Joseph GoebbelsRezensionen

Joseph Goebbels's diaries, only now surfacing some thirty-two years after his violent death, are the most spectacular and probably the last great literary legacy of the Third Reich. Final Entries is a deeply personal account by the man second in power only to the Führer himself. It covers Nazi Germany's stupendous last days, from February through April 1945, as the American and Russian armies close in on Berlin. This is the greatest doomsday story of the twentieth century, the climactic days when the political structure of the world was being transformed

It's hard to give a "rating" to a book by an evil person, and about evil. It's in a piece with The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire
by Andrew O'Shaughnessy, about the much less evil, and eventual American allies, the British. But Goebbels is unapologetic to the end. He talks about Britain, the U.S. and the USSR are destroying everything worthwhile in Germany and for that matter the world. He takes no responsibility for Germany's stirring the pot in such a manner as to make destroying Germany as he and Hitler made it a necessity.

He describes an inverted world where evil is greatness, and good is evil. He demonizes those that tried to surrender so as to gain peace

HBB-2

I give this a high rating not so much for the author -- who hardly needs any introduction -- but for the fact that this diary gives one an awful insight into just how delusional the leadership of the Third Reich was in its final weeks. It's also a rare chance to watch the collapse of a regime from the inside, from the point of view of a high insider. For these reasons, I recommend it.

Awful and fascinating. By the time these entries start, the war is lost. Massively destructive bombing raids on German cities are a nightly event, the Battle of the Bulge has failed, they're steadily losing territory in every direction, and Goebbels is engaged in denial, scapegoating, projection, and wishful thinking to an extraordinary degree. It's like a bad car crash you can't stop from looking at, but it's mildly nauseating.

Fascinating document, and one well worth having for World War II buffs. Goebbels, of course, was the Propaganda Minister and Berlin Gauleiter during the Nazi regime, and thus, his inner thoughts, not for publication (but with, perhaps, an eye for history) are of great interest. This edition does not represent the entire set of diaries; those were only available after 1992, when Russian sources disclosed them. Instead, these cover the key years of 1942-1943, which would include Stalingrad.

Unintentionally hilarious--pompous, self-important, garbled, antisemitic, and stupid.

Un documento prezioso che arricchisce dall'interno le conoscenze sul nazismo: il diario tenuto dal febbraio all'ottobre del 1938 da Joseph Goebbels, ministro per la Propaganda del Terzo Reich. Dal testo emergono molti particolari finora ignoti sui cruciali avvenimenti di quell'anno: dalla conferenza di Monaco all'Anschluss dell'Austria, dalla crisi cecoslovacca alla visita ufficiale di Hitler in Italia(con vivaci osservazioni personali su Mussolini e sulla corte di Vittorio Emanuele III). Non mancano, poi, drammatici riferimenti alle misure che si andavano prendendo contro la comunità ebraica. Una testimonianza unica su un momento chiave della storia di questo secolo.

It's too long and very repetitive, but then again it's a guy's diary so you kind of know what you're getting into from the outset. Overall it's a fascinating perspective on a very familiar history; WWII as seen by the Nazi's most brilliant tactician.

There are several interesting aspects to this collection of Goebbels' entries. Most impressive is the fact that for essentially the entire book (1942 onward), the Nazis are losing quite resoundingly yet maintaining an absurd degree of optimism and faith in their victorious destiny. (So much for Hegel's historicism I suppose.) Out-bombed by the UK, outmanned by the USSR, and later abandoned by Italy, their inability (esp. Goebbels and Hitler's) to see the writing on the wall is truly incredible. Literally throughout the entire book Goebbels is bemoaning how their cities are getting destroyed through British air raids without any real capacity for reprisal. Toward the last few months cities like Hamburg, Frankfurt and Berlin are being bombed almost daily, and Goebbels is eagerly anticipating the moment when they can finally retaliate, four months in the future!

Another revelation for me was seeing the animosity between the USSR and the UK/US. Granted, everything is tainted with Goebbels' cynicism, but there was certainly a degree of truth to the disagreements between the Soviets and the Capitalists. I had also never realized how much more of a burden the Soviets had born on the Eastern Front. And it makes you wonder what might have happened had Goebbels succeeded in pitting both sides against each other to eventually make a truce with one side over the other (e.g. Allying with UK to ensure that the Soviets are kept out of Europe). Ultimately I think he underestimated how monstrous the Nazi acts appeared to the world at large, probably overestimating the international community's antipathy toward the Jews.

Reading this makes me very curious to read the final entries in his diaries. At what point did he lose hope?

I started this book so long ago the pages have turned yellow, but it's so depressing I couldn't finish it. Finally finished reading this book (4-2014). Absolutely amazing how an intelligent person can become completely delusional.

Being the third translation into English commercial publlishing of National Socialism's great propagandist's inner thoughts as recorded in his diary. If there is any controversy as to the authenticity of the diary, I am unaware of it, so I took this at face value. This is of course a first-magnitude historical source, and it is reasonably interesting reading as well. That these entries cover the war's dramatic endgame makes them all the more compelling. Yet I felt that the previously published excertpts were better-edited; for example, they did not include the daily Wehrmacht military briefing, which Goebbels did not write and rarely sheds much light on the entries. This editor did include several maps, but they're nearly illegible. As for the quality of Goebbels' reflections, to some extent they reflect the psychological and political insight one might expect from a celebrated propagandist, but in the final analysis he was pinning a lot of wishful thinking on factors such as Allied disagreements and domestic political problems which, though they did exist, were not about to scuttle the final military push.½

Being an intriguing source for the German leadership during WWII and a remarkable insight into one of its most intriguing members. Editor Lochner introduces the characters in the diary, be they famous or obscure, very clearly.i

When thinking about evil men, we assume they are consumed by evil thoughts. Goebbels was evil, but his diary shows him to be rather pedestrian. Petty and small, he does not display evil on every page. In a way, that makes him even more chilling.

Goebbels, Joseph, 1897-1945 Diaries.

Holocaust