Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 02 December 1939

Grey Goebbels

Dr. Goebbels, speaking at a “Strength Through Joy” concert, spoke of the “fresh sorrows that the war has brought” forgetting to mention who brought the war that brought the sorrows.

“Life,” he said “seems greyer every day.” And the comfort he offers, the pink lining to the cloud, is that Nazi propaganda is going to win the war. The soldiers, sailors, and airmen, apparently, will have their work done for them by the lie machine.

There is nothing like leather, and one would expect the Prince of Propaganda (or Father of Lies) to put his whole trust and confidence in the propaganda which has stupefied his own countrymen and must therefore be very potent against the light-minded foreigner.

He was presumably talking to music lovers. Whoever truly loves music, the universal language, must be international in outlook, however he may treasure and revere the artistic product of his race, and the German music-lover has in that respect a rich heritage which he is still proud to share with mankind. The German who has music in his soul must despise in his heart this weird goblin’s crazy nationalism, and loathe his noise.

Between this raucous racketeer and the deep enduring joy of music, there is a great gulf fixed. If life is greyer (thanks to Goebbels’ master, the grim house-painter), there is the more need for what remains in Germany that is sensitive to music, art, and beauty, to lay up its treasure where even Goebbels cannot corrupt, nor Hitler break through and steal.