The new fanfare rings out, powerful, resounding, majestic. I proclaim over all the radio stations of Germany the Führer’s call to the German people. It is a moment of great solemnity for me too…
There are still a few urgent matters. Then I drive to Schwanenwerder. A marvellous sun has risen high in the sky.
The birds are chirping in the garden.
I fall on my bed and sleep for two hours.
A deep, healthy sleep.
Goebbels entered the war, trusting in his belief that ‘for the German soldier nothing is impossible,’ and in the instinct of the Führer (‘Once again the Führer’s instinct has proved correct’).
Hitler’s wretched instinct was the last hope for his entourage in the underground complex of the Reich Chancellery during those fateful days when Berlin was surrounded by Soviet troops and inescapable catastrophe was imminent!
23 June. The Russians are deploying their forces the way the French did in 1870, and will suffer the same disaster. The Russians are currently defending themselves only moderately, but their air force has already suffered terrible losses… We will soon deal with them. We must. The mood among the people is slightly disconcerted. The people want peace, not a dishonourable peace, certainly, but every new theatre of military operations brings grief and anxieties.
24 June. There are mixed feelings among the people. The change of direction has been too sudden. The public needs time to get used to it. It will not last long (he notes cynically). Only until the first palpable victories.
‘I am holding back on large-scale maps of Russia,’ he writes the following day. ‘The vast expanses will only frighten our people.’
In Germany, the food situation is very bad, Goebbels notes immediately before the attack on the USSR, and a further reduction in the meat ration is imminent. Italy presents ‘a dismal spectacle’.
Everywhere there is a lack of organization and system. They have no system of ration cards, no decent food, and at the same time they have a great appetite for conquests. They want us, as far as possible, to fight the war, and themselves to reap the rewards. Fascism has not yet overcome its internal crisis. It is sick in body and soul. Too much corroded by corruption.
The war is to stifle all the inner contradictions. Military success is their only god. Goebbels himself, and with the Führer’s assistance, bans Christian publications for soldiers in the Wehrmacht. ‘Right now the soldiers have better things to do than read these wretched tracts… This cissy, spineless doctrine could have a very damaging effect on the soldiers.’
The notion of a ‘crusade’ against the USSR, at least for external consumption, is greatly promoted.
It suits us entirely.
We can make good use of it.
So, forwards! The abundant fields of Ukraine are beckoning.
At the same time:
I will not allow discussion of the economic benefits that will result from the taking of Moscow. Our polemics are conducted exclusively in political terms.
25 June. I think that the war against Moscow will be psychologically, and perhaps militarily, a great success for us…
1 July. All countries greatly admire the power of our armed forces.
Finland is now officially entering the war. Sweden allows one German division through… In Spain there are demonstrations directed against Moscow. Italy intends to send an expeditionary corps and only hopes it will not turn against them themselves. Creation of Europe’s anti-Bolshevik front continues.
Turkey is moving ever more firmly to our side.
Mannerheim’s group in Finland is ready for action.
Japan should be given a free hand in China so it can be included in our calculations.
Jews in Moldavia are shooting at German soldiers, but Antonescu is carrying out a purge. He is behaving magnificently in this war.
The Hungarians are advancing through the Carpathians. Tarnopol [in western Ukraine] has been occupied. An oil region has fallen almost intact into our hands.
The friends of England are at loggerheads with the Bolsheviks. Disunity in the enemy camp is getting ever more serious. We need to make the fullest possible use of this time. We may even be able to inflame this so much that the enemy’s front will begin to wobble.
This was an idea that, as we will see below, obsessed Hitler to the last.
Everybody was busy deciding when victory would be achieved. If Hitler said four months, voices from all directions were now predicting a victorious conclusion of the war within weeks or even days.
In the diary there is anticipation of imminent triumph. Goebbels’ main concern is that that the triumph should not be overshadowed by unrealistic prophesying.
I strongly oppose the Foreign Ministry’s foolish predictions of when victory will be achieved. If it is said it will be in four weeks when in fact it takes six, our amazing victory will ultimately be seen as a defeat. The Foreign Ministry is also not sufficiently respecting military secrets. I order the Gestapo to intervene against the loudmouths.
Goebbels instructs the poets to compose a song about the Russian campaign as a matter of urgency, but nothing satisfactory is forthcoming, to his annoyance and indignation. Finally, ‘A new song about Russia is ready. The joint work of Anacker, Tieszler and Kolbe. I am now editing and reworking it. After that, it will be unrecognizable,’ he writes with his usual complacency. ‘A magnificent song.’
‘Magnificent’, now his standard category, he applies to the newsreel, to which he devotes a lot of attention.
26 June. Its subject matter is war.
30 June. Excellent filming from the East. The montage is breathtaking.
4 July. Every half hour there is more news. These are wild, exciting times. In the evening the newsreel is ready. A full-length piece, gripping music, shots and text. I am now completely satisfied. I managed another half-hour nap on the terrace.
The pace in Berlin is almost breathtaking. During these days I have positively to steal time for myself. But such is the kind of life I have wished for myself, and it truly is splendid.
No matter how Goebbels enthuses about the results of the surprise attack, we detect a new and unexpected tone in his notes. At first he sounds merely puzzled: ‘The enemy is fighting well,’ he records as early as 24 June (writing, as always, about the previous day).
He ponders how this new circumstance can be turned to advantage.
The Russians defend themselves courageously. There is no retreating. That is good. So much the faster will things go later. They are losing countless numbers of tanks and planes. This is a prerequisite for our victory.
The tone becomes increasingly uneasy: the Southern Front ‘is resisting desperately and has a good command. The situation is not dangerous, but we have our hands full.’
The German doctrinaire insistence on the weakness of the Red Army has suffered a setback, and so does Goebbels’ psychological state. Like a gambler he grows more arrogant with every win, and wilts and lapses into depression when he loses or encounters adversity. These are only the first days of the war in the east: the notebook ends with 8 July. The Nazi army has yet to experience its first defeats… and yet the spectre of failure is clearly haunting these entries:
Strong, desperate resistance by the enemy… Army Group South reports that an enemy attempt to break through near Dubnov has been repulsed… Desperate attempts at Białystok to break through… One red regiment broke through… The Russians have suffered enormous losses in tanks and aircraft, but they are still fighting well, and since Sunday have wised up a lot.