Joseph Goebbels

“ The Nazi Government endeavored to unite the Nation in support of their policies through the extensive use of propaganda. A number of agencies was set up, whose duty was to control and influence the press, the radio, films, publishing firms, etc., in Germany, and to supervise entertainment and cultural and artistic activities. All these agencies came under Goebbels’ Ministry of the People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda, which together with a corresponding organization in the NSDAP and the Reich Chamber of Culture, was ultimately responsible for exercising this supervision. ”

“ Goebbels quite suddenly and to the surprise of everyone gave the order for these Jewish pogroms. Frau Funk confirms in her affidavit that her husband, as soon as he heard of these excesses, called Dr. Goebbels over the telephone in great excitement and asked him:
“Have you gone crazy, Goebbels, to commit such outrages? It makes one ashamed to be a German. Our whole prestige abroad is being lost. I am trying day and night to preserve the national patrimony and you throw it recklessly out of the window. If this beastly mess does not stop immediately, I will throw everything overboard.” ”

“ The Defendants contend that Irving had no basis whatever for adding the gloss that Goebbels was apprehensive since there is no such indication to be found in the diary. Far from being apprehensive, Goebbels’s diary entry for 11 November shows how delighted he was at the success of the pogrom. Irving claimed that this entry is mendacious.
5.76 Goebbels’s diary entry continues:
‘I report to the Fuhrer in the Osteria. He agrees with everything. His views are totally radical and aggressive. The action itself has taken place without any problems. 17 dead. But no German property damaged. ”

“ Therefore, this procedure was different to that of writing an article; not every sentence had to be polished, because in a written matter every word counts, whereas in a speech it is more the total impression which is decisive.
DR. FRITZ: Now, you worked in the Propaganda Ministry; Dr. Goebbels was the Minister. His name has been mentioned here frequently in connection with his various positions as Reich Minister for Propaganda, Reich Propaganda Director of the NSDAP, Delegate for Total War Effort, and Gauleiter of Berlin. In which of these capacities did you deal with Dr. Goebbels? ”

“ Goebbels will be binding to the utmost for all labor offices and all offices of economy and nutrition.
All camps where German producing people, men or women, are to be quartered, must be perfect examples of German cleanliness, order and hygiene. ”

“ The German people by a great majority decided through a plebiscite on the withdrawal from the League of Nations and against a policy of yielding and chose, instead, a policy of courage and honor; thereby”—concluded Dr. Goebbels—“the German people themselves chose the war which they have now lost.” ”

“ In connection with Germany’s extensive propaganda campaign to ensure acceptability of the German regime, Goebbels established a Reich Propaganda Office in Vienna (2935-PS) . The ballot, addressed to soldiers of the former Austrian Army as “German soldier”, asked the voters whether they agreed with the “accomplishment” and “ratification” on March 13, 1938, of the reuniting of Austria with Germany (1659-PS) . The groundwork was fully laid before the holding of the plebiscite “for German men and women of Austria” promised in the basic law of March 13. ”

“ But what the atmosphere was can perhaps be demonstrated by the following case, shortly after the death of President Roosevelt, as told by Ribbentrop’s liaison agent with Hitler, a man named Hewel. He said:
“Today I almost met my doom. Goebbels came from the Führer, and reported on Germany’s prospects, as far as the Führer saw them affected by Roosevelt’s death, and he drew up a very hopeful picture of the future. I, Hewel, was of the opinion that such a view was not justified and remarked as much cautiously to Goebbels. ”

“ Moreover the stance attributed to Hitler by Goebbels accords with sentiments previously expressed by Hitler, notably in his speech to the Gauleiter on 12 December 1941 (to which I have already referred) when Hitler spoke of the Jews “experiencing their own annihilation” if they should once more bring about a world war. It also accords with two of Goebbels’s diary entries from this period. The entry for 20 March 1942 records Hitler as having remarked:
“We speak in conclusion about the Jewish question. Here the Fuhrer remains now as before unrelenting. ”

“ But the key omission in Hitler’s War, according to Evans, is Goebbel’s description of Hitler as “the persistent pioneer and spokesman of a radical solution”. The radical solution cannot in the context be taken to refer to the policy of deporting Jews to the East. It must indicate that Hitler was aware what was going on in the extermination camps in the East. By deliberately omitting of that reference, Evans alleges that Irving perverts the true significance of the entry. There is absolutely no evidence that Goebbels “held his tongue”. ”

“ The Tribunal will recall that in 1933, before Fritzsche took his party oath of unconditional obedience and subservience to the Führer and thus abdicated his moral responsibility to these conspirators, he had observed at first-hand the operations of the storm troopers and the Nazi race pattern in action. When, notwithstanding this, Fritzsche undertook to bring the German news agencies in their entirety within fascist control, he learned from the inside, from Goebbels’ own lips, much of the cynical intrigue and many of the bold lies against opposition groups within and without Germany. ”

“ According to Irving, it was obvious from the handwritten diary entry that “my” was inserted by accident and Goebbels then added “and our” as an afterthought because it would have been, as Irving put it, a bit of a giveaway if he had crossed out “my”. Evans refused to accept that interpretation of the entry.
5.87 Similarly in relation to the message sent by Goebbels to the Nazi party chief in Munich-Upper Bavaria that “the Fuhrer sanctions the measure taken so far and declares that he does not disapprove of them”, Irving argued that it cannot be taken at face value. ”

“ Goebbels told me that I personally was responsible for this state of affairs, that I should have eliminated the Jews from economic life long ago, and that the Führer would issue an order to Reich Marshal Göring according to which the Jews would have to be completely eliminated from economic life; I would receive further details from the Reich Marshal. This telephone conversation with Goebbels was confirmed by him later, and witnesses will verify this. ”

“ In [15] the Party there is nobody to compete with him. The bloodthirsty Himmler, head of the SS Elite Guards and the Gestapo, is merely a policeman, one of great ability, ranking perhaps with the notorious Fouché of the French Revolution, but out of the question as Fuehrer. Goebbels, the advertising director, is the cleverest man in the Party, but he would be lucky to remain alive twenty-four hours after Hitler’s protective hand was removed. He and Himmler are rivals in unpopularity. ”

“ The Fuhrer wants to take very sharp measures against the Jews. They must themselves put their businesses in order again. The insurance will not pay them a thing. Then the Fuhrer wants a gradual expropriation of Jewish businesses’.
The Defendants contend that this passage from Goebbels’s diary makes crystal clear that, far from condemning Goebbels for what had occurred during Kristallnacht, Hitler in fact approved what had happened. ”

“ Reich Marshal Göring always rejected any illegal or violent action against Jews. This is clearly shown by his attitude toward the action against Jews during the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, instigated by Goebbels, of which he was informed only after the deed had been done and which he condemned most severely. In this respect he raised serious objections with Goebbels and Hitler. On this matter, the precise statements of the witnesses Bodenschatz and Körner are available. The testimony of Dr. Uiberreither shows how greatly Göring disapproved of this action. ”

“ One day, shortly after America was drawn into the war, I received a request from the newspaper published by Goebbels, that, on account of my knowledge of American conditions, I should write an article for Das Reich, to assure the German people that the war potential of the United States should not be overestimated. ”

“ I can assure your Honors that since 1941 Goebbels’ propaganda told the German people time and again of the horrible terms the enemy would impose on them in the event of peace. That included an item to the effect that the whole of the German male population would be castrated should Germany lose the war so that the German people would perish. Who has the courage to say it is despicable for a man of battle to organize a defensive system under the news impact of such items in order to obtain better peace terms? ”

“ Goebbels once made this juridical concept the theme of his propaganda. On 28 May 1944 he wrote in an article in the Völkischer Beobachter, which was submitted to you by the American Prosecution, an article intended to justify the murder of Allied pilots by German mobs:
“The pilots cannot validly claim that as soldiers they obeyed orders. No law of war provides that a soldier will remain unpunished for a hateful crime by referring to the orders of his superiors, if their orders are in striking opposition to all human ethics, to all international customs in the conduct of war.” ”

“ The World War is there, the extermination of Jewry (Judentum) must be the necessary consequence. This question must be seen without sentimentality. We are not here in order to have sympathy with the Jews, rather we sympathise with our own German people. If the German people have now once again sacrificed as many as 16,000 dead in the Eastern campaign, then the authors of this bloody conflict must pay with their lives”.
The Defendants’ case is that, according to Goebbels’s account, Hitler was expressly contemplating the extermination of Jews generally. ”

“ And it is the third paragraph in the center of the page.
STRÖLIN: Yes, I found the place.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: “Deputy Gauleiter Schmidt, representing Dr. Goebbels, stated, ‘The local Party leadership (Gauleitung) is prepared to co-operate through thick and thin with the new officers of the Deutsches Auslands-Institut.’ ”
Hess, you know, was in charge of the Party leadership, wasn’t he—the Gauleiter? We will go on:
“National Socialism will demand the blood unity of all Germans as its historic right.” ”

“ On 13 March 1933, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was established with Goebbels as its Chief and Funk as its under-Secretary (2029-PS; Voelkischer Beobachter 15 March 1933, p. 2. (South German Edition) ) . In an interview with a reporter from the Voelkischer Beobachter on 30 March 1933, Funk made clear the importance which propaganda was to have in the Nazi State. He stated:
“Propaganda is the most modern instrument of power and fighting weapon of state policy. ”

“ Then, there is a Himmler order to senior SS officers, to be passed orally to the Gauleiter, that the police are not to interfere in the clashes between Germans and aviators. That is Document Number R-110, Exhibit USA-333, shown at Page 1624 (Volume IV, Page 49) . Then there is a declaration by Goebbels inciting the people to murder Allied airmen, which is shown at Page 1625 (Volume IV, Page 50) . Similarly, with regard to foreign labor, there is a telegram from Rosenberg to the Gauleiter asking them not to interfere with the confiscation of certain companies and banks. ”

“ Goebbels the Fuehrer has decided that out of political considerations a uniform treatment of the problems concerning foreigners will have to be secured immediately in all agencies and a corresponding education of the German people will have to be instituted.
The consolidation of the new Europe and the increased anti-communist trend which have been played up by the foreign propaganda office demand that in the treatment of foreign workers in the Reich immediately every material which would be an incentive for a hostile attitude on the part of the foreign workers should be eliminated. ”

“ FRITZSCHE: Just a moment. I have something to add.
The expression “close associate of Goebbels” is wrong, objectively seen, and “favorite”—well, I do not think so.
GEN. RUDENKO: Yes, very well. Let us go further.
You enjoyed the complete confidence of Goebbels and you carried out your duties in the Ministry of Propaganda entrusted with fullest powers. Do you admit that?
FRITZSCHE: Absolutely.
GEN. RUDENKO: Very well. Thus, enjoying the confidence and disposing of full powers, in your utterances you fully mirrored the demands of the Hitler Government which were made tasks of German propaganda ”

“ DR. FRITZ: Now we shall turn to a different subject. The Prosecution charges the Defendant Fritzsche with having influenced the German people in the idea of the master race and thus with having incited hatred against other nations. Did Fritzsche ever receive instructions at all to conduct a propaganda campaign on behalf of the theory of the master race?
VON SCHIRMEISTER: No, under no circumstances. In this connection, one must know that Dr. Goebbels could not at all use this Party dogma and myth. These are not things which attract the masses. ”