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

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.

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.