Goebbels: A Biography (126 page)

93.
Vertrauliche Information, 28 November 1940 and 12 December 1940, BAK, ZSg 109/16 and 17.

94.
Bericht RSHA, Amt III (SD), 20 January 1941, published in
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, vol. 6, 1914f., 1917ff. On the poor audiences for the film, see also Jäckel and Kulka (eds.),
Die Juden in den geheimen NS-Stimmungsberichten, 1933–1945
, no. 3215, SD-Außenstelle Höxter, 7 February 1941 and no. 3243, NSDAP-Kreisleitung Aachen-Land, 28 April 1941. On
Der Ewige Jude
, see Ahrens, Hornshoj-Moller, and Melchers, “
Der ewige Jude”;
Bucher, “Die Bedeutung des Films als historische Quelle.”

95.
Jäckel and Kulka,
Die Juden
, no. 3287 and 3306, SD-Außenstelle Bielefeld, reports of 11 August and 30 September 1941.

96.
Moeller,
Filmminister
, 237.

97.
TB, 7 December 1940 about the premiere, and 16 November with a very positive opinion.

98.
TB, 16 and 26 March 1941 (“3 conclusions to ‘Ohm Krüger.’ The one composed by me is the best and will be chosen); first screening (at Goebbels’s home): 2 April, and 5 April 1941 (in the cinema).

99.
TB, 15 May 1941: “The line taken is too exaggerated; the sections attacking the previous regime don’t work.”

100.
TB, 22 March, 28 August 1941 (critical assessment).

101.
TB, 30 March 1941 (“mediocre stuff”).

102.
TB, 31 December 1940 (premiere) and 16 December (very positive critique).

103.
TB, 7 February 1941.

104.
TB, 14 February, 21 June 1941.

105.
Roth, “Filmpropaganda für die Vernichtung der Geisteskranken und Behinderten im ‘Dritten Reich’ ”; Moeller,
Filmminister
, 245ff.

106.
Moeller,
Filmminister
, 253ff.

107.
TB, 21 May 1940 (on the first article). On the preparations for the journal, see TB, 26 November, 6 and 14 December 1939, 13 January, 5 March, 4 April, 5 May 1940. Reuth,
Goebbels
, 447ff.; Martens,
Zum Beispiel “Das Reich”;
Kessemeier,
Der Leitartikler Goebbels
, 137ff.

108.
According to Kessemeier, from 7 November on a regular basis; Goebbels, however, mentions in the TB of 18 September 1941 that an article was already being read out. Kessemeier,
Leitartikler
, 200.

109.
BK
, 21 May 1940, 5.
Das Reich
must be provided with privileged access to special material, so that the journal “can make an impact abroad right from the start.” See also
BK
, 28 May 1940, 3, and 1 June 1940, 10.

110.
TB, 2 and 7 June 1940.

111.
TB, 6 December 1940.

112.
Kallis,
National Socialist Propaganda in the Second World War
. See
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, October 1940, 1643ff.

113.
BAB, NS 18/199, Rundschreiben des Reichspropagandaleiters Goebbels, 10 October 1940.

114.
TB, 1 and 4 November 1940;
BK
, 147.

115.
Longerich,
Propagandisten
, 193ff.

116.
Longerich,
Propagandisten
, 138ff.; TB, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 22 December 1940, 22 and 30 January, 18 March 1941.

117.
The new appointment to head the foreign department served the same purpose: Helmut Hunke followed Ernst Brauweiler in December 1940. TB, 22 November, 5, 6, 10, and 14 December 1940. On 4 June 1941: “Hunke’s department A must be
considerably increased. Otherwise he won’t be able to get his way against the A.A.”

118.
TB, 16 January, 17 February, 31 March, 1 June 1941.

119.
TB, 8 February 1941, and 9 February 1941.

120.
TB, 10 February 1941.

121.
TB, 11 February 1941; the minutes of the meeting have not survived.

122.
BAK, ZSg 109/18, 11 February 1941, TP 1.

123.
TB, 13 February, and 12 and 14 February 1941. On the dispute with Dietrich, see also 2 April 1941.

124.
BK
, 58; TB, 14, 16, 22, and 29 June 1940.

125.
BAB, R 55/437, Nachrichtenblatt des Propagandaministeriums vom 18. Juli 1941.

126.
TB, 3, 11, 12, 17, 22, 23, and 24 October 1940.

127.
TB, 24 May 1940; on his intention to appoint Gutterer, see also 17 October 1940.

128.
TB, 2 September; on the trip, see 1 September 1940.

129.
TB, 9 September 1940.

130.
TB, 2 and 16 October 1940.

131.
TB, 30 October, 1 November 1940.

132.
TB, 12 November 1940.

133.
TB, 13 and 15 February 1941.

134.
TB, 18 February 1941.

135.
On the coup, see Vogel, “Eingreifen,” 442ff.

136.
On the coup, see TB, 28 and 29 March 1941;
BK
, 27 March 1941, 1.

137.
On the decision, see Vogel, “Eingreifen,” 445; on restraint in propaganda, see
BK
, 28 March 1941 1, 31 March 1941, 1, and 1 April 1941, 1.

138.
BK
, 3 April 1941, 1.

139.
TB, 7 April 1941;
BK
, 6 June 1941.

140.
TB, 18 April 1941.

141.
TB, 19–27 April 1941.

142.
TB, 28 April 1941.

143.
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, 10 April 1941, 2192f., 17 April 1941, 2203, 22 April 1941, 2217, 25 April 1941, 2227f.

144.
TB, 13 May 1941; the official Party communiqué is, for example, published in the
VB
(B) of 13 May 1941. On the Hess flight, see Schmidt,
Rudolf Heß;
Pätzold and Weissbecker,
Rudolf Heß
, 261ff.; Reuth,
Goebbels
, 472ff.

145.
TB, 16 October 1940.

146.
TB, 14 May 1941.

147.
BK
, 13 May 1941, 1.

148.
BAK, ZSg 102, 13 May 1941 (midday), TP 1.

149.
TB, 14 May 1941.

150.
TB, 15 May 1941;
BK
, 14 May 1941, 1. See also
BK
, 15 May 1941.

151.
TB, 16 May 1941; see also 17 and 18 May 1941;
BK
, 19 May 1941, 1.

152.
TB, 19 May 1941.

153.
TB, 20 and 22 May 1941;
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, no. 186, 15 May 1941, 2302; no. 187, 19 May, 2313; 188, 22 May, 2329f.

154.
TB, 22, 25, and 26 March 1941.

155.
TB, 20 and 29 May 1941.

156.
TB, 7 May 1941.

157.
TB, 9 May 1941.

158.
TB, 24 May 1941, and TB, 9 May 1941, on Rosenberg’s appointment.

159.
TB, 25 May 1941.

160.
TB, 23 May 1941 and 1 June 1941.

161.
TB, 29 May,
VB
(B), 29 May 1941, “Roosevelts Kaminrede.”

162.
TB, 23 May (drunkenness quotation), 27 May (AA intrigue), also: 24, 26, and 31 May 1941. Ribbentrop had “behaved abominably” (14 June); for accusations against the AA in this context, see also 28 May, 1, 13, and 27 June, 15, 17, and 29 July 1941; Longerich,
Propagandisten
, 140f.

163.
TB, 1 and 13 August 1941. On the trial, see also 26 September, 7, 15, 18, and 19 October 1941, also 15 November 1941. When in spring 1942 Goebbels finally succeeded in persuading Hitler to free Bömer he learned that, having been sent to the front to redeem himself, the latter shortly afterward died of his wounds. TB, 20 and 21 March 1942, also 26 March (about Bömer’s reception in the Ministry). He still managed to have Bömer posthumously rehabilitated: TB, 24 June, 24 August 1942.

164.
TB, 31 May 1941.

165.
TB, 5 June 1941.

166.
MK, 13 June 1941 (on the “most contradictory rumors about future military operations”); 16 June 1941: “The topic of ‘Russia’ must not however be touched on either in the domestic or in the foreign services.” On the camouflage measures in general, see Reuth,
Goebbels
, 476ff.

167.
TB, 11 June 1941, and 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 June 1941; BAK, ZSg 102/32, 13 June 1941, no. 5, instruction from Fritzsche not to quote the article.

168.
TB, 20 and 22 May 1941 and 11, 12, and 14 June, on the “lightening” of the Radio programming; see also Goebbels’s editorial in the
Reich
of 15 June 1941, “Der Rundfunk im Kriege”; MK, 16 June 1941.

169.
TB, 16 June 1941.

1.
TB, 18 June 1941, also 17 June 1941.

2.
TB, 19 June 1941.

3.
TB, 21 June 1941.

4.
TB, 22 June 1941; text in
Domarus II
, 1726ff.; see also Reuth,
Goebbels
, 481ff.

5.
TB, 23, 24, and 25 June 1941.

6.
TB, 24, 25, and 27 June 1941.

7.
TB, 5 July, 3 and 29 August 1941; 5 June 1941: reference to the construction of the bunker.

8.
MK, 23 June 1941; see also TB, 24 June 1941.

9.
VB
(B), 26 June 1941, also in
Die Zeit ohne Beispiel
, 508–13; TB, 25 June 1941, and 26 June 1941.

10.
Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945
, 3 vols., vol. 1, 23–28 June; TB, 27 June 1941.

11.
TB, 23 June 1941.

12.
TB, 29 June 1941.

13.
Das Reich
, 6 July 1941, “Nachrichtenpolitik,” also in
Zeit ohne Beispiel
, 514–19; see TB, 29 June 1941.

14.
Wehrmachtberichte
, vol. 1, 29 June 1941.

15.
TB, 30 June 1941; MK, 30 June 1941. See also TB, 1, 3, and 5 July 1941;
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, no. 198 of 30 June 1941, 2458.

16.
TB, 30 June 1941.

17.
TB, 12 July 1941.

18.
BW
, 5 July 1941.

19.
BAK, ZSg 102/33, 5 July 1941, Tagesparole. See also the addition in the Vertrauliche Information of 5 July 1941 (ibid.) and Tagesparole, BAK, ZSg 102/35, 7 July 1941.

20.
See
VB
(B), 6 July 1941, which was very much in the light of this propaganda action. See also
Der Angriff
, 6 July 1941, “Viehische Bluttaten der GPU-Kommissare.”

21.
VB
(B), 7 July 1941, “Der Schleier fällt.” Also already in
Das Reich
, 6 July 1941, and in
Zeit
, 520–25.

22.
His conversation with Hitler on 8 July was decisive for his change of stance (TB, 9 July); but see also already TB, 3 July 1941: “It’s now clear beyond a doubt that Moscow intended to attack Germany and central Europe. The Führer acted at the very last moment.” On the “preventive war thesis,” see Benz,
Der Rußlandfeldzug des Dritten Reiches;
Pietrow-Ennker (ed.),
Präventivkrieg?

23.
The Party Chancellery’s liaison official in the Propaganda Ministry, Tiessler, informed his office that at the briefing instructions had been given that the “on-going anti-Bolshevik campaign” was to have “a very specific anti-Semitic character.” BAB, NS 18 alt/768, Telex Tiessler to Party Chancellery, 9 July 1941.

24.
See BAK, ZSg 102/33, 9 July 1941, Kommentaranweisung.

25.
Details in Longerich,
Davon
, 160f.

26.
Deutsche Wochenschau no. 566 of 10 July 1941. Voigt,
Jüdisches Leben und Holocaust im Filmdokument 1930 bis 1945
.

27.
The article in the
VB
of 13 July 1941, “Churchill–Roosevelt–Stalin. Das alljüdische Dreigestirn,” in which once again all the “arguments” for this perspective were summarized, was typical of this campaign.

28.
Das Reich
, 20 July 1941, and
Zeit
, 526–31; TB, 13 July 1941.

29.
BAK, ZSg 109/22, TP, 23, 27, and 30 June 1941; TB, 30 June 1941 (the idea of a crusade was “not appropriate”). See Hockerts, “Kreuzzugsrhetorik, Vorsehungsglaube, Kriegstheologie.”

30.
TB, 13 July 1941.

31.
TB, 14 July 1941.

32.
Wehrmachtberichte
, 18 July 1941; TB, 19 July 1941.

33.
TB, 10 and 14 July 1941; also 16, 17, 19, 23 July 1941.

34.
TB, 10, 14, 17, 19, and 23 July 1941;
Meldungen aus dem Reich
no. 200 of 7 July 1941, 2487, no. 201 of 10 July 1941, 2502f., 2511ff.

35.
TB, 14, 15, 16, and 19 July 1941;
Meldungen aus dem Reich
no. 201 of 17 July 1941, 2529f.

36.
TB, 3, 6, 7, and 24 July 1941.

37.
TB, 23 July 1941.

38.
TB, 24 July 1941. There is a first hint of this new line in the entry for 15 July 1941. Here the demand for a tougher news policy is contrasted with the very optimistic mood, which, according to a report of Dietrich’s, was prevailing at Führer’s headquarters at this time.

39.
TB, 24 July 1941. On the necessity to “toughen up” propaganda, see also 26 and 28 July 1941.

40.
TB, 27 July 1941.

41.
TB, 29 July 1941.

42.
TB, 7 August 1941; the
Meldungen aus dem Reich
no. 208 (n.d.), 2608, wrote of a “decline in the mood of expectation.”

43.
TB, 9 and 10 August 1941 (in retrospect). On the change in mood, see
Meldungen aus dem Reich
of 28 July 1941, 2578, 31 July 1941, 2591.

44.
See the files in BAB, R 43 II/1271, 1271a, 1271b, and 1272. On the treatment of this delicate question in Berlin, see TB, 6 August 1941.

45.
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, 17 July 1941, 2529f., and 28 July 1941, 2590; TB, 20 July 1941, from which it is clear that he left a letter of complaint from Cardinal Bertram, the chairman of the Bishops’ Conference, about obstacles placed in the way of the work of the Church unanswered.

46.
TB, 6 and 7 August 1941;
Wehrmachtberichte
, vol. 1, 6 August 1941.

47.
TB, 8 August 1941. See also TB, 9, 10, and 11 August 1941;
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, 11 August 1941, 2631.

48.
Examples of Goebbels’s instructions for propaganda about POWs in MK, 23 July 1941, Order to publish more photos of POWs (“shocking types”).

49.
TB, 27 August 1941.

50.
Tiessler report (he was a member of the visiting party), 28 August 1941;
Akten der Partei-Kanzlei
, 76209f. (from BAB, NS 18 alt/845).

51.
On 14 August 1941 he observed “public opinion becoming more tense,” but then the mood became positive (15 and 17 August 1941).

52.
TB, 10, 12, and 29 August 1941. On the preparation of initial propaganda proposals by the department for “brightening up the mood within Germany” see, for example, TB, 9 and 11 September 1941. On Braeckow and Berndt, see
BK
, 59, 75ff.

53.
TB, 2 August 1941. On 27 August he discussed with a senior Berlin SA leader the possibility of “using the SA and Party for our plan to spread positive rumors.” TB, 28 August 1941.

54.
TB, 1 October, and 11 November: “The increasing number of lines in front of tobacco shops is becoming an unwelcome sight in the streets of our major cities.” He had already been concerned about the phenomenon of crowds of people lining up for tobacco—“hotbeds of grumbling”—in May: TB, 20 May 1941.

55.
Goebbels had already been pursuing the idea of marking out Jews since April 1941; on 21 April he had ordered his state secretary, Gutterer, to prepare the marking out of Berlin’s Jews:
Kriegspropaganda
(Boelcke) and
Akten der Parteikanzlei
, Mikrofiches, vol. 4, 76074, Vorlage Tiessler, 21 July 1941. At the beginning of July 1941 Goebbels urged Bormann to get Hitler to approve the marking out of Jews (ibid., 74650f., from BAB, NS 18 alt/808, Vermerk Tießler für die Parteikanzlei, 3 July 1941).

56.
Longerich,
Davon
, 165, 393.

57.
Lösener, “Als Rassenreferent im Reichsministerium des Innern.”

58.
TB, entries from 4–19 July 1941.

59.
TB, 11 July 1941.

60.
TB, 28 December 1939 (with Hitler): “The best way of getting rid of the Churches is to claim to be a more positive Christian than they are. Thus, as far as these issues are concerned for the time being it’s best to be cautious and if the Churches become impudent and interfere in matters of state to coldly squash them.” See also TB, 17 January 1940.

61.
TB, 29 April 1941.

62.
TB, 1 May 1940: “With the Führer. Bouhler reports on the process of liquidating the insane, that’s so necessary and is now being carried out. Still secret. It’s causing a lot of difficulties.” TB, 31 January 1941: “Discussed with Bouhler the discreet liquidation of the mentally ill. 40,000 have gone, 60,000 have still to go. It’s a tough but necessary job. And it has to be done. Bouhler is the right man to do it.” On the “Euthanasia” program, see Klee,
“Euthanasie” im NS-Staat;
Friedlander,
Der Weg zum NS-Genozid;
Burleigh,
Tod und Erlösung;
Süss,
Der “Volkskörper” im Krieg
.

63.
TB, 9 July 1941. Also 11 and 19 July 1941; 23 July 1941: “Don’t get involved in confessional matters.” A lengthy statement on this in the entry of 7 July 1941. On the pastoral letter, see Nowak,
“Euthanasie” und Sterilisierung im “Dritten Reich,”
112.

64.
Nowak,
“Euthanasie,”
161ff.; Portmann,
Der Bischof von Münster
, 143ff. The texts of the sermons of 12 and 20 July and 3 August 1941 are documented in
Bischof Clement August Graf von Galen. Akten, Briefe und Predigten
, 1933–1946, vol. 2, 1939–1946, nos. 333, 336, 341. On the “euthanasia” program becoming public knowledge in the Reich and the resulting protests, see Steinert,
Hitlers Krieg und die Deutschen
, 152ff.; Schmuhl,
Rassenhygiene, Nationalsozialismus, Euthanasie
, 312ff.; Longerich,
Davon
, 162ff.

65.
TB, 14 August 1941.

66.
TB, 15 August 1941.

67.
TB, 18 August 1941. On Bertram’s letter, see Nowak,
“Euthanasie,”
160.

68.
TB, 11 August 1941: “In the major cities the Jews are receiving their just deserts. Masses of them are being beaten to death by the self-defense organizations of the Baltic peoples. What the Führer prophesied is coming true: that if Jewry succeeded in once again provoking a war it would cease to exist.” On the shooting of Jews by Romania in Bessarabia, see TB, 5 September 1941; he was informed about the “massive shooting of Jews in the Ukraine” at the latest in October: TB, 19 October 1941.

69.
TB, 23 August 1941.

70.
“At least we can be pleased if the operation involved with it is finished. It was necessary.”

71.
This is how it was put by the Westphalian Landeshauptmann, Kolbow, in a note of 31 July 1941: The “action in Westphalia was going full steam ahead and would be finished in around 2 to 3 weeks.” Facsimile in Teppe,
Massenmord auf dem Dienstweg
, 21. Details in Longerich,
Davon
, 170.

72.
TB, 24 August 1941.

73.
TB, 29 August 1941, and 4 September 1941, on his attempts to sort out the matter through increased propaganda measures. Ziegler, “Der Kampfum die Schulkreuze im Dritten Reich”; on the protests and demonstrations, see Ziegler (ed.),
Die kirchliche Lage in Bayern
, no. 122, 283ff., Monatsbericht der Regierung Oberpfalz, 8 June 1941, no. 123, 8 July 1941, no. 124, 8 August 1941, no. 125, 7 September 1941, no. 126, 8 October 1941.

74.
TB, 27 and 29 September 1941, 1 and 2 October (quotation), 18 October (death penalty would be appropriate); 22 November 1941, concerning a conversation with Hitler, who intended to act against the “traitor” von Galen, but not at the moment; 30 November 1941, about von Galen: “We must let the abscess get bigger until we can lance it”; 30 November 1941, Hitler assures him “that he will be watching bishop Count von Galen’s activities from his lookout post.” On other political issues affecting the Churches, see, for example, TB, 21 November 1941, about pro-Church passages in his son’s school primer; 28 November 1941 concerning the confiscation of an SS anti-Christian pamphlet; on 29 November 1941 he noted that Hitler wanted “if possible to avoid a public conflict with the Church during the war. He’s waiting for the right moment. But is then determined to take a tough line.” In 1943 he still made an attempt to get Hitler to proceed against von Galen (TB, 11 and 18 July 1943).

75.
TB, 26 October 1941.

76.
Details in Longerich,
Davon
, 167.

77.
TB, 20 August 1941, and 22 August 1941.

78.
TB, 22 August 1941.

79.
MK, 21 August 1941.

80.
Kaufman,
Germany Must Perish;
Benz, “Judenvernichtung aus Notwehr?”

81.
BAK, ZSg 102/33, 23 July 1941.

82.
TB, 19 August 1941. On the production of the pamphlet, see 13, 29, and 30 August 1941.

83.
On this campaign, see Longerich,
Davon
, 168f.

84.
Diewerge,
Das Kriegsziel der Weltplutokratie
, 6. On Nazi propaganda against the “Atlantic-Charta,” see TB, 16 August;
VB
(B), 17 August 1941; see also MK, 16–20 August 1941. BAK, ZSg 102/33, 15 August 1941 (M), TP 1: “Churchill–Roosevelt–Redebluff,” “Propagandaschwindel”; BAK, ZSg 109/24, VI of 18 August 1941, Roosevelt was “rather the agent of international Jewry.”

85.
BAK, ZSg 102/34, 12 September, midday; TB, 13 September 1941.

86.
TB, 13 September 1941.

87.
VB
(B), 13 September 1941.

88.
Particular examples in Longerich,
Davon
, 169.

89.
BAB, R 8150/18.

90.
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, 21 August, 2671, 25 August, 2684ff., 1 September, 2712f., and 8 September 1941, 2737f.; TB, 18, 25 August 1941 (SD report), 28 August 1941 (SD report), 5 September 1941 (SD report).

91.
Das Reich
, 31 August 1941; TB, 26, 28, and 30 August 1941.

92.
TB, 5 September 1941.

93.
Klink, “Heer und Kriegsmarine,” 594f.

94.
TB, 10 September 1941, also 12, 18, and 20 September 1941.
Meldungen aus dem Reich
, no. 218, 8 September 1941, expressed the conviction of many people that the war would not come to an end that year.