bodensieck, ‘Der Plan eines “Freundschaftsv
ertrages” zwischen dem Reich und der Tschecho-Slovakei im Jahre 1938’, in Zeitschrift für Ostforschung 10 (1961), 462–76; ADAP D 4, 161: the treaty preparations envisaged the draft of a treaty of friendship, an agreement on economic union, and a military pact, and would have placed Czechoslovakia in a similar state of dependence on the Reich as the ‘Protectorate’ created in 1939.

  101. Ibid., No. 158.

  102. Ibid., No. 159.

  103. ADAP D 5, No. 272.

  104. ADAP D 4, No. 158.

  105. At these meetings it was generally agreed to make Schacht’s ideas the basis for future emigration policy. See OA Moskau, 500-1-638, Minutes, 19 January 1939.

  106. BAB, R 58/276. The compulsory amalgamation in this organization was, however, only ordered on 4 July 1939 by the 10th Decree implementing the Reich Citizenship Law. See RGBl. 1939 I, 1097. For details on the background see Wolf Gruner, ‘Poverty and Persecution. The Reichsvereinigung, the Jewish Population, and Anti-Jewish Policy in the Nazi State 1939–1945’, in Yad Vashem Studies 27 (1999), 28ff.; Esriel Hildesheimer, Jüdische Selbstverwaltung unter dem NS-Regime. Der Existenzkampf der Reichsvertretung und Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Tübingen, 1994), 79ff.

  107. ADAP D 5, No. 664.

  108. He had not made this demand publicly in 1938, and in 1937 only on 3 October on the Bückeberg in connection with the colonial question, and on 21 November at an anniversary celebration of the Augsburg local branch of the Party. See Domarus, 1, 760. At the beginning of November he told Goebbels they must treat the colonial question in a dilatory fashion. See TB, 3 November 1937.

  109. See, for example, ‘Rede Friedrich Schmidt’; Der Hoheitsträger, 11 (November 1938), with relevant Lebensraum quotations from MK; see also Groscurth, Tagebücher, 166f. referring to a speech by Hitler to troop commanders on 10 February 1939; on this see in detail Sywottek, Mobilmachung, 180ff.

  110. Ibid., 183. On the further use of the topic in propaganda see below p. 618.

  111. Domarus, 2, 1047ff. For the relevant passage see 1055–8; on the dissemination of the speech by propaganda see Longerich, ‘Davon’, 142.

  112. Domarus, 2, 1077ff.

  113. Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 230ff.; Hoensch, Slowakei, 210ff.

  114. Ibid., 224ff.

  115. ADAP D 4, No. 168; Hoensch, Slowakei, 226ff.

  116. Hill (ed.), Weizsäcker-Papiere, 13 February 1940.

  117. Goebbels TB, 11 March 1939.

  118. PA 1939, Nos 737, 757, 762, 770–772, and 776, see also Nos 781–790.

  119. Goebbels TB, 11 March 1939; Hoensch, Slowakei, 268ff.

  120. Ibid., 281ff.

  121. Domarus, 2, 1090.

  122. Below, Adjutant, 151; Keitel, Leben, 235.

  123. ADAP D 4, Nos 198 and 228; see also Hoensch, Revisionismus, 259.

  124. ADAP D 4, No. 210.

  125. Ibid., No. 237.

  126. Ibid., No. 202; Goebbels TB, 14 March 1939.

  127. ADAP D 4, No. 209; see also Hoensch, Slowakei, 290ff.

  128. Goebbels TB, 15 March 1939.

  129. ADAP D 6, No. 10.

  130. Ibid., No. 40.

  131. ADAP D 4, No. 228; Schmidt, Statist, 435ff.; Below, Adjutant, 154; Keitel, Leben, 236.

  132. ADAP D 4, No. 229.

  133. Domarus, 2, 1098f.; Below, Adjutant, 153f.

  134. Edict of the Führer and Reichskanzler concerning the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, 16 March 1939. See RGBl. 1939 I, 485ff.

  135. Domarus, 2, 1101ff.; Below, Adjutant, 154f.

  136. PA 1939, No. 856.

  137. Goebbels TB, 20 March 1939; VB (B), 20 March 1939, ‘Der triumphale Empfang Adolf Hitlers in Berlin – eine stolze Dankes-Kundgebung des ganzen deutschen Volkes’.

  138. Kershaw, Hitler-Mythos, 172, based on various reports from Bavaria; Sopade 1939, 275ff.

  139. Below, Adjutant, 158.

  140. Chamberlain announced his departure from the policy of ‘Appeasement’ adopted hitherto in his Birmingham speech of 17 March published in Neville Chamberlain, The Struggle for Peace (London, 1939), 411ff. For the British cabinet’s response to the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia see Weinberg, Foreign Policy, 698ff.

  141. Protests: DBFP 3/4, Nos 308 and 401; ADAP D 6, Nos 19f. and 26. For the summoning of the ambassadors see ibid., 308 (Note). See also Martin Broszat, ‘Die Reaktion der Mächte auf den 15. März 1938’, in Bohemia 8 (1967), 253–80.

  142. Goebbels TB, 20 March 1939.

  143. Ernst-Albrecht Plieg, Das Memelland 1920–1939. Deutsche Autonomiebestrebungen im litauischen Gesamtstaat (Würzburg, 1962); Joachim Tauber, ‘Deutschland, Litauen, und das Memelgebiet 1938/39’, in Jürgen Zarusky and Martin Zuckert (eds), Das Münchener Abkommen, 429–440.

  144. IMT 34, 136-C, 477. Referred to in detail above, p. 589.

  145. Plieg, Memelland, 193ff. Neumann, the leading figure on the list of Memel Germans, had been receiving instructions from Berlin from summer 1938 onwards. See ADAP D 5, Nos 349, 361, 364, 369–372, and 382.

  146. Ibid., No. 381.

  147. Ibid., Nos 399ff.; for the text of the treaty see ibid., 440f. (note).

  148. Domarus, 2, 1112f.

  149. Goebbels TB, 25 March 1939.

  Into War

  1. Hermann Graml, Europas Weg in den Krieg. Hitler und die Mächte (Munich, 1990), 151ff. and 184ff.; Weinberg, Foreign Policy, 695ff.

  2. ADAP D 6, No. 61.

  3. Ibid., Nos 73 and 88.

  4. Ibid., Nos 101 and 118; Lipski, Diplomat, Doc. 139; Schulthess’ 1939, 331f. and 335ff. (on the events in London); Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 240ff.

  5. Through a statement by Daladier on 13 April. See Schulthess’ 1939, 424f.

  6. ADAP D 6, No. 99.

  7. From the end of February 1939 onwards, Goebbels had published a series of violently anti-British leaders in the VB, which were also given prominence in the rest of the press: ‘Krieg in Sicht’ (25 February), ‘Schluß mit der Moral-Heuchelei’ (21 March), ‘Moral der Reichen’ (25 March). On the anti-British VB articles see also Helmut Michels, Ideologie und Propaganda. Die Rolle von Joseph Goebbels in der nationalsozialistischen Außenpolitik bis 1939 (Frankfurt a. M., 1992), 395ff.; Longerich, Goebbels, 406f. On the campaign in general see the press instructions for 21 and 29 March 1939 (PA 1939, Nos 885 and 967). It was restarted at the beginning of April in a toned down form. See ibid., Nos 1013, 1019f., 1023, 1031, and 1074.

  8. Domarus, 2, 1119, quotes p. 1122f.

  9. Ibid., 1127.

  10. IMT 34, 120-C, 380ff. Hitler’s signature was procured on 11 April 1939, in other words after Easter; he signed some parts of the comprehensive directive later. The additional directive to Keitel to complete everything by 1 September was issued before 3 April 1939.

  11. See the address to the generals by Halder, Chief of the General Staff, in the second half of April. Halder encouraged them to believe in a triumphal victory against Poland and played down the threat of intervention by the western powers. See Christian Hartmann and Sergej Z. SluČ, ‘Franz Halder und die Kriegsvorbereitungen im Frühjahr 1939. Eine Ansprache des Generalstabschefs des Heeres’, in VfZ 45 (1997), 467–95. The authenticity of the copy has been questioned by Klaus Mayer, ‘Eine authentische Halder-Ansprache? Kritische Anmerkungen zu einem Dokumentenfund im früheren MoskauerSonderarchiv’, in MGM 58 (1999), 471–527. The positive response of the military to Hitler’s anti-Polish policy is, however, not in dispute. See Müller, Heer, 390ff.

  12. ADAP 6 No. 169; Graml, Weg, 20ff.

  13. Groscurth, Tagebücher, 173; Graml, Weg, 200f.

  14. On the celebrations see Domarus, 2, 1144ff.; Goebbels TB, 20 and 21 April 1939; Peter Bucher, ‘Hitlers 50. Geburtstag. Zur Quellenvielfalt im Bundesarchiv’, in Heinz Boberach and Hans Bohms (eds), Aus der Arbeit des Bundesarchivs. Beiträge zum Archivwesen, zur Quellenkunde und Zeitgeschichte (Boppard am Rhein, 1977), 423–46; Kurt Pätzold, ‘Hitlers fünfzigster Geburtstag am 20. April 1939’, in Dietrich Eichholtz and Pätzold (eds), Der Weg in den Krieg. Studien zur Ges
chichte der Vorkriegsjahre (1935/36 bis 1939) (Cologne 1989), 309–46.; Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 247ff.; Armin Fuhrer, ‘Führergeburtstag’ Die perfide Propaganda des NS-Regimes mit dem 20. April (Berlin, 2014), 93ff.; BAB, NS 10/127, Working plan for the Celebration of the Führer’s 50th Birthday, 12 April 1939, and Schedule for the Celebration of the Führer’s 50th Birthday timed to the Minute, 16 April 1939; VB (B), Special supplement for 20 April and the 21 April 1939 issue.

  15. Ibid., 19 April 1939.

  16. Law concerning Special National Holidays, 17 April 1939, and Decree implementing the Law concerning Special National Holidays. See RGBl. 1939 I, 763f.

  17. Fritz Terveen, ‘Der Filmbericht über Hitlers 50. Geburtstag. Ein Beispiel nationalsozialistischer Selbstdarstellung und Propaganda’, in VjZ 7 (1959), 75–84.

  18. VB (N) Special supplement, 20 April 1939.

  19. DAZ, 20 April 1939.

  20. Meldungen, 2, 292ff.

  21. Sopade 1939, 119ff.

  22. Ibid., 9; see also 187ff. (Shortage of agricultural workers), 227ff. (Disappointed hopes of the middle class), 303ff. (Among the bourgeoisie there is an apocalyptic mood), 359ff. (Workers’ attitude), 625ff. (Further deterioration in the supply of foodstuffs), 757ff. (Workers’ attitude), 859ff. (Food shortages), 868ff. (Decline of the artisan class). Kershaw, Hitler-Mythos, 148ff., on the middle class’s increasingly critical attitude.

  23. On Hitler’s birthday see Sopade 1939, 435ff.

  24. Ibid., 442.

  25. On the provisional propaganda treatment of Roosevelt’s initiative see PA 1939, Nos 1129 and 1139f.

  26. VB (B), 22 April 1939, ‘Lord Halifax macht Witze’ (Leader), and 27 April 1939, ‘Ein paar Worte über politischen Takt’ (Leader); see also PA 1939, No. 1234.

  27. Domarus, 2, 1148ff. On the speech see also: Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 254f. On the abrogation of the pacts with Poland and Britain see ADAP D 6, No. 276f.

  28. This section of the speech alone takes up 12 pages in Domarus’s edition (1266ff.). Goebbels had ensured that a few days earlier the 12 Uhr Blatt had published ‘an article attacking Roosevelt’ (TB, 18 April 1939); 12 Uhr Blatt, 17 April 1938, ‘Was sagen Sie nun, Herr Roosevelt?’.