The Führer says that, by fair means or foul, we must win. That is the only way, and it is right morally and from necessity. When we are the victors, who will question our methods? We already have so much on our conscience that we must win, otherwise our people, with us leading it, and everything that is dear to us will be wiped off the face of the earth. So, to work!
The Führer asks what the people think. The people think that we are acting in concert with Russia, but will conduct themselves just as bravely if we call on them to wage war against Russia…
The denial by TASS is, in the Führer’s opinion, only a sign of fear. Stalin is trembling before the impending events. An end will be put to his false game. We will exploit the raw materials of this resource-rich country. The hope of the British to destroy us with a blockade will thereby be totally neutralized, and only after this will the real submarine war begin.
Italy and Japan will now receive messages that we are intending to present Russia with certain ultimatum demands in early July. They will blab about it everywhere. Then we will again have several days at our disposal. The Duce is not yet fully informed of the true extent of the planned operation. Antonescu knows a little more. Romania and Finland are joining forces with us. So, forwards! The abundant fields of Ukraine are beckoning. Our military leaders, who saw the Führer on Saturday, have prepared everything in the best possible way. Our propaganda machinery is ready and waiting…
I must now prepare everything in the most meticulous manner. It is essential, no matter what, to continue to spread the rumours: peace with Moscow, Stalin coming to Berlin, the invasion of England in the near future, all in order to cover up every aspect of the situation as it actually is. We have to hope that succeeds for some time yet…
I drove through the park, through the rear portal where people were strolling carefree in the rain. Lucky people who know nothing of all our worries and live one day at a time. It is for the sake of all of them that we work and struggle and take upon ourselves such risk. In order that our people should thrive.
I oblige everybody to say nothing about my secret visit to the Führer.
And the Germans on this last Sunday ‘stroll carefree in the rain’, with no inkling of the catastrophe into which they are to be plunged in a few days’ time by those whom they so recklessly entrusted with their destiny.
17 June.
All the preparations have been made. It is to begin in the early hours of Sunday. At 3.30 a.m. The Russians are still gathered on the border in a dense, massed formation. With their minimal transport capacity they will be unable to alter the situation in just a few days…
The US demanded that our consulates should close by 10 July and leave the country. The information library of our ministry in New York is also being closed. These are all petty pinpricks, not stabbing with a knife. We will have no problem coping with this.
As for the freezing of German deposits in the United States, Goebbels noted,
[Roosevelt] can do no more than tickle us.
18 June.
Our deception in respect of Russia has come to a climax. We have flooded the world with a torrent of rumours, until now it is difficult for us ourselves to know what is what… I have been trying out new fanfares. Still have not found the ideal one. At the same time, everything has to be disguised.
‘Rumours are our daily bread,’ Goebbels writes.
Apart from special ‘spreaders’, the world is flooded with rumours by the press of Germany’s allies, notably the Italians. ‘They blabber about everything they know and even about what they do not know. Their press is terribly frivolous,’ Goebbels writes, quoting the opinions Hitler expressed in conversation with him.
Accordingly, they cannot be trusted with secrets, at least not with any it would be undesirable to have disclosed.
Worked until late at night. The question of Russia is becoming ever more impenetrable. Our rumour-mongers are doing an excellent job. With all this muddle we end up almost in the situation of a squirrel that has concealed its nest so well that in the end it cannot find it.
The entries during these days end in sighs:
The time until the dramatic hour drags by so slowly.
I am longing for it to be the end of the week. It frays your nerves. When it begins, you will feel, as always, as if a mountain has fallen from your shoulders.
19 June. We need for now to print 800,000 leaflets for our soldiers. I order this to be done with all necessary precautions. The printing company will be sealed by the Gestapo and the workers will not be allowed to leave until a particular day…
The issue of Russia is gradually becoming clear. It was impossible to avoid that. In Russia itself they are preparing to celebrate the Day of the Navy. It is not going to be a success.
20 June. See the Führer: the matter of Russia is now clear to everybody. The machine is gradually starting to move. Everything is going like clockwork. The Führer praises the superiority of our regime… We contain the people within a standardized world view. For that we use cinema, radio and the press, which the Führer described as the most important means of educating the populace. The state should never renounce them. The Führer also praises the good tactics of our journalism.
21 June. Yesterday: the dramatic hour is approaching. A very busy day. A mass of petty details still need to be resolved. So much work my head is splitting…
The question of Russia is becoming increasingly dramatic hour by hour…
In London they now have a correct understanding in respect of Moscow. They anticipate war any day…
The Führer is very pleased with our fanfares. He orders a few things to be added. From the Horst Wessel Anthem.
22 June. The day German troops crossed the border and attacked the USSR. Irrepressibly methodical, Goebbels first describes the day that has passed.
Even though, as he is writing, the world has been shaken by news of the invasion of Russia and new information is coming in from the Eastern Front, he rattles on at length in the diary about this and that: listening to new fanfares; a chat with an actress invited to appear in a new war film; a breakfast in honour of the Italian minister of popular culture, Alessandro Pavolini; a reception he arranged for the Italians in his castle at Schwanenwerder – before moving on to the main topic of the day.
At 3.30 a.m. the offensive will begin. One hundred and sixty fully manned divisions. A 3,000-kilometre-long front. Much debate about the weather. The biggest campaign in the history of the world. The nearer the time for the strike approaches, the faster the Führer’s mood improves. That is how it always is with him. He just thaws out. All the weariness in him immediately vanishes….
Our time of preparation is over. He [Hitler] has worked at it since July last year and now the decisive moment has arrived. Everything has been done that possibly could be done. Now everything hangs on the fortunes of war…
0300 hours. The artillery thunders.
God’s blessing on our guns!
Outside the window on Wilhelmplatz all is quiet and empty. Berlin sleeps; the empire sleeps. I have half an hour to myself but cannot get to sleep. I pace restlessly round the room. I hear the breathing of history.
It is the grand, marvellous moment of the birth of a new empire. Overcoming the pains, it will see the light.