B006OAL1QM EBOK (35 page)

It won't do for total war to be interpreted in a lax manner in one province and very strictly in another. The fact that hair-dyeing is forbidden to ladies in some provinces, but permitted in others, has resulted in the better-class ladies travelling from one
Gau
to another for their beauty treatments. That, of course, is not what is meant by total war.
¹²

Von Oven records a similar aversion—on this occasion to the time- servers in the film industry, who, said Goebbels, curried favour with the Nazis now, but, “if ever we should have to go, they would be the first to curry favour with their new masters, telling them they have always been good anti-Fascists and that they were forced to accept all that money and all those honours from us”.
¹³
Goebbels proved a sound prophet. He ached to bring such people as these to heel, to make them experience the lash of his authority—the authority Hitler still delayed giving him. Nevertheless, he credited himself with succeeding in becoming the internal ruler of Germany
ex officio
.

It is characteristic that during the war the Ministry of the Interior has done practically nothing about domestic politics. Whatever there is in Germany in the way of domestic policy stems from me. Naturally I can be very well satisfied about this development. If a strong man were in Frick's place, he would be in a position to cause me much trouble; as things are, I have been able to have my way in domestic politics. According to an old principle of mine, I never give up what I have once taken into my hands.
¹⁴

Later, in 1943, and still without the executive power he wanted, he would grumble to von Oven about the inefficiency of other Party leaders. He said to him: “If only the Führer had made me Vice-Chancellor on the first day of the war, I would have seen to it that there was more decency about. The trouble is that the Führer has too soft a spot for the old Party members. True enough, those who were with him in the early days were tough and courageous men and they earned a proper reward once we got to power. But so many of them were put in jobs far too big for them to cope with, to say nothing of the corrupting temptations of power which, after all, one has to be a personality and a character not to succumb to.”
¹⁵

As the war slowly turned against the Nazis, Goebbels' ardent radicalism, lurking just below the surface, erupted volcanically.

National Socialism must undergo a renovation. We must link ourselves more socialistically with the people than before. The people must always know that we are their just and generous guardians. The National Socialist leadership must have no ties whatsoever with the aristocracy or with so-called society.
¹⁶

At the same time the leadership pointed forward under Hitler to the control of Europe and, through Europe, the world. To this overriding purpose every other moral consideration was, in Hitler's view, and in Goebbels’, completely subordinate.

The Führer gave expression to his unshakable conviction that the Reich will be the master of all Europe. We shall yet have to engage in many fights, but these will undoubtedly lead to magnificent victories. Thereafter the way to world domination is practically certain. To dominate Europe will be to assume the leadership of the world.

In this connection we naturally cannot accept questions of right and wrong even as a basis of discussion. The loss of this war would constitute the greatest wrong to the German people; victory would give us the greatest right. After all, it will be only the victor who can prove to the world the moral justification for this struggle.
¹⁷

In these surviving fragments of his diary for 1943, Goebbels records no less than nine meetings with the Führer, most of them in private. In spite of the intolerable burden of his responsibilities, or perhaps because of them, Hitler seemed to welcome these prolonged conversations in which every aspect of the war and the future greatness of Germany seems to have been discussed, never without thought of ultimate victory. Even allowing for Goebbels' need to parade Hitler's affection for him in the presence of his stenographers, it is evident that the two men had grown closer together and that Goebbels could to some extent meet Hitler's need in his isolated and artificial way of life for human companionship, encouragement and enthusiastic loyalty. By now there was no one but he in a position to give the Führer quite so much in the way of friendship combined with acumen.

The Führer was extremely nice and obliging…. At our parting he was exceptionally friendly and charming to me. I believe I can be a very strong support for him in these critical times…. All his wishes —in my case he will not speak of orders—are to be made known to me through the channels with which I am familiar. If anybody else should claim that he is speaking with the authority of the Führer's G.H.Q. I can be sure it is not true.
¹⁸

In spite of this growing intimacy with Hitler, Goebbels felt the need during 1943 to attempt to create certain safeguards by bringing Göring back into the Führer's favour. In so far as the Minister for Propaganda could trust anyone, he chose the men he knew well who had survived from the old days, preferring to deal with them rather than with the upstarts in Hitler's immediate circle, such as Bormann. Hitler retained a certain affectionate regard for Göring, although his failure to make the Luftwaffe impregnable had seriously discredited him and led to his semi-retirement in a life of luxury and ease. In 1941 Semmler gathered from his conversations with Goebbels that his Minister despised Göring. In December 1942 he noted down some gossip from Frau Goebbels to the effect that Göring had been for some years a cocaine addict. In 1943 Goebbels attempted to close down Horcher, the luxury restaurant in Berlin which secretly supplied Göring with forbidden food, and he deeply resented the way in which Göring managed to load Karinhall, his great residence in the country, with famous works of art looted from the museums or private collections of occupied Europe. Goebbels used to tell von Oven stories of Göring's unbelievable greed; of how for example during the days of poverty in the Party he had been offended by Göring eating all night in the sleeping compartment they had sometimes to share on their journeys to meetings and conferences. By the beginning of 1945 he wanted to have Göring tried by the People's Court for refusal to join in the total war effort.

But in 1943 it suited Goebbels' policy to attempt the rehabilitation of Göring in order to make him into an ally. He first approached him as early as March 1942.

In the afternoon I had a talk, lasting more than three hours, with Göring, in an atmosphere of the greatest friendliness and cordiality. I was happy we could be so frank. We surveyed the general situation, and I was gratified to find that we agree entirely on all important problems. Without having consulted each other we have arrived at almost exactly the same appraisal of the situation.

Göring is in exceptionally good condition physically. He works hard, achieves enormous successes, and brings sound common sense, without much theorising, to bear on his problem.
¹⁹

A year later, with the help of Speer, Goebbels attempted to win Göring over to support his campaign for total war. All their previous causes of dissension were put aside when Goebbels visited the Reich Marshal in his alpine house in Berchtesgaden.

His house is high up on the mountain in almost wintry quiet. Göring received me most charmingly and is very open-hearted. His dress is somewhat baroque and would, if one did not know him, strike one as almost laughable. But that's the way he is, and one must put up with his idiosyncrasies; they sometimes even have a charm about them.
²⁰

They found a common interest in worrying together about Hitler's state of mind and body.

Göring evinced the greatest concern about the Führer. He, too, feels that he has aged fifteen years during three and a half years of war. It is tragic that the Führer has become such a recluse and leads such an unhealthy life. He never gets out into the fresh, air. He does not relax. He sits in the bunker, worries and broods. If one could only transfer him to other surroundings! But he has made up his mind to conduct this war in his own Spartan manner, and I suppose nothing can be done about it.
²¹

They found themselves in agreement in their criticism of almost everyone, including Rommel, von Paulus, Rosenberg, Ribbentrop and more especially “the three wise men” (as Göring nicknamed them) who were really the root cause of this unexpected
rapprochement
between Goebbels and Goring—Lammers, Bormann and Keitel, the men known now as the Committee of Three who were taking charge of Hitler and making life more difficult for Goebbels. Among their allies they counted on Speer, Himmler, Funk and Ley. At a joint meeting held a few days later, Goebbels records Goring's view of the matter.

So far as their authority and power are concerned, their relative importance is first Bormann, then Lammers, with Keitel an absolute zero. He is a locomotive that has run out of fuel, puffs out its last steam, and then suddenly stands still. Unquestionably these three intend to establish a sort of kitchen cabinet and to erect a wall between the Führer and his ministers. The Committee of Three is to be the instrument for putting this scheme into effect. This is simply intolerable.
²²

Hitler's own reaction to the proposal that Göring should be rehabilitated with the German public was not exactly enthusiastic, and by May Goebbels himself seems to be in doubt whether Göring can be of much further use. The German public were against him for his failure to protect them from the Allied bombing, and his way of life, which had previously entertained them, was now the source of bitter criticism. His failure to appear in public became the subject of rumour. It was even thought that he might have committed suicide.

Goebbels' attitude to handling news of the destruction in Germany had changed as early as the summer of 1942. He knew that the burning ruins were impossible to hide, excuse or explain away. Taking his cue from Winston Churchill's “blood, sweat and tears”, which he believed to be a sound way to brace the public for further effort, he developed the theme of “terror attacks” on Germany and urged the press to make the most of them with a view to sharpening the German spirit. At a press conference in September 1942 he had said:

It will be impossible to state in one sentence that a city like Dusseldorf lies in ruins. Special sections of press correspondents will be formed, whose duty it will be to glorify the events of night bombing in the style of battlefield reports and present them in a mystical light.
²³

This illustrated his new policy of ‘Strength through Fear’, the harbinger of the total war campaign.

In Berlin he had ordered the evacuation of as many old people, women and children as could be spared in anticipation of the mass airraids that he knew must come and did indeed eventually take place during August 1943 and in succeeding months. In contrast to Hitler and Goring, Goebbels moved here, there and everywhere in public, dispensing the comforts of his presence in the bombed areas and responding warmly to his actual or imagined popularity with the people. He visited the Ruhr and other industrial areas devastated by the ceaseless bombardment, and he was meticulous in fulfilling his duties as Nazi Gauleiter of Berlin, where his official residence was eventually to be destroyed, his Ministry damaged, the
Gau
office badly burned, and the Kaiserhof Hotel, so sacred to Nazi memories, completely gutted. “It is always wise to be at hand,” he writes, for he knew he owed it to himself to be present to cope with the endless difficulties. There is always a certain poetic licence in Goebbels' accounts of any of his activities which he knows are to his credit, but, even allowing for this, there is no question that he never spared himself when it came to the exercise of his authority or the expenditure of his time and nervous energy in public appearances of every kind. He was even to some extent exhilarated by the endless difficulties that faced him.

I got up at an ungodly hour with my head throbbing worse than ever before. All day long headaches pursue me. What of it? I simply must go to work. I drive straight to the office to wash and shave. I am very much hampered in my work. All telephone lines are down; I can reach the outside world only with the help of messengers. Most of the Reich ministries have been bombed out. Ministers and departmental heads can be found only with difficulty. That makes my work more difficult in some respects, but easier in others.
²⁴

A typical decision he had to make on the spur of the moment was whether to save the Charlottenburg Opera House (which was under his personal patronage as distinct from the State Opera patronised by Goring) or an armaments factory. He unhesitatingly directed his overstrained fire-fighting resources to the factory.

Although about this time he claimed to von Oven that he was not afraid to make himself unpopular if need be, judging from the diary he took pleasure in seeking the applause of the public.

The Berliners gather around my car. I was amazed at their excellent spirit. Nobody cries, nobody complains. People slapped me on the back familiarly, gave me good advice, prevented me from continuing because, as they put it, nothing must happen to me since I am still very much needed….

Sometimes I have the impression that the Berliners are almost in a religious trance. Women come up to me and lay their hands on me in blessing, imploring God to preserve me…. Show these people small favours, and you can wrap them around your finger….

At the Gartenplatz I took part in feeding the public. The men and women workers received me with an enthusiasm as unbelievable as it was indescribable…. I had to eat with the people and was lifted on to a box to talk to them. I delivered a very earthy and slangy speech which won the hearts of the workers. Everybody accosted me with
‘du’
and called me by my first name…. Women embraced me. I had to give my autograph…. There were deeply touching scenes. One woman had given birth to a child during an air-raid two or three days ago; nevertheless she insisted on getting up when she heard I had come, dressed, and hurried to the Platz. We can never lose this war because of defective morale.
²⁵