Елена Ржевская - Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter - From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker

However, the mere mention of the existence of this notebook and the exact date on which it ended, 8 July 1941, proved to be enough. [West] German historians already had Goebbels’ typewritten diaries at their disposal, which began from the following day, 9 July 1941, and now they knew that the manuscript diary was extant and preserved in an archive in Moscow. They began seeking access to it, and in 1969 microfilm copies were conveyed to the German side. In 1987 all the surviving pages of the manuscript diary were published.

The last notebook of that diary is uniquely interesting historical testimony, reflecting as it does the facts and atmosphere of preparations for the attack on the USSR. It discloses the nature of the provocations and the methods of disinformation undertaken at the time by Nazi Germany.

Goebbels’ diary introduces us to the routine day-to-day activities of the Third Reich’s minister of propaganda. In May–June 1941, these activities are preparing for the attack on the USSR which, for us, marked the beginning of the war. The first references to the impending attack appear in the diary on 24 May. Goebbels sent his representative to Alfred Rosenberg, who was to become minister for the occupied eastern territories, to coordinate their activities in the impending operation. ‘R. must be broken down into component parts… the existence of such a colossal state in the east cannot be tolerated.’

Goebbels was busy with active disinformation, spreading false rumours about a supposedly imminent invasion of Britain in order to mask Germany’s true intentions. ‘The rumours we have sown about the invasion are working. There is a climate of exceptional nervousness in England.’

29 May 1941. In Moscow they are busy solving puzzles. Stalin is apparently beginning little by little, to get the knack. But for the rest, he is still entranced… A heavenly summer! Quiet, a beautiful evening. But you do not enjoy it.

31 May. Operation Barbarossa is developing. We are beginning the first big deception. The entire state and military machinery is being mobilized. Only a few individuals are informed about the true course of events. I am obliged to send the whole ministry off on a false trail, risking, in the event of failure, the loss of my prestige…

Little by little we are elaborating the theme of the invasion. I ordered a song to be composed about it, a new theme, increasing the use of broadcasts in English, training a propaganda company for England, etc. Two weeks allowed for everything… If nobody blabs and, given the small circle of initiates, one can count on that, the deception will succeed.

Forward march!

A busy time is beginning. We will prove that our propaganda is unrivalled. The civilian ministries suspect nothing. They are working in the direction set for them. It will be interesting when the balloon goes up.

Directives on propaganda against R.: no anti-socialism, no restoration of tsarism, no open talk of dismembering the Russian state (otherwise we will alienate the army with its Great Russian inclinations)… Retain the collective farms for the present in order to save the harvest.

Goebbels received a programme for the territorial partitioning of Russia from Hitler:

7 June. The Asian part of R. does not need to be discussed. The European part we shall assimilate. Stalin recently told Matsuoka he is Asian. He can hardly complain!

Goebbels put his back into preparing for the new war. He tightened the screws wherever he could, forbidding the showing of foreign films in the Cabaret of Comedians where ‘all the gripers go’ to watch them; he ‘prepared new measures against the Berlin Jews’. He castigated those sections of the press that failed sufficiently to extol the achievements of German arms, calling them the ‘petty-bourgeois press’. He intervened in matters of ensuring military secrecy in all the Berlin ministries. ‘We will even have to call on the services of the Gestapo.’

He kept Robert Ley of the Nazis’ German Labour Front from promising new post-war social programmes, so as not to awaken an appetite for peace among the population. At the same time, he cancelled the existing ban on dances. ‘That is necessary in order as far as possible to conceal our next operation. The people must believe that we are now “replete with victories” and no longer interested in anything beyond recreation and dancing’ (10 June). Goebbels decided to go easy on anti-tobacco propaganda in order not to offend soldiers who smoked or introduce ‘inflammable matter’ among the populace. ‘War already conceals within itself quite enough natural incendiary matter. Accordingly, I am ordering a toning down of excessively harsh anti-clerical propaganda. There will be time enough for that after the war’ (17 June).

He rhapsodizes about his box of disinformation tricks:

11 June. Together with the High Command of the Wehrmacht and with the Führer’s consent, I am elaborating my article about invasion. The topic is ‘the island of Crete as an example’. It is fairly obvious. It should appear in the Völkischer Beobachter and the copies will then be confiscated. London will learn of this twenty-four hours later through the United States Embassy. This is the whole point of the manoeuvre. It should all serve to disguise the actions in the east. Now we need to use more powerful methods… I shall finish the article this afternoon. It will be magnificent, a masterpiece of deviousness.

The article was written, approved by the Führer, and ‘is being sent with due ceremony to the Völkischer Beobachter. The issue will be confiscated during the night.’

The point of the trick is that the article, examining the operation to capture Crete, contained a clear hint that experience gained there contained lessons for the supposedly impending invasion of Britain. Having the issue confiscated would serve to show that Goebbels had inadvertently blurted out Germany’s ‘true’ intentions.

14 June. The Russians seem not yet to have any presentiment. At all events, they are acting in a way that is fully consonant with our wishes: densely massed troops are an easy prey for taking prisoner.

There are other entries under the same date:

East Prussia is crammed so full of troops that the Russians could inflict great damage on us with pre-emptive strikes. But they will not do so…

I order lunatic rumours to be spread in Berlin: Stalin is supposedly coming to Berlin, the red banners are already being sewn, and so on. Dr Ley phones me, having fallen for it hook line and sinker. I leave him to his delusion. At this present moment it is all to the good.

Further:

15 June. From radio intercepts we for our part can conclude that Moscow is bringing the Russian fleet into a state of combat readiness. So they are no longer as unworried as they pretend to be. But their preparations are extraordinarily amateurish. Their actions cannot be taken seriously.

Goebbels also viewed the war as a source of abundant material for German newsreels: ‘Inevitably, during such a relatively peaceful time it [the newsreel] cannot be as good as when there is fighting.’

Goebbels did not overlook his own self-interest: in Berlin, construction of a highly secure bomb shelter was commenced on Göringstrasse where he lived. It was going to be ‘a colossal structure,’ he noted with satisfaction.

In Schwanenwerder near Berlin, adding to the country houses he already possessed, construction of Goebbels’ castle was coming to a conclusion. He thought the building itself was ‘magnificent’, and also the way his wife had furnished it. Here, in comfortable remoteness, against the backdrop of an idyllic landscape, Dr Goebbels was intending to operate even more productively to ‘create general mayhem’, not omitting, in the process, to help himself to some prize treasures: ‘I bought a marvellous painting by Goya privately in France.’