HATREDS DIVIDED NAZIS

Chronicle (Levin), 6 April 1948, Page 5

HATREDS DIVIDED NAZIS

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter.

Interesting Revelations ln Diary Of Goebbels

Copyright)

Received Monday, 7 p.m. ' LONDON, April 5. If further proof were neeaed of tne fatal misconceptions ^ entertained by .Nazi war leaders about their enemies and of the hitter intrigue and hatreds which divided their own ranks, it ig p'rovided by the private diary of GoeDbms, Reich Propaganda Minister, pu 9lished by the firm of Hamish Hamilton. The diary, which Foebbels dictated every morning during the war years until Allied air raids brought the centre oi' Berbn- tunibling about his ears, was very neai'ly lost vvhen it'was east out as waste paper 'by the Russians who. were ransacking the Reich Ohancellory after the occupation. of the • Ferman vapital. Tt wSs rescued from tne dust bin by a former American military at^ache in Berlin who handed it over to an American journalist, Louis Lochner: The diary, as it noN api^ars, has been translated and edited by'-.Locn-ner and in proeess reduced from pages of tvpescript to 450 print'ftd pages. * The authenticity of. the diarjF is unquestioned but there is somje doubt whether it was not vvritten more with an eye to eft'ect than historical accuracy.

It is signifieant that amidst t>te tirad,0 of abuse which he heaps upon almost all his wartime coileagues, Goebbels remains studiously noncommittal on the subj'ect of Himmler. His oniy words of praise are reserved for -hiniseif anci llitler who was plainly his idol. The wasp-like little Propaganda Minister spared few of his coileagues. Rosenberg anu Friclt he described as '"nincompoops" and Bauckel as 4 'the duilest of the dull. " Ribbentrop was a speciai target for his vituperation. The final passage in the diary has this devatating . contempt upon the Reicn Foreign Minister: "If Ribbentrop is as cle^er in his foreign poiicy as. he is in dealing with his .coileagues on uomestie poiicy, I can well understand why we aclueve no notable* success'qs in our deaiings with foreign nations," But Goebbqls reserved the fuilest measure of his detestation for the German generals and his dislike was apparpntly shared to the full hy Hitler. He recordsThat hy the spring' of 1943 Hitler had hecome so antagonistic to his army leaders that he refused to eat with them or even to speas: to tnem vmtes^ absolutely necessaxy. On Afay 10, 1943, Foebbels recorded: "The Fuehrer is absolutely siclt or the generals — his opinion of tliem- is devastatmg. All ihe generats are liars. All the generals are eowards. All the generals are iucompetent." As a result of the Ferman defeats 'in Russia, Hitler also apparently developed an almost pathological hatred for snow. Xaturally Goebbels did not spare the Allied military leaders. Churchill h-e describes as "that oid rogue, this ogre, ' ' and ' ' this insoleut iiar, ' ' but he admitted Churchill was the best leader for Britain- in time of war and coiumented cynically that his slogan of " blood, sweat, and tears" made inm iininune from attack because "he is like a doctor who has propliesied that uis patieut will die and who every time the patient's conditions worsens, smugly explains that he prophesied it. ' ' Roosevelt, according to Goebbels, was ' ' one of the worse enemies of modern culture. " Btalin he described as •'a brutal revolutionary." Goebbels apparently welcomed all British tallt of beating Germany to her knees as he eonsidered this stif'fened the Gernian will to resist. He comments at one -stago that the Gernians should erect a s'tatue to Lord Vansittart who was one of the chiet supporters for the campaign to complete subjugation of Gefxnan. Goebbels detested and despised Franco ("this inflated peacock, this bourgeois covvard") but he hada certain respect which the Fuehrer apparently shared for Mussolini. Of tiie Italians he says: "Old Him denburg was right when he said Mussolini could never make anything of Italians but Italians." Goebbels elaims that Rommel was withdi'awn from the Axis command in Africa at ' Mussolini 's request. Hatred Of Jews and Russians. Racially Goebbels distributed his hatred impartially between Jews and Russians. He makes it plain that he was the chief instigator of the poiicy of extermination pursued against the Jews. He describes the Russians as devils and prophesied that if the Allies won the war Britain would becoine the boml slave of America and that Stalin would set about the eomplete Bolshevisation of Europe. He described Americans conteraptuously as "racial hodge podge" but severai times commented upon Britisn tenacitv and described them as "the j only tried combat soldiers" among . the Allies. Tliey were also, however, "the Jews among the Arvans." and the House of Commons was "a Jewish exchange. ' ' R.A.F. Enraged Goebbels. The mounting power of the Allied air offensive plainly filled Goebbels with increasing forebodings and impotent fury. He inveighs bitterly against the failure of the Lu^watt'e to stop these attaclcs and although he eonsidered Goering had cliarm and ability, became more and more out of patienoe with him as an air leader. The book is a chronicle of hatred, intrigue and cynical ambition but it shows that whatever else he lacked, Goebbels did not want for personai courage or loyalty to his leader. He spealcs at one stage rather wistfully cif his desire to settle down quietly with his family after the war. Instead, when all was lost he poisoned them and ordered S.H. men to shoot 'himself and his wife and burn their bodies in the varden of the Reich Flianceiiery.