SOURCE: "Introduction," The Early Goebbels Diaries: The Journal of Joseph Goebbels from 1925-1926, edited by Helmut Heiber, translated by Oliver Watson, Weid enfeld and Nicolson, 1962, pp. 15-26.

In the following essay, Heiber focuses on Goebbels's diaries for the years 1925 and 1926.

Throughout his life—it is said, from the time he was twelve—Joseph Goebbels kept a diary. Later, when in power, he probably even kept two diaries—his private notes and also voluminous daily records, dictated to a stenographer and containing descriptions of events and comments; these, for all their candour, were clearly addressed to posterity that would judge his actions. Shortcomings in general and colleagues in particular he criticized acidly; he found little wrong with matters of principle and nothing wrong with Hitler, let alone with himself. These moderate disclosures were intended as raw material for a history of the Third Reich, the writing of which was...