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The Goebbels Diaries
A shocking and intimate record of evil...by Hitler's partner in crime.
No man was closer to Hitler than Joseph Goebbels and no one had a more intimate knowledge of the secret workings of the Nazi juggernaut...
If Goebbels was mad, he was a madman with a superb sense of history. His long-hidden diaries are an unbearably revealing record of evil. They are also the most accurate account we have of what actually went on in the Third Reich as it passed its peak of monstrous success and descended toward the final abyss.
"Utterly fascinating...rich in intriguing disclosures" -Charles Tolo, Atlantic Monthly
No man was closer to Hitler than Joseph Goebbels and no one had a more intimate knowledge of the secret workings of the Nazi juggernaut...
If Goebbels was mad, he was a madman with a superb sense of history. His long-hidden diaries are an unbearably revealing record of evil. They are also the most accurate account we have of what actually went on in the Third Reich as it passed its peak of monstrous success and descended toward the final abyss.
"Utterly fascinating...rich in intriguing disclosures" -Charles Tolo, Atlantic Monthly
566 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
3 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Goebbels
100 books166 followersGerman politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism.
He played a hand in the Kristallnacht attack on the German Jews, which historians consider to be the beginning of the Final Solution, leading towards the genocide of the Holocaust.
Goebbels earned a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in 1921, writing his doctoral thesis on 18th century romantic drama; he then went on to work as a journalist and later a bank clerk and caller on the stock exchange. He also wrote novels and plays, but they were rejected by publishers. Goebbels came into contact with the Nazi Party in 1923 during the French occupation of the Ruhr and became a member in 1924. He was appointed Gauleiter (regional party leader) of Berlin. In this position, he put his propaganda skills to full use, combating the local socialist and communist parties with the help of Nazi papers and the paramilitary Stormtroopers, aka, Brownshirts, SA. By 1928, he had risen in the party ranks to become one of its most prominent members.
Goebbels rose to power in 1933 along with Hitler and the Nazi Party and he was appointed Propaganda Minister. One of his first acts was the burning of books rejected by the Nazis. He exerted totalitarian control over the media, arts and information in Germany.
From the beginning of his tenure, Goebbels organized attacks on German Jews, commencing with the one-day boycott of Jewish businessmen, doctors, and lawyers on April 1, 1933. His attacks on the Jewish population culminated in the Kristallnacht assault of 1938, an open and unrestrained pogrom unleashed by the Nazis all across Germany, in which scores of synagogues were burned and hundreds of Jews were assaulted and murdered. Goebbels used modern propaganda techniques to psychologically prepare the German people for aggressive war and the annihilation of civilian populations.
During World War II, Goebbels increased his power and influence through shifting alliances with other Nazi leaders. By late 1943, the tide of the war was turning against the Axis powers, but this only spurred Goebbels to intensify the propaganda by urging the Germans to accept the idea of total war and mobilization. Goebbels remained with Hitler in Berlin to the end; just hours after Hitler's suicide, Goebbels and his wife, Magda, killed their six young children. Then, they both committed suicide as well.
He played a hand in the Kristallnacht attack on the German Jews, which historians consider to be the beginning of the Final Solution, leading towards the genocide of the Holocaust.
Goebbels earned a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in 1921, writing his doctoral thesis on 18th century romantic drama; he then went on to work as a journalist and later a bank clerk and caller on the stock exchange. He also wrote novels and plays, but they were rejected by publishers. Goebbels came into contact with the Nazi Party in 1923 during the French occupation of the Ruhr and became a member in 1924. He was appointed Gauleiter (regional party leader) of Berlin. In this position, he put his propaganda skills to full use, combating the local socialist and communist parties with the help of Nazi papers and the paramilitary Stormtroopers, aka, Brownshirts, SA. By 1928, he had risen in the party ranks to become one of its most prominent members.
Goebbels rose to power in 1933 along with Hitler and the Nazi Party and he was appointed Propaganda Minister. One of his first acts was the burning of books rejected by the Nazis. He exerted totalitarian control over the media, arts and information in Germany.
From the beginning of his tenure, Goebbels organized attacks on German Jews, commencing with the one-day boycott of Jewish businessmen, doctors, and lawyers on April 1, 1933. His attacks on the Jewish population culminated in the Kristallnacht assault of 1938, an open and unrestrained pogrom unleashed by the Nazis all across Germany, in which scores of synagogues were burned and hundreds of Jews were assaulted and murdered. Goebbels used modern propaganda techniques to psychologically prepare the German people for aggressive war and the annihilation of civilian populations.
During World War II, Goebbels increased his power and influence through shifting alliances with other Nazi leaders. By late 1943, the tide of the war was turning against the Axis powers, but this only spurred Goebbels to intensify the propaganda by urging the Germans to accept the idea of total war and mobilization. Goebbels remained with Hitler in Berlin to the end; just hours after Hitler's suicide, Goebbels and his wife, Magda, killed their six young children. Then, they both committed suicide as well.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 9, 2012
This was one of the first books I read in my self-initiated studies of fascism and national socialism, a year or two after reading a biography of the Propaganda Minister (I have since forgotten which, possibly Goebbels). It was appropriate, since an interest in propaganda and Nazi filmmaking had been the initial interest. Looking back, it was also appropriate in the sense that this was among the books published in the first crush of American interest in the liberated documents of the Third Reich after World War Two. Publishers looking to sell paperbacks in those days just couldn't put enough swastikas on covers, it seemed, and I remember feeling a need to carefully conceal it as I rode public transit in San Francisco and Portland.
Certain aspects of that initial reading also stand out to me. I have never forgotten the line, “certain developments, which, on the map, appear unfavorable to us, have occurred,” as an example of spinning bad news. I also recall that Goebbels complained frequently about the German people’s unwillingness to implement “total war” policies even to the point of allowing women to work full-time in large numbers. It was through reading this book that I began to flesh out a sense of who the leading military, political, and cultural figures of the Third Reich were, not only as names or uniforms, but as individuals who had different motivations and ideas that brought them to positions of power and influence.
The book is far from perfect and a historical source, however. While Louis Lochner’s translation has never been called into question, to my knowledge, a lot of his editorial decisions undermine its value. Probably the largest oversight is the lack of attention given to the circumstances under which the diaries were written. Going through the introduction again, I don’t find any mention of the fact that they were written for publication (indeed, publishing his diaries was Dr. Goebbels’ major source of income) and therefore might not reflect Goebbels’ deepest thoughts, but rather yet another cog in the propaganda machine. True, the diaries for these years had not been edited for final publication, and they appear to include a good deal more of the behind-the-scenes schemes and everyday activities than a final version would have, but everything Goebbels’ dictated would have been planned with the German public in mind. The publisher’s note does include some interesting provenancial details, including a rather thorough list of the other documents that had been found along with the diaries, and the fact that this published volume includes less than 1/10 of that material. Other publications have since added to the completeness with which the diaries may be read by the English-speaking public, but a great deal of Goebbels’ diaries remain accessible only through archives.
The other major editorial quibble I would have with Lochner, were I reading the text today, are his many notes, inserted within the text, to explain the details of persons or events described by Goebbels. These were probably necessary, and may even have seemed helpful to me at the time, with my lesser knowledge of World War Two and the Third Reich, but they are very biased from Lochner’s point of view and often interrupt the text as footnotes would not have. Lochner was an American journalist, who had met Goebbels, but he really only knew Germany in this period through press releases, as he had to leave Germany as an enemy national when the US declared war. In 1948, it would have been difficult to find a better qualified native English speaker for a translator and editor, but a modern reader is advised to seek more recent historical publications to obtain a fuller contextual view.
Certain aspects of that initial reading also stand out to me. I have never forgotten the line, “certain developments, which, on the map, appear unfavorable to us, have occurred,” as an example of spinning bad news. I also recall that Goebbels complained frequently about the German people’s unwillingness to implement “total war” policies even to the point of allowing women to work full-time in large numbers. It was through reading this book that I began to flesh out a sense of who the leading military, political, and cultural figures of the Third Reich were, not only as names or uniforms, but as individuals who had different motivations and ideas that brought them to positions of power and influence.
The book is far from perfect and a historical source, however. While Louis Lochner’s translation has never been called into question, to my knowledge, a lot of his editorial decisions undermine its value. Probably the largest oversight is the lack of attention given to the circumstances under which the diaries were written. Going through the introduction again, I don’t find any mention of the fact that they were written for publication (indeed, publishing his diaries was Dr. Goebbels’ major source of income) and therefore might not reflect Goebbels’ deepest thoughts, but rather yet another cog in the propaganda machine. True, the diaries for these years had not been edited for final publication, and they appear to include a good deal more of the behind-the-scenes schemes and everyday activities than a final version would have, but everything Goebbels’ dictated would have been planned with the German public in mind. The publisher’s note does include some interesting provenancial details, including a rather thorough list of the other documents that had been found along with the diaries, and the fact that this published volume includes less than 1/10 of that material. Other publications have since added to the completeness with which the diaries may be read by the English-speaking public, but a great deal of Goebbels’ diaries remain accessible only through archives.
The other major editorial quibble I would have with Lochner, were I reading the text today, are his many notes, inserted within the text, to explain the details of persons or events described by Goebbels. These were probably necessary, and may even have seemed helpful to me at the time, with my lesser knowledge of World War Two and the Third Reich, but they are very biased from Lochner’s point of view and often interrupt the text as footnotes would not have. Lochner was an American journalist, who had met Goebbels, but he really only knew Germany in this period through press releases, as he had to leave Germany as an enemy national when the US declared war. In 1948, it would have been difficult to find a better qualified native English speaker for a translator and editor, but a modern reader is advised to seek more recent historical publications to obtain a fuller contextual view.
December 8, 2009
The diary of a sick, twisted, cowardly demon.
February 21, 2021
A wonderful first-hand account of WW2 from the Reich Minister of Propaganda, full of useful and interesting information regarding Germany's war effort and domestic dealings. I was intrigued, especially towards the ending. I wanted to follow the progression of his thoughts until his last day, but unfortunately, the Diaries end November 1943. Overall, would recommend this book to anyone fascinated with WW2 and National-Socialist Germany.
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September 29, 2017The Goebbels Diaries, 1942-1943. by Joseph Goebbels | a collection of writings by Joseph Goebbels, a leading member of the German Nazi Party and the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Adolf Hitler's government from 1933 to 1945. #humanities #textbook #germany
March 12, 2018
Goebbels certainly thought a great more about his supposed brilliance then I do of his writing. I stopped reading the book about three quarters of the way through.
January 26, 2022
Great insight as to the views of Dr. Goebbels and his work with the NSDAP, and manipulation of information during the war. May be a little dry for some.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews