Berlin, October 1941: The Words of Victory

In the autumn of 1941, the Reich's propaganda machine is running at full throttle. Since 22 June, the Wehrmacht has broken through the Soviet lines and encircled hundreds of thousands of prisoners at Minsk, Smolensk, then Kiev. Operation Typhoon, launched on 30 September, is now targeting Moscow. The Soviet capital has not fallen, however, and the outcome of the autumn campaign remains suspended on several unknowns.

On 9 October, in Berlin, the Propaganda Ministry headed by Joseph Goebbels must settle on the line it will transmit to the entire controlled press of the Reich, at a moment when foreign correspondents are awaiting an update on the situation in the East. The tone chosen will engage the regime's credibility before the German people as much as before world opinion, at a time when every communiqué weighs on domestic morale and the external perception of the war.

Goebbels gauges the power of words as much as the cost of a disappointed expectation. The autumn rains, the rasputitsa, turn the tracks into a quagmire and slow the armored columns; the scale of the Soviet reserves remains an enigma; winter is approaching without the troops' equipment being assured. But the successes accumulated since June feed an expectation of a swift conclusion. The minister must fix, within a few hours, the official language of the Reich.