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On The Epic of October 28, 1940On The Epic of October 28, 1940 THE GREEK AMERICAN Periodical of April 14, 2000, published a summary of Joseph Goebbels diaries that relate to Greece in WWII, beginning after the Italian defeat in Albania by the Greeks. It is instructive to read the commentary of the Nazi Minister of Propaganda after 68 years have passed, since the 28th of October of 1940 that we observe this month, when Hellas wrote a new epic for the Hellenic spirit and its history. The Minister has many favorable comments from Hitler and himself about Greece and the Greek people, but unfortunately the subsequent behavior of the Nazi occupiers of Hellas proved these comments to be very empty and deceiving ! Please read the excerpts from Goebbels Diaries below as published by The Greek American. Goebbels comment referring to Nazi invasion of Russia, “The campaign in Greece cost us dear in delays and this is why it is taking somewhat longer than anticipated…” summarizes the Hellenic contribution to the Allied Cause, which sadly has been ignored by our allies! ( We need a creative way to highlight our historic contributions: Hellas gave the allies their first victory against the invincible Axis Powers and made the difference in changing the direction of the Great War!). Peter N. Yiannos, PhD. “BY MINAS SAVVAS Joseph Goebbets, Hitler's Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, served the Fuhrer from the time of "the Seizure of Power" in 1933 until his suicide in the Reich Chancellery bunker late in April 1945. An indefatigable diarist and energetic media hound, Goebbels was made Nazi Gauleiter of Berlin in 1926, was elected deputy to the Reichstag in 1928 and immersed himself into praising the cause and values of the Nazis with radio broadcasts, newspaper articles and fiery public speeches. Concurrent with all these propaganda activities, Goebbels was tireless in adding fairly long daily reports in his diaries. Having kept his stenographer continuously occupied for years, he made sure before his suicide to safeguard the thousands of pages of diaries for posterity. They were copied in miniature photographic plates and buried in a forest near Berlin where they were finally recovered (though not completely) by the Red Army. As one would expect from diaries, Goebbels is as truthful as he knows how to be in his entries. Here we can discern the inner workings of the manipulator of the news, the deceiver and distorter - close up and personal. Occasionally he even intimates - like Shakespeare's Iago - the nature of his tricks and schemes as Propaganda Minister. The prejudices, distortions and subjectivity are chilling and thought provoking. Of the 2,000 or so pages that constitute the complete diaries of Joseph Goebbells, no more than about 18 to 25 pages are devoted to the Reich's interest in Greece- and to the invasion of the country in April 1941. The comments he makes, however, are revealing, interesting and worthy of citation (Goebbels Diaries, 1939-1941, translated by Fred Taylor, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1983. The excerpts below begin after the humiliating defeat of Mussolini, a defeat that disturbed Goebbels, it being the first real setback of the Axis alliance. 19 December 1940 (Friday): England is wilting under the force of the German blockade. Her shipping losses are absolutely irreplaceable ... Feeling in Greece.- exaggeratedly pro-German. But this is purely tactical . 20 December 1940.- Things have consolidated in Albania. We are flying l,000 Italians over there every day in our transport aircraft. And from 1 January our offensive will start to move. Then the Greeks will start to feel the pinch. 22 December 1940.- Italy has made a bad start wherever she has fought: first Abyssinia, then France .. Matchless amateurism. The Fuhrer has some harsh words to say on the subject. After Greece, the Italians have brought the entire military prestige of the Axis crashing down in ruins. This is why the other Balkan states are being so obstinate. The Italians are after all a Romance race. Now we shall have to attack. Not to help them but to chase out the English who have now established themselves in Crete. They must be thrown out of there. The Fuhrer would prefer to see peace between Rome and Athens. But he can hardly tell them so. Mussolini is now completely stuck fast in this imbroglio. He has serious domestic difficulties to contend with: the priests are stirring up trouble, as are the Jews and the nobility. If only he had occupied Crete at the outset, as the Fuhrer advised him to do... Goebbels makes no comment of any praise for the Greeks in these December entries. He prefers to blame the defeat of the Italians to their own ineptitude rather on the courage of the outnumbered, ill-equipped Greeks. In late entries, after discussions with the Fuhrer perhaps or after further assessment, he gives more credit where it is due. 17 February 1941: In Bulgaria, an ultra-reactionary clique is at the helm, people of whom we can expect nothing. And in Greece there is actually no feeling against us at all. The Italians alone are the objects of general hatred. The Italian prisoners of war who have been brought back to Greece are totally in rags and demoralized. This is the result of inadequate fascist education. 1 April 1941: Troop movements against Greece and Yugoslavia more or less complete. The enemy suspects something but knows nothing for certain. Italians lose their heavy cruisers in the aftermath of the sea battle in Crete. A very painful loss. The English are overjoyed. Bad road conditions and communications will cause problems in Yugoslavia and particularly in Greece .. The Greeks desire for a fight with us just about zero. Early on the morning of April 6, Field Marshall Lists' 12th Army launches its assault in northern Greece. Goebbels is certain of the German victory, but he appears concerned about the length of time that the German divisions will be needed in Greece, since they can be used in the assault against Stalin's Soviet Union. 7 April 1941: Greece declares that she intends to resist. We shall see how long that lasts. Hungary and, Bulgaria are marching with us. The entire plan of campaign is based on their participation. Only as far as Salonica at first in Greece. Report from Turkey: trembling at the knees. All she wants is to stay out of things. 8 April 1941: Belgrade bombed twice, with devastating effect. The radio station is silent. Not a word from the city. Eerie. We are advancing slowly in Yugoslavia, as in Greece. The mountainous terrain is well-suited to defense. And the Serbs, like the Greeks, are brave fighters. Worthy of the greatest respect. The Greeks especially are exploiting the ideal defensive terrain well. The captured dugouts are filled with nothing but corpses ... London is publicly admitting her long prepared infiltration of Greece. A very good start- ing point for our propaganda. ... The Fuhrer admires the courage of the Greeks in particular. Perhaps there is a streak of the old Hellenic strain in them ... Piraeus has been mined. The Fuhrer forbids the bombing of Athens. This is right and noble of him. Rome and Athens are his Meccas. He greatly regrets having to fight the Greeks. If the English had not established themselves there, he would never have gone to the Italians' aid. It was their affair, and they should have been able to settle it alone. The Fuhrer is a man totally attuned to antiquity. He hates Christianity, because it has crippled all that is noble in humanity. According to Schopenhauer, Christianity and syphilis have made humanity unhappy and unfree. What a difference between the benevolent smiling Zeus and the pain-wracked crucified Christ. By this time, the onslaught of the Wehmacht had captured Thessaloniki and continued bombing Patras until the city was devastated. EAM and other underground resistance groups begin to organize in resistance to the German occupation, both in the cities and the countryside. The Nazi reprisals are taking a heavy toll on innocent Greeks. Goebbels, at least in his diaries, seems to either take such events for granted or is simply oblivious to them. He praises the Greek soldiers but, it seems at least partly, so as to further extol the German soldiers who could defeat such "brave and stubborn" fighters. 10 April 1941: Salonica is in our hands. The Greek Army of Macedonia surrenders after brave and stubborn resistance. Breakthrough on the Metaxas line completely successful An unimaginable success. What a magnificent army we have! 15 April 1941: Report from Fuhrer Headquarters. the English are already embarking to leave Greece. A pity, because we would like to give them a dose of our medicine. Our Stukas sink 30,000 tons and damage another 80,000 in Piraeus harbor. We intend to make the Tommies farewell as painful as possible. As the entries about Greece testify, the reports reaching Goebbels' desk are (understandably) often exaggerated and shaped so as to satisfy both the Gauleiter as well as the German public. The diaries, moreover, hint at Goebbels' own prejudices and distortions aimed to sustain morale. The euphemisms abound in an effort to sanitize atrocities. Burning a town after killing all the males is here described as "mopping up operations." Meanwhile, Greece's and Yugoslavia's defenses are by now eroding before the Nazi juggernaut, and Goebbels' admiration for the defeated warriors is only matched by his contempt for Churchill and the English. 16 April 1941 (Wednesday): The Serbs are making a last stand at Sarajevo. But they are being badly harried by us and are putting up little resistance. Likewise the Greeks: our troops are already on Mount Olympus. ...Guidelines for propaganda.- hit hard against England for her attempted escape from Greece. We are seeking to discredit her in the, most comprehensive fashion. And succeeding. The Turkish press, for instance, has turned very cool toward England. And the proximity of German troops probably also has something to do with this ... We hit home relentlessly .. [and] it has been reported from Athens that England has ordered the Greek fleet to provide cover for the Tommies' with- drawal. This is really the height of cynicism. A regime cannot sink any lower .. England is completely discredited. Though unequivocal, the continents against the departure of the English prove erroneous, since on the next day's entry Goebbels reports that the English are fighting next to their Greek allies, and fighting hard. 17 April 1941: The English are showing their mettle now. They are fighting alongside the Greeks. Our headlines probably had something to do with it. The resistance is very stubborn, with the result that our progress in Greece has been slow ... We have, of course, reached our aim in keeping them in Greece. Our losses are not as serious as we had feared at first. Four hundred killed at the Rupel Pass. A battle is raging on Mount Olympus between our men and the allied Greek and English forces.. 18 April 1941: In Yugoslavia ... we are now mopping up. In Greece, on the other hand, extremely stiff resistance ... We shall soon see..." It was on April 18, in fact, that Goebbels arranged for a secret German transmitter (called "Fatherland") to broadcast messages of intimidation and distortion to all the Greeks that could hear them. "Athenians," screamed one such message, "don't drink the water. Death awaits you. The reservoir at Marathon was contaminated by your friends the British." Another advised the people to loot the food stores and to defy their ". With the Fuhrer's victory almost complete, Goebbels now becomes interested in Anglophile lackeys the internal politics of Greece. 20 April (Sunday): Serbia finished. Only mopping up now. The advance in Greece is gathering momentum. Our flag flies on Olympus. Larissa in our possession. The Greek Prime Minister Kozyris has died suddenly - whether he died naturally or did away with himself is unclear - and his successor is our friend Kotzias. The King intends to take the government of the country into his own hands. This could mean a compromise course. But no precise details are yet known. In any case Kotzias is on our side, as I have gauged often enough. We shall wait and see. Greece, it seems, is slowly beginning to waver. English embarkations at Piraeus have now been confirmed. The British are clearing off. We play up Kozyris' death as assassination by the British. It is probably true, anyway. ...The U.S.A. is now heaping blame on Churchill because of Greece ... Meanwhile he fantasizes on; he has already raised the number of our fatal casualties in Greece to 60,000. Our casualty figures are, in fact, astonishingly low, thank God. Churchill has to have something to toss to the angry mob. The techniques that he is using are long established in English history. 21 April 1941: The breakthrough in Greece is now complete. The enemy is pouring back in disorder. We are snapping at his heels. Our Stukas are doing magnificent work .... Greece's situation is hopeless. Kotzias has resigned his position. Probably got cold feet. It is better this way. He should keep himself ready for the final collapse. We should put him to good use then. I forbid the press to attack him... 22 April 1941: We are driving beyond Thermopylae ... The Greek King has appealed to the people to fight on. A lackey of the English. I had him savaged in the foreign language service. We are putting out a very subtle form of anti- British propaganda. [British propaganda] is burbling about mountains of German corpses in Greece. This is the excuse for retreat. A gang! A lying gang! 24 April 1941: The Luftwaffe sink, 40,000 tons of enemy shipping, mainly in Greek waters... We are really twisting the knife regarding the casualty figures. . Everyone is waiting for the general surrender of the Greeks. 26 April 1941: Still very heavy fighting in Greece. Our Panzers wrought miracles. By this time, General Tsolakoglou had capitulated to the Germans and had signed the final surrender document, while agreeing to serve "the Fuhrer of the German people" in Greece, even before the imminent capture of Athens. An inept, contemptible puppet, Tsolakoglou was to be executed in 1945, after the liberation of Greece. Goebbels mentions him only once, and that in passing. The Stukas drop leaflets telling the people that the SS have come to rescue them from their English masters. 27 April 1941: Thermopylae was not taken by direct assault, but outflanked. Heroic effort by our mountain troops. Thebes is in our hands. . .Road to Athens open... Strong indications of panic in Athens. We are advancing remorselessly. German paratroops have taken Corinth. Euboea is in our possession. From there we shall move back on to the mainland. Lemnos is also ours. 28 April 1941: Our capture of Athens is the big sensation in all the world press... Eager to praise the Reich's victories, Goebbels, never comfortable with the Italians anyway, berates them for wishing to share and get credit for the glories of the German victory in Greece. Hitler was to make a good number of concessions to Mussolini, including much involvement in the occupation of Greece. Goebbels is displeased but always obedient to his Fuhrer. 28 April 1941 (contd): The Italians are behaving in a brazen, arrogant and downright objectionable fashion. Mussolini has published a letter to General Cavaliero in which he claims the victory in Greece as his own .... Our people feel something close to hatred for the Italians. Where will it all end? We shall do all that we can to keep morale here buoyant. Now the Italians are claiming the whole of Greece for themselves. I fear a very bad reaction so far as public opinion in Germany is concerned. 30 April 1941: With the Fuhrer. Discussion of the situation. He is quite sad to have had to attack Greece in the first place. The Greeks have done nothing to deserve it. He intends to treat them as humanely as possible. The Italians are doing the opposite. By their behavior they are earning nothing but hatred, and increasing our popularity. Mussolini, for that matter, is anything but loyal to us. But we must remain silent at the moment. Breker who is also present is very sad. [Amo Beker was a leading German sculptor and a member of Hitler's own circle.] His wife is Greek. Our entry into Athens was welcomed by a section of the Greek population... We watch our entry into Athens on the news reel The Fuhrer finds it hard to enjoy it, so moved is he by Greece's fate. All the fault of our Herr Allies. Professor Breker shows us designs for sculpture that will form part of the Triumphal Arch. Indescribably beautiful, and yet monumental.. 3 May 1941 (Saturday): Fighting at an end in Greece. Crete is to be taken by parachute troops. Otherwise the issue has been settled. All through the days to come, the hunger and the disease, especially in the larger cities, will eliminate hundreds of thousands of Greeks. Patriots by the dozens are brought before the firing squads; whole towns and villages are burned to the ground; factories are con- fiscated; the whole infrastructure of Greek life is demolished. In the meantime, the trains transport thousands of Greeks and Greek-Jews to the concentration camps. Yet Goebbels, on May 4, 1941, writes this in his diary: "The war in Greece is over. Scarcely hatred towards us on the Greeks' part, but all the worse so far as the Italians are concerned." For the rest of the entries in Goebbels' diaries (and they go on for hundreds of pages until the end of 1944) there are few and scattered references to Greece. One such mention is worth noting. It is in regard to the fact that the resistance of Greece delayed the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union - a delay that eventually caused the Germans to be deterred in their world conquest by the forbidding Russian winter. In a long entry for 13 June 1941, Goebbels also includes this: The Fuhrer gives us a comprehensive explanation of the situation: the attack on Russia will begin as soon as all our troops are in position. This will be some time in the next few weeks. The campaign in Greece cost us dear in delays and this is why it is taking somewhat longer than anticipated. They have about 180-200 Divisions at their disposal, perhaps rather fewer, in any case about the same as we .. Bolshevism will collapse like a house of cards. The Propaganda Minister of the Third Reich continued to serve the Nazi cause with alacrity and dexterity until final defeat... As the Nazi military machine rumbled on in its path of destruction, Goebbels' diaries kept filling up with more distortions, more biased assessments, more sinister chauvinism and more persistent dedication. Hitler in his last will and testament was to appoint Goebbels as the new Chancellor of Germany. That was on April 29, 1945. The next day, after poisoning his six children [five girls and a boy], Joseph Goebbels and his wife, Magda, committed suicide in the garden of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. April, that "cruelest month" for Greece in 1941, was also the month of retribution four years later for Goebbels and his Fuhrer.}”
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