Holocaust Uniqueness (Not); Slav Genocide; Polish Guerilla Successes; Nazi anti-Christianity (1942-1943)

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	• The Goebbels Diaries, 1942-1943 Joseph Goebbels Greenwood Press Reprint, 1970 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Private thinkings of propaganda inventor

Dr. Joseph Goebbels was one of the most influentual and feared persons in the Third Reich. With strong influence on Hitler he managed to control virtually every important activity in the Reich. His diary undoubtably shows an extremely unscrupulous man, prepared to risk anything to achieve his beliefs (the tributes that are usually linked to Machiavelli could find even more proper place here). But he has done his homework well. He brilliantly understood the meaning of propaganda and its real influence on masses and he devised the methods to use it to all extent. We can read from his point of view how he was sailing in the dangerous seas of internal and international affairs and though his style of writing and thinking are not very nice due to his immense mental brutallity, we must admit that he was very succesful at what he was doing. Pure efficiency. It is very nice to learn something about a man who wrote history not so far ago, although it could be deadly for many among us. The understanding of his thought and point of view allows us to see the WWII in somehow another perspective. It must prepare us for actions to prevent such events from happening in the future.

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The Private Thoughts of One of Hitler's Most Trusted!

In 'The Goebbles Diaries, 1942-43,' we are given a glimpse into the mind of Nazi Germany's genius of propaganda and one of Hitler's most trusted lieutenants. These diaries shed light on the Nazis view of Churchill, Stalin and all the other central figures of the era. Goebbels also tells us of the anger he and other leading Nazis felt over the defection of Italy to the allied camp, dealing with the devastating allied air raids, and the fear and anxiety over the revearses on the Eastern front. Unfortunatley, these pages don't give us as clear a view of Hitler as one would hope and passages dealing with the Holocaust are few and far between. In all, Goebbels presents himself as a champion of National Socialist ideals who is loved by Germany and respected by his enemies. What one really sees is the almost ridiculous opptimism that Goebbels held through these years of struggle. It is surprising just how firm was Goebbel's conviction that victory was certain. Those interested in the Third Reich should read Goebbel's diaries as it is a rare look into this troubled time written by one of it's greatest criminals.

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Holocaust Uniqueness (Not); Slav Genocide; Polish Guerilla Successes; Nazi anti-Christianity (1942-1943)

In recent years, some (e. g., Yehuda Bauer, Steven T. Katz) have contended that the Jews were the only people in history to be targeted for COMPLETE extermination. Limiting oneself to the contents of this volume, consider this (December 14, 1942): "The Jewish race has prepared this war; it is the spiritual originator of the whole misfortune that has overtaken humanity. Jewry must pay for its crime just as our Fuehrer prophesied in his speech in the Reichstag: namely, by the wiping out of the Jewish race in Europe and possibly in the entire world." (pp. 243-244). The fact that the extermination of Jews would not necessarily have continued beyond Europe itself refutes the uniqueness of the Holocaust.

As late as March 7, 1942, Goebbels had still been entertaining a Final Solution that would send all European Jews to Madagascar (p. 116). In other entries, he was completely candid about the physical extermination of Jews (e. g., p. 86, 92; 243-244). However, Jews were not the only scapegoats; nor were they the only ones blamed for starting WWII. On April 17, 1943, Goebbels wrote: "... [Poles]...were the real instigators of this war...." (p. 332). After Mussolini's fall, Goebbels commented: "The plot hatched against us in Rome was backed by the monarchy, aristocracy, society, higher officers, Free Masons [Freemasons], Jews, industrialists, and clerics." (p. 445). Nor were Jews necessarily the only ones supposed to be overly powerful. On April 30, 1942, Goebbels entertained fantasies of Poles being behind the panic of the Germans of Rostock following the devastating RAF attack (p. 197).

There are veiled references to the planned extermination of Poles and other Slavs. Hitler is quoted as forbidding all sexual activity between German soldiers and Polish women (p. 95). On February 15, 1942, Goebbels commented: "...Slavs, he [Heydrich] emphasized, cannot be educated as one educates a Germanic people. One must either break them or humble them constantly." (p. 88). The first step in genocide is the denial of the humanity of those targeted. The well-known de-humanization of Jews extended to Slavs, as on January 27, 1942:"The incidents that Sepp Dietrich related to me about the Russian people in the occupied areas are simply hair-raising. They are not a people but a conglomeration of animals." (p. 52). Likewise, on March 20, 1942, Goebbels wrote: "But we, too, must realize that we shall have to fill with human beings such wide spaces in the East as we shall conquer. In geography, there can be no spaces without human beings..." (p. 139). The implication is obvious: Slavs are not human beings!

Goebbels repeatedly (p. 388, 396, 399, 456) mentions the growing successes of Polish guerilla actions (e. g., May 27, 1943: "Conditions in the General Government appear to be more than catastrophic. Every day there are attempts at assassination and acts of terror, without our authorities being able to do anything about it. The German population and our administrative officialdom seem to yield, not to say capitulate, to these conditions.")(pp. 399-400). Goebbels even probably alludes to the successful Polish Underground action in the Zamosc area (May 25, 1943): "Suddenly, however, he [Zoerner] received order for resettlement that had a very bad effect on morale. Some 50,000 Poles were to be evacuated to begin with. Our police were able to grab only 25,000; the other 25,000 joined the Partisans. It is not hard to imagine what consequences that had for the whole area. Now he was to evacuate about 190,000 more Poles. This he refused to do, and in my opinion he was right." (p. 396).

Goebbels repeatedly discusses the Katyn massacre (p. 318, 328, 336, 346, 354, 487); triumphantly claiming personal responsibility for the ensuing Soviet-Polish split (p. 346). Didn't Goebbels realize that, had Katyn never come to light, Stalin would've broken with the Polish government-in-exile on some other pretext? However, Goebbels does smell the developing sellout of Poland: (e. g., April 29, 1943: "The Poles are given a brush-off by the English and the Americans as though they were enemies.)" (p. 347). According to Lochner, the translator, Stalin had, already on February 23, 1942, claimed that the Soviets alone were doing all of the fighting (pp. 257-258). This became a mainstay of Communist propaganda and, more durably, an excuse for the west's sellout of Poland. However, the west's inability to restrain Stalin is refuted by the fact that, by this date, the US had already shipped 2,900,000 tons of material to the USSR (p. 258). As for threats of a separate peace, it went both ways. Ironically, Hitler himself had preferred a German-English separate peace over a German-Soviet one (p. 435).

Allied carpet bombing has often been second-guessed on moral and tactical grounds. In fact, the impracticality of selective targeting had been discovered early in the war. Hitler realized this (p. 190), and Goebbels added that the dislocations caused by area bombing reduce wartime productivity much more than the destruction of a munitions plant (p. 462).

The translator Lochner (p. ix), based on some of Goebbels's entries (p. 138, 142, 146, 375), contents that the Nazis intended to destroy Christianity after winning the war. Public crucifixes were removed (p. 141), and Hitler saw the Christian doctrine of redemption as insane (p. 375). Hitler also re-affirmed his support of vegetarianism (p. 188).

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Essential reading for understanding what went on in Germany

I have to say that this isn't a 5-star work because of the writing, the criterion I normally use when dishing out parts of galaxies. It's because I think the book should be read by anyone wanting to gain a glimmer of understanding into what became one of the most powerfully focused minds in the last century. Regardless of the pros and cons of Goebells being allowed to retain even honorary posthumous citizenship of an Earth he seemed bent on destroying, it is enlightening to read the words he set down. Obviously they were never intended to be seen by the likes of you or me, let alone those in power, who later had a chance to peruse them at their leisure. If only the good (sic) doctor had known.

Anyway, following this gentleman of uncertain disposition down the path to what must have been close to madness (he must have had to stave madness off quite madly) and what was, an untimely death (in more ways than one), is an exercise that all students of human nature will finally be glad they chose to do. After all, he was only a man, like you and me, and I think that comes through quite plainly in his own words.

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