B006OAL1QM EBOK (32 page)

It is always interesting to measure a person's view of his importance in public life against the facts. The diary presents the picture of a man who has come to regard himself as responsible for the conduct of Germany while Hitler is responsible for the conduct of the war. He never forgot that he was Gauleiter for Berlin as well as Minister for Propaganda; he took this other duty seriously because it gave him the powers over the capital city which he had always wanted for the country as a whole. Propaganda for Goebbels was never limited to control of the arts and the information services; it was control over a way of life, a New Order of living. During the middle years of the war he was really campaigning to get himself made Minister for the Interior or some war-time office which would put him in charge of the social life of Germany. Though he naturally had views about Hitler's conduct of the war and expressed them, he wrote only as a commentator. But in the domestic affairs of Germany he was always urging Hitler to be more ruthless with the bourgeois bureaucrats and to give him power which would enable him to take action against them and ensure that Nazi principles were put into practice in every phase of German life. Hitler always agreed with him, but his mind was on the war and Goebbels left their meetings (which seemed to average one a month, at any rate during the earlier part of 1942) without the necessary executive power having been granted to him. But he was building up his case on sound lines and he was eventually, in July 1944 when it was almost too late, to gain what he wanted from Hitler's waning authority. The only exception to this occurred in March 1942, when the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Dr. Wilhelm Frick, whom Goebbels despised, failed to take adequate measures to deal with the effects of the Allied bombing. Hitler then transferred the care of bomb-damaged areas to Goebbels' Ministry.

Meanwhile Goebbels liked to regard himself as Hitler's deputy in Germany, and was constantly making proposals to him to tighten up controls in the national life:

I proposed passing a law that whoever violates the commonly-known principles of National Socialistic leadership should be punished with imprisonment or in very serious cases with death. Such a law would enable us to put our domestic war effort on an entirely new basis and especially to lay hands on those who have hitherto eluded us. Schlegel-berger, the Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Justice who since Gürtner's death has headed the German judiciary, always refuses my requests on the grounds that there is no legal basis for action. The proposed law would create that basis. Moreover, the failure of justice is really a question of personalities rather than of any lack of laws…. Justice must not become the mistress of the State, but must be the servant of State policy.
³⁸

Goebbels constantly worked himself up into a passion over the lax behaviour in war-time of his colleagues and of German officials, civil servants and professional men in general, especially those engaged in the law. He could not bear the sight of the luxury in which other Nazi leaders such as Göring and Frick continued to live. On one occasion he personally remonstrated at a Berlin railway station with some wealthy passengers who refused to sacrifice their amenities for servicemen who were travelling in discomfort. His old radicalism burned hot within him, and he longed for the Führer to assume the legal powers himself or create them for his Minister so that such people could be threatened with the concentration camps. He told Hitler of this incident and a hundred others. The result was always the same:

The Führer was in a frame of mind to agree completely with all my proposals for a more drastically all-out war effort. I needed merely to touch lightly on a theme and I had at once gained my point. Everything I proposed was accepted item by item and without objection by the Führer.
³⁹

But as soon as Goebbels left him, Hitler turned back to the conduct of the war and the drastic changes in internal administration were postponed. But Goebbels was nothing if not persistent at these meetings— “Unfortunately I had to complain about Dr. Ley … I told him of cases where justice had miscarried…” and so on.

Goebbels fed his vanity, which was wounded at the lack of executive power given him outside the propaganda field, by exploiting to the full his capacities as speaker, broadcaster and writer. Again and again he reports his success in glowing terms—“I have written an article about increased production and courtesy which undoubtedly will prove a major sensation on publication”; “In a few monumental sentences I gave a picture of the present situation which drew storms of applause”; “My definition of grumbling as ‘the soul moving its bowels' … has already become a household word throughout the nation”. Nor are the plaudits limited to Germany. King Boris of Bulgaria told him his articles in
Das Reich
were “part of his everyday reading. Indeed, he even told me that he uses the arguments advanced in these articles in all his diplomatic negotiations.” Even the Allies, Goebbels notes with approval, follow his statements carefully. Goebbels prided himself on his frankness; their non-diplomatic quality, he thinks, is so rare that it makes his work valued abroad as it is at home. “They want to know exactly what's what and what is likely to happen. That's the main reason why my articles are as fascinating to Germans as they are for foreign readers. They state bluntly what we mean and talk a language which is otherwise rare in political circles.”
⁴⁰

With Goebbels' frankness, as he called it, also went his ruthlessness. He was revolted by the enemies of the State being let off. He had no use for preserving the lives or liberties of backsliders at home or saboteurs in the occupied territories abroad. He had no interest in the minorities that came under the German ‘protection’. The only thing that matters is the propagation of the gospel of National Socialism. Of the aspiration of the minorities in the Baltic States, for example, he writes:

National Socialism is much more cold-blooded and realistic in all these questions. It does only what is useful for its own people. In this instance our people's interest undoubtedly lies in establishing rigorous German order without paying any attention to the claims, whether justified or otherwise, of the small nationalities living there.
⁴¹

A year later, in May 1943, he quotes with approval Hitler's statement that “all the rubbish of small nations
(Kleinstaatengerümpel)
still existing in Europe must be liquidated as fast as possible. The aim of our struggle must be to create a unified Europe. The Germans alone can organise Europe properly.” Of German behaviour in France he can only say: “We Germans are too good-natured in every respect. We don't yet know how to behave like a victorious people.”

Worst of all is the revelation of his desire to exterminate the Jews in Europe. His statements here make it plain that he was fully aware of the atrocities that were being carried out in Germany and the occupied territories where the extermination camps existed. Goebbels never wrote more callously and brutally than in these constant passages in his diary when he comments on the progress the Nazis were making in the destruction of the race they had chosen above all others to eliminate from Europe.

The Führer once more expressed his determination to clean up the Jews in Europe pitilessly. There must be no squeamish sentimentalism about it. The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has now overtaken them. Their destruction will go hand in hand with the destruction of our enemies. We must hasten this process with cold ruthless-ness. We shall thereby render an inestimable service to a humanity tormented for thousands of years by the Jews. This uncompromising anti-Semitic attitude must prevail among our own people despite all objectors.

(14th February 1942)

The Jewish question must be solved within a pan-European frame. There are 11,000,000 Jews still in Europe. To begin with, they will have to be concentrated in the East; possibly an island, such as Madagascar, can be assigned to them after the war. In any case there can be no peace in Europe until every Jew has been eliminated from the continent.

(7th March 1942)

Finally we talked about the Jewish question. Here the Führer is as uncompromising as ever. The Jews must be got out of Europe, if necessary by applying most brutal methods.

(20th March 1942)

Beginning with Lublin, the Jews under the General Government are now being evacuated eastward. The procedure is pretty barbaric and is not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. About 60 per cent of them will have to be liquidated; only about 40 per cent can be used for forced labour. The former Gauleiter of Vienna, who is to carry out this measure, is doing it with considerable circumspection and in a way that does not attract too much attention…. One must not be sentimental in these matters. If we did not fight the Jews, they would destroy us. It's a life-and-death struggle between the Aryan race and the Jewish bacillus. No other government and no other régime would have the strength for such a global solution as this.

(27th March 1942)

Had Goebbels lived to stand trial at Nuremberg these and other passages in his diaries would have been sufficient to condemn him.

Goebbels' admiration for Hitler remained absolute. He did not always agree with the Führer's decisions, but he was always able to blame these divergences on the ill-considered advice Hitler received from his generals, ministers and favourites. After Hitler had addressed a mass meeting in the Sportpalast on 30th January 1942 Goebbels wrote:

The Führer has charged the entire nation as though it were a storage battery…. As long as he lives and is among us in good health, as long as he can give us the strength of his spirit and the power of his manliness, no evil can touch us. The entire people became convinced of this anew today.
⁴²

What Goebbels took most pride in were his personal contacts with Hitler, reduced as these were now to the occasional private meetings at which they seemed to discuss everything with great earnestness from the war to vegetarianism. Goebbels was worried by the appalling strain to which Hitler had subjected himself, and marvelled at his strength.

The Führer, thank God, appears to be in good health. He has been through exceedingly difficult days, and his whole bearing shows it. The Führer is really to be pitied. He must take the entire burden of the war on his own shoulders, and no one can relieve him of responsibility for all the decisions that must be made.
⁴³

It is not difficult for me to gather from this whole presentation of the situation that the Führer alone saved the Eastern Front this winter. His determination and firmness have put everything back in shape again. If today he is a sick and ailing man, that was a high price to pay, but it is worth it.

My work meets with the Führer's highest approval and gives him great satisfaction. It is wonderful for me to be able to talk over all sorts of personal things at length with the Führer. He has the effect of a dynamo. After spending an afternoon with him, one feels like a storage battery that has just been recharged.
⁴⁴

After this meeting, which took place in March 1942, Goebbels noted that “the Führer was very much touched when I took my leave. He wishes me to visit him again soon. I am almost benumbed at having to leave him.”

Goebbels was delighted at the intimacy of the occasion and the sight of a dog playing at the Führer's feet.

A little dog which he has been given now plays about in his room. His whole heart belongs to that little dog. It can do anything it wants in his bunker. At present it is nearer the Führer's heart than anything else.
⁴⁵

Goebbels then stayed to dinner.

At subsequent meetings he continued to press Hitler to take more drastic measures to ensure the total compliance of the State with the principles of National Socialism, and drafted on his behalf a special message to the German people for 1st May 1942.

The Führer has approved my draft for his telegram to the German people for 1st May. It is an exceptionally compelling and far-reaching declaration in favour of a people's social State and will be excellent for our propaganda at home. For the first time we can record the fact that the Führer is committing himself so completely about the future aims of the National Socialist State.
⁴⁶

This message followed immediately upon a speech given by Hitler to the Reichstag on 26th April at which he had revealed the gravity of the situation on the Eastern Front and represented his own assumption of the powers of Commander-in-Chief as the reason for the salvation of the German armies. He then made a formal demand to the Reichstag for plenary powers on the home front along the lines that Goebbels had pressed him to do. This was, of course, granted him with all the necessary enthusiasm required of such a body as the Reichstag under National Socialism. The new law stated:

The Führer must have all the rights demanded by him to achieve victory. Therefore—without being bound by existing legal regulations —in his capacity as Leader of the Nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Head of the Government, Supreme Justice and Leader of the Party, the Führer must be in a position to force, with all the means at his disposal, every German, if necessary, whether he be common soldier or officer, low or high official or judge, leading or subordinate official of the Party, worker or employer, to fulfil his duties. In case of violation of these duties the Führer is entitled, regardless of rights, to mete out punishment and remove the offender from his post, rank and position without introducing prescribed procedures.
⁴⁷

This meant that the existing laws of Germany could be short-circuited at any time by any minister in the name of Hitler. The lawyers and the bureaucrats could be disregarded. They were, after all, bourgeois in origin, and therefore “out of touch with the people”, as Goebbels always put it. “Experts,” he wrote, “are always handicapped in their relation to the common people. They lack the necessary instinct for realising what the people are thinking.”
⁴⁸
He always boasted that he preferred the judgment of his mother. Writing on 29th January 1942 he recorded: