The Goebbels - Joseph and Magda Documentary

the woman known to history as Magda Goebbels was born on the 11th of November 1901 in the capital of the German Empire Berlin her father was Oscar ritual a prominent building contractor and engineer and magda's mother was Augusta berant magda's parents were not married when she was born and although they subsequently did marry each other the union did not last long and they divorced before Magda was four years old consequently she did not have any siblings growing up and as we will see her younger years were considerably disrupted by her parents divorce at a time when marital Separation was still relatively uncommon following her parents divorce in 1905 Magda was quickly packed off in 1906 to Cologne the city at the heart of Germany's industrial region in the Rhineland in the west of the country her father had relocated there for work and her mother seems to have been unable to support Magda and sent their only daughter to live with him there however this Arrangement too only lasted a brief time four in 1908 Augusta beard married Rickard friedlander a member of a family of wealthy Jewish Merchants who lived in Berlin and who specialized in leather goods rickard's family had extensive business connections throughout Western and Central Europe and he had lived primarily in Brussels since the late 1890s thus when he and magda's mother married in 1908 they relocated to the Belgian Capital Augusta quickly requested that mag to be sent to live with her a petition which her father ascended to additionally record friedlander soon adopted Magda and she took his name thus the woman who would later become known as the first lady of the Third Reich grew up with a Jewish surname however she was educated at the Ursuline Convent at fielford near Brussels thus ensuring that she was raised primarily as a Roman Catholic while some have suggested that later contact with her biological father in Western Germany may have led her to inculcating some Buddhist thought a peculiarity at a time when Asian religious and philosophical systems were considered a subject of exclusively academic inquiry in Europe rather than anything one might adopt elements of in their own lives magda's youth was once again interrupted in 1914 after years of growing tensions between the great powers of Europe War erupted in the late summer that year after a regional political crisis in the Balkans escalated into a pan-european war it soon reached even further afield and would become known as the first world war in Europe it pitted magda's native Germany the austro-hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire against Britain France and Russia initially though the latter would soon be joined by Italy and the United States tipping the balance against the Central Powers as the alliance led by the governments in Berlin and Vienna became known because of their German ethnicity Magda her mother and her adopted father were forced to leave Brussels following the outbreak of the war Belgium had been invaded by Germany just days after the conflict erupted as a way of striking against France without having to go through the extensive French defenses in eastern France as a result the friedlanders returned to Berlin though the marriage did not survive the chaos caused by this latest shift in their Affairs by the end of 1914 Augusta and Ricard had divorced and Magda was once again raised for a Time by a single mother back in Berlin during the war Magda became friends with Lisa arlosarov a member of a family of Ukrainian Jews who had migrated to Germany in 1905 following an anti-semitic pogrom against the Jewish community in their part of what was then the Russian Empire they eventually settled in Berlin and were ordered to stay there or face deportation as russian-born Citizens when the first world war erupted through Lisa Magda would soon meet her brother Heim a passionate socialist and Zionist who was increasingly in favor of the idea of the Jewish people returning to the Levant and establishing a new Jewish state in Palestine as the war was drawing to a conclusion in 1918 and it became clear that the Central Powers of Germany Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire would lose this desire to establish a new Jewish state in a region which had formed part of the Ottoman Empire but which would now possibly become available for this Zionist project became more plausible eventually in the course of the late 1910s and Magda entered into an intimate relationship further suggesting that magdo was not possessed of the severe anti-semitic feelings which many Europeans were in the first half of the 20th century while Magda was seemingly not anti-semitic at least not in her youth many in Germany were and the loss of the first world war in November 1918 provided a conduit for this anti-semitic feeling to expand further as the war came to an end Germany and many other countries across Europe descended into chaos in Germany's case this took the shape of a number of regional insurrections to try to establish communist or Ultra nationalist governments in cities like Berlin and Munich many of the latter were suffused with anti-semitic views parties such as the German national people's party and the German Workers Party they also wish to overturn the post-war settlement much of which had been imposed on Germany by the main Victors in the war Britain and France far from being magnanimous in Victory the governments in London and Paris had imposed crippling terms on Germany through the Treaty of Versailles which brought the war between their Nations to an end Not only was Germany stripped of large amounts of territory primarily in the East but massive wall reparations payments which would take decades to pay back were imposed and Germany was further reduced to a second power status by having major restrictions imposed on its military and being forced to accept the occupation of the industrialized Rua and Rhineland regions of Western Germany by French and Belgian troops all of this led to several years of pronounced political unrest in Germany between 1919 and 1923. much of it driven by War veterans disillusioned by events and willing to see Germany's plight being the result of a vast conspiracy perpetuated by an alliance of Jews and communists Magda was however insulated from the unrest which was striking much of Germany in the early 1920s for in 1920 she had met Gunter Quant a German industrialist Krantz was nearly twice magda's age having been born in 1881 but he was very rich the Quant family acquired a number of lucrative contracts to supply the German military with uniforms and other materiel during the war and once the conflict ended Gunter had used the capital generator during the mid-1910s to acquire stakes in a number of companies such as BMW a car manufacturer which was originally founded in 1916 to develop airplane engines for the nascent German air force he and Magda married in 1921 after a short courtship and within a few months a sun named Harold was born on the 1st of November 1921. it was though an ill-fated Union Magda in her early twenties soon drifted away from Gunter who was in his early 40s and often away from home on business moreover Grant had two biological children from his previous marriage and had also adopted three children after a deceased friend had passed as altruistic as gunter's actions might have been Magda resented having to suddenly raise six children while her husband traveled Germany and Europe Magda and Gunther's marriage continued to deteriorate in the years that followed by the mid-1920s she was handing over much of the responsibility for raising the children to their extensive household staff while she engaged in a busy social life once the political turmoil of the early 1920s subsided in Germany Berlin emerged as the cultural capital of the continent and as a smart well-educated young woman with no Financial limitations Magda was anxious to enjoy what the city had to offer she was also soon engaged in extramarital Affairs which were relatively easy to cover up while her husband was out of town the subterfuge could not last forever though given her husband's extensive business connections around Berlin thus eventually in 1928 Gunter learned of one of her relationships with a student nearer her own age he promptly initiated divorce proceedings in order to finalize the split quickly in 1929 he agreed to a large Financial settlement which effectively meant that Magda became a financially independent and newly divorced young woman at the age of 27. the divorce agreement also stipulated that Magda would raise the only biological child she had with Gunter parot until he was 14 years old in 1935. after which he would be sent to learn the family business under the tutelage of his father magda's first marriage was not the only thing which was collapsing in the late 1920s while Germany's politics had been taught us back in 1921 when she had married Gunter it had recovered substantially in the mid-1920s entering a period of new prosperity and social cohesion driven by an international economic boom one which has led economic historians to characterize the 1920s as the Roaring Twenties as Germany's wore reparations payments became manageable the economy stabilized and people returned to work the support that groups like the Fry Corps and other ultra-nationalist organizations had enjoyed in the immediate aftermath of the first world war dried up a sign of this was seen in one of the most prominent groups in southern Germany the National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazis these were founded in the city of Munich in Bavaria back in 1920 and had gained a substantial enough following in the area during the tumultuous years of the early 1920s cities however when they attempted an Insurrection to seize control of Munich in November 1923 it failed to ignite popular support and was quickly suppressed moreover when their organization was re-legalized in 1925 they could only ever obtain a minuscule vote in German national elections the days of extremist politics seemed to have left post-war Germany 1929 changed all of that right around the time that magda's divorce from clant was finalized the economic boom of the 1920s came to a crashing halt as the stock markets on Wall Street in New York City were hammered throughout the Autumn within weeks a seismic Ripple was spreading across the Americas and Europe as economies were shaken to their core the Great Depression a period of several years in the early 1930s when tens of millions of people lost their jobs their life savings and their economic prospects followed Germany which still had its massive war reparations payments to contend with was particularly badly impacted and as the economic damage spread Germans began once again turning to the extremist politicians they had once viewed as plausible contenders for power 10 years earlier incredibly when new reichstag elections were held in September 1930 the Nazis increased their share of the national vote from just over 2.5 percent in 1928 to over 18 making them the second largest political party in Germany by 1931 they were growing to unprecedented Heights and every German seemed to be considering joining the Nazis or attending a party rally to see what their leader Adolf Hitler had to say about Germany's plight Magda was an early convert to this new political party she had begun taking an interest in the Nazis in the summer of 1930 attending meetings in Berlin it was here that she first heard Joseph Goebbels the head of the propaganda wing of the party and the regional leader of the Nazis in Berlin for several years speak at an event she was evidently taken by his gifts as an orator and began volunteering at goebbel's office in the capital under an entry for the 7th of November 1930 Goebbels noted in his diary that Magda was reorganizing his papers in his office he had clearly taken a liking to her and they began casually seeing each other but this does not appear to have turned into a committed courtship until February 1931 while talks of their possible marriage had begun by the late spring that Easter they visited Hitler in Bavaria while Joseph started to try to cultivate a relationship with magda's son from her marriage to Quant Harold as their courtship developed summer magda's large apartment in Berlin even became a meeting point for some of the higher ranking members of the Nazi party with Hitler visiting there on occasion it was the beginning of her entry into the world of the party which would soon come to dominate Germany Magda and Joseph's relationship was certainly not without its problems as early as April 1931 ominous signs were developing they argued regularly from the very earliest days of knowing each other a familiar pattern emerged in this Magda would go missing for a while not returning his calls as she visited friends or was otherwise indisposed then Goebbels would become incredibly jealous and controlling all of this was compounded as he became aware of the fact that her first marriage had come to an end on the back of magda's infidelities he would find it difficult in the months that followed to overlook this and matters were not helped by the fact that Hitler himself seemed to have taken an interest in Magda after meeting her on several occasions how much of this was real and how much of it was Goebbels imagining is hard to say but the relationship continued to be strained into the Autumn of 1931 with his jealous outbursts creating tension yet these episodes were punctuated by weeks in which everything went smoothly and in September they determined to move the date of their proposed marriage closer part of the reason for this as biographers of Goebbels have noted was that a peculiar Arrangement was developing whereby Hitler was as anxious to have his propaganda Chief and Magda marry as Joseph or Magda themselves were for Hitler whose sexual relationships were always of peculiar nature the couple would act as a kind of alternative first family within the Nazi hierarchy removing the necessity of him marrying any time soon himself whatever the exact reasons for all this we do know for sure that Magda and Joseph determined to marry sooner rather than later that Autumn and move the date forward to December 1931. Magda personally asked Hitler to act as the witness at their wedding to which he agreed despite all this several blazing arguments occurred between her and Joseph in the late Autumn one brought on by Joseph's discovery that Magda had been born out of wedlock an issue which still carried a significant social stigma in the 1930s on another occasion Joseph was introduced to magda's ex-husband Gunther Quant who had also decided to join the Nazis in the early 1930s and whose business dealings would benefit enormously from becoming a member of the party in years to come Goebbels expected to dislike him but was surprised not to instead a few days later it was a few ill-thought-out words between he and Magda which triggered yet another argument one would think that the signs were clear that the marriage should not go ahead but Hitler wished for them to marry and by the early winter Magda knew that she was pregnant and so it was that on the 19th of December Magda and Joseph Goebbels were married at a Quant Family Estate which Magda had acquired the use of in her divorce settlement in Severin in Mecklenburg Hitler acted as a witness with Goebbels sister Maria acting as a bridesmaid married life would prove just as tempestuous as their courtship and engagement had been Magda and Joseph were married just as the Nazis were nearing the precipice of power in Germany the party membership had continued to grow exponentially in 1931 and into 1932 but without fresh reichstag elections its new popularity could not be translated into dominance of the political system that opportunity finally presented itself in July 1932 when new national elections were held in these the Nazis emerged as the largest party in the country garnering 37 percent of the vote and winning 230 seats in the reichstag still the Centrist parties tried to prevent their rise to power cobbling together a minority government of technocrats however this could not function effectively and as the economic situation continued to deteriorate an umpass was reached by the start of 1933. that January an agreement was struck amongst elements of the center rights of the political establishment whereby Hitler would become Chancellor of Germany and several ministerial briefs would be granted to senior Nazi political figures the idea was for a broad coalition to try to temper and control the Nazis in government but this proved farcical within weeks Hitler Goebbels and others monopolize power in the hands of the Nazis by engineering an artificial political emergency and using it as the basis for the passage of laws allowing them to rule by decree by the summer of 1933 the German Republic was effectively dead and in its place a one-party fascist State ruled by the Nazis had emerged the ascent of the Nazis to power in the first months of 1933 completely changed the Dynamics of magda's life in mid-march Joseph was appointed as Minister for public Enlightenment and propaganda he was now in charge of a vast array of aspects of German life at its heart the ministry's goal was to indoctrinate the German people into the ideology of Nazism with its goals of reaching back to a mythical time when the German people had been pure and immensely powerful in order to do this Goebbels and his officials were determined to highlight that Nazism success was confronted by many enemies particularly the Jewish people and the Communists who were in League with each other to try to destroy Germany through the ministry of public Enlightenment and propaganda Goebbels would deploy everything from Radio broadcasts and films in the cinema to posters and newspaper slogans in the years ahead to try to mold the German people into nazism's image uniting the nation for a coming war of Revenge for what had happened in the first world war this position made Goebbels one of the most powerful figures in Germany overnight and Magda became an influential figure herself within Berlin society as a consequence while her husband was running the propaganda wing of the Nazi State Magda became something of a poster woman for Nazi ideology towards women this was backward looking it argued that the place of German women was in the home raising the Aryan soldiers for the wars to come to ensure German domination of Europe thus for instance German women were precluded from working in certain sectors of society such as higher education from the mid-1930s onwards and this was gradually expanded in the years that followed to include senior roles within the medical field nursing excluded and within politics admittedly though it should be noted that this was hardly unique in Western Society at the time and many supposedly developed countries still did not even allow women to vote in the 1930s however there is no doubting that the Nazis had a regressive attitude towards women's rights instead of working the idealized Nazi German woman should focus her energies on being a wife and mother and facilitating her children's education and her husband's career Magda was prominent in promoting this ideal shortly after the Nazis seized power she stated quote German women were excluded from three professions the Army as elsewhere in the world the government and the Judiciary if a German girl must choose between marriage or a career she will always be encouraged to marry because that is what is best for a woman thus Mrs Goebbels became a figurehead of Nazi ideological attitudes towards women from early on in the regime's time in power she was also considerably involved in the National Socialist women's league this was established in October 1931 in response to claims that the Nazis did not appeal enough to female voters however once the party seized power it evolved into an instrument to promote Nazi ideological ideas concerning women's role in society it fostered the Nazi ideological view of women and organized lectures and events to promote these Magda appeared at many events of the league as the figurehead of the Nazi female leadership the league also published a magazine the National Socialist women's monitor which bizarrely interspersed articles offering advice to German women on housekeeping and motherhood with pieces designed to promote the idea of Germany acquiring new lands in Eastern Europe and the development of a greater Germany Magda Goebbels featured in several issues over the years overall the reach of the league was extensive with over 2 million German women being members by the late 1930s and with the National Socialist women's monitor having a circulation of 1.9 million copies by that time all of this amounted to Magda becoming a kind of pseudo first lady of the Third Reich during the 1930s many of the senior members of the Nazi regime were either not married or had home lives which did not lend themselves well to being under the public gaze Hitler himself Was A Bachelor from the time that he became chancellor of Germany he was involved in an increasingly committed relationship with a photographer named Ava Braun but the relationship was strained in its own way Braun was over 20 years younger than the Nazi leader and she had attempted suicide at least once early on in their courtship as such Hitler determined not to marry her and during the 1930s and they did not have children in the face of this Magda was often conceived of by German Society at the time as a kind of surrogate first lady and indeed by the late 1930s she was the recipient of a steady stream of correspondence from women all over Germany petitioning her on a range of matters in much the same way in which a first lady would often be within other countries this impression of Magda was also partly driven by the prominence which she had as a mother within the regime the Goebbels ended up having six children in the first nine years of their marriage Magda had already been pregnant when she and Joseph were wet and in 1932 she gave birth to their first child a daughter named Helga five more children followed one son and four more daughters these were Hildegard in 1934 Helmut in 1935 haldina in 1937 Hedwig in 1938 and finally heitlen in 1940. each child's name started with an h and it has been speculated probably with complete accuracy that Magda and Joseph elected to adopt this convention in an act of sycophancy towards Hitler whose name started with h as they grew up the goebbel's children became surrogate first children within the Third Reich in much the same way that Magda had become a pseudo first lady in the absence of of Hitler being married already by 1937 Helga and Hildegard the two eldest of their children were being photographed at Nazi party events and this tendency only increased over the years often it had a deeply Sinister Edge for instance in 1939 Joseph Goebbels filmed his children in a playful Family scene which was subsequently used in a Nazi propaganda video to promote the idea that handicapped or disabled children should be euthanized later when the Nazis enveloped European War the goebbel's children reused dozens of times per year in films and photo opportunities to show how normal life was continuing in Germany despite the conflict in France and Eastern Europe throughout these years as they were rising to become the face of Nazi Family Values Joseph and Magda were also benefiting financially from his rise to power on top of his ministerial salary and other prerequisites Goebbels received an extensive allowance from the Nazi party which Hitler had personally sanctioned this allowed them to finance the purchase of a large mansion in the exclusive suburb of vanzai outside Berlin by 1936 a motorboat a Mercedes sports car and a limousine had been added to the mix then Joseph sold the future contract rights to publish his extensive Diaries to the Nazi party's Publishing House air for luck the contract stipulated these would be published 20 years after his death in return for which Goebbels received a one-off payment of 250 000 Reich marks and one hundred thousand marks every year thereafter with all of this newfound wealth Magda was able to begin ostentatious decorating The Villa in Van Ze and the house became the scene of many lavish parties held for the Nazi top brass in the capital from the mid-1930s onwards a summer home on the riverine island of schwannenwerda not far from Berlin was also acquired while in addition Joseph acquired a smaller house in the capital in time other homes were acquired elsewhere across Germany the family needed for nothing when it came to their children and enjoyed the robust trappings of wealth which Joseph's position afforded them following the Nazis seizure of power get all was not marital bliss the primary reason why Joseph obtained a second house in Berlin was to use it for his very many extramarital Affairs a large number of which were with the actresses who were employed in his propaganda films one in particular became a cause of Scandal in 1937 Joseph began seeing leader barova a Czech actress who had moved to Berlin a few years earlier by this time the fights which had punctuated the Goebbels relationship at regular intervals from before they were ever even married had begun to weigh on both parties and often when he was home from his admittedly extensive work commitments he and Magda would sit in silence rather than risk the possibility of a new argument Magda Was Not Innocent herself in any of this and she had also had an affair with a zealous Nazi Kurt ludica in 1933 before he fled Germany shortly afterwards having come under suspicion by the party for his links to the leadership of the SA the paramilitary wing of the Nazis whose top Figures were purged in 1934. these Affairs were problematic but when Joseph started seeing barova he went so far as to be seen in public with her for one of the country's senior ministers it wasn't long before word of this got around and Magda became aware of what was happening when she did she turned to Hitler for help and on the 15th of August 1938 met with him to discuss the situation at length the following day the fuhrer had a meeting with Joseph whereas he demanded that he end the affair but in a rare Act of defiance Goebbels didn't do so despite agreeing to things only became more strained thereafter when Kurt hanker one of goebel's senior staff members became caught up in the quarrel between his Superior and his wife Magda and he ended up having a brief affair themselves by the late Autumn Hitler had decided to make a dramatic intervention he effectively put Hunker on leave and sent him away from Berlin while he had the secret police including the Gestapo start following barova constantly around the capital by the end of the early winter she was so disturbed by this that she stopped making public appearances and fled back to Prague a few weeks later to smooth over public opinion a family photo of the Goebbels and their children with Hitler standing between Magda and Joseph was taken in October 1938 and widely distributed the idea was clear the perfect first family was healed once again but the reality was Far different from the winter of 1938 onwards Magda and Joseph were increasingly distant from one another he was often away from Berlin for work and when he was there she often retreated to various houses which they had acquired elsewhere in Germany or to rural Spas to recuperate from a number of serious health problems which were plaguing her not least owing to the stress of six pregnancies in less than 10 years thus while the scandal of Joseph's relationship with bharovar had abated magda's marriage to Joseph could never be said to have been a happy one thereafter not that it ever had been although the Public Image said otherwise while Magda and Joseph's relationship was declining to new lows Nazi Germany was beginning an inexorable drift towards War a war of Revenge to reverse the outcome of the first world war was always a central aim of the Nazis from the very Inception of their movement in the early 1920s once They seized power in 1933 they began preparing for this eventuality firstly the country began to re-militarize extensively from early 1935 onwards when Hitler and other senior figures within the German armed forces the vermacht made it clear that they intended to begin conscripting in the region of half a million soldiers this was a clear and egregious breach of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which had brought the first world war to an end and which stipulated that Germany henceforth was to restrict its Armed Forces to one hundred thousand men additionally hellmann Gering announced the creation of a new Air Force known as the luftwaffe which was also a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles finally in the spring of 1936 the German Armed Forces moved into the Rhineland which had been demilitarized since the mid-1920s when French and Belgian occupying forces had left the region by this time Hitler and his closest allies such as Goebbels were beginning to consider that they might bring forward the proposed start date of a new European war from the early 1940s to sometime in the late 1930s the spring of 1938 witnessed a rapid escalation of the aggressive Nazi foreign policy part of Nazi ideology centered on the creation of a greater Germany one which would necessarily include the german-speaking and ethnically German peoples of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia and Poland indeed as soon as the Nazis had seized power in Berlin in 1933 they had begun actively seeking to overthrow the far-right Austrian nationalist regime in Austria eventually this culminated in a campaign of massive public pressure on Austria in the spring of 1938 aimed at forcing the government in Vienna into accepting a union with Germany Magda would have been preoccupied by this as Joseph's work in late 1937 and into 1938 focused increasingly on leading the propaganda drive to accept the Angelus or Union of the two countries one which was finally completed in March 1938 when German tanks rolled into Vienna and succeeded in bloodlessly forcing through a referendum on the matter in the months that followed propaganda efforts switched to the sudetened land region of Czechoslovakia a region in the west of the country where the majority of people were German speaking when an International Conference was convened in Munich that September to decide on the fate of the Sudan land Joseph and Magda remained in Berlin but Joseph's wave of propaganda videos released from the capital as Hitler was overseeing the conference did much to Galvanize public opinion in support of the annexation of sudetenland a few days later the British and French capitulated as Germany continued to expand to dominate Central Europe without ever firing a shot in the weeks that followed the Munich conference and the annexation of the Sudan land Magda was privy to Joseph writing a new book rapidly the proposed title was Adolf Hitler a man who is making history and the propaganda Minister intended for it to be published in 1939 but it was blocked presumably by Hitler himself who did not wish for it to appear while Magda would have been surprised to see her husband's efforts in this respect frustrated there was no doubt that Hitler was to go on to make history in all the wrong ways in 1939 unsatisfied with the Sudan land the Nazis effectively invaded Czechoslovakia in the spring of that year and carved it up into different occupied territories which effectively became part of the growing Third Reich by now Britain and France who had insisted at Munich that there could be no further land concessions to Germany were beginning to re-arm in preparation for a war with the Nazis which was now inevitable they did not launch it following the annexation of Czechoslovakia but when the familiar claims on a neighbor's territories emerged in the weeks that followed concerning Poland both London and Paris made it clear that any breach of the Eastern European nation's sovereignty would also effectively be a declaration of war by Berlin on the Western European nations thus when Hitler ordered the German military over the eastern border into Poland on the 1st of September 1939. Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany two days later the second world war had commenced Magda and Joseph continue to benefit from their close relationship with Hitler in the early stages of the war Joseph's propaganda was especially necessary on the home front in 1939 and 1940. as the Nazi regime sought to Galvanize the German people in support of the war effort and depict Germany's enemies as constituting an existential threat and in some strange way the aggressor in the conflict Magda was happy to make public appearances in line with the continuing perception of her as the leading female figure within the regime her and Joseph's marriage remained icy throughout this period following Hitler's intervention during the crisis of 1938 the marriage developed largely into one of convenience by 1940 they had six children together both benefited enormously from a material standpoint from being in the fuhrer's good graces and once they accepted that Hitler would not tolerate any further public infidelities or any possibility of them divorcing each other the pair accepted the kind of muted marriage Arrangement indeed in Joseph's Diaries there is a marked decline in the references to arguments and fights between himself and Magda from the late 1930s onwards thus once both accepted the situation a curious calm seems to have settled over the relationship one which had never been there previously even during their courtship while magda's marriage to Joseph continued to oscillate between periods of stability and major tension Germany's Fortunes in the war which it had cast Europe into in the Autumn of 1939 could not have been more positive Poland had been quickly overrun and conquered in the course of September and early October 1939. thereafter the Nazis had prepared for a swift conquest of Western Europe in 1940 but even Hitler was surprised at the speed with which his tank divisions and land troops were able to conquer the low countries and France in May and June of 1940. Denmark and Norway had already been swiftly occupied through targeted military operations in the spring so that by the late summer of 1940 only Britain stood against Nazi Germany in Europe it too might have been conquered if the Nazis had continued with their air and Naval bombardment of the country which was initiated in the Autumn of that year but early in 1941 Hitler became determined to swim which his attentions eastwards and initiate a war with nazism's great ideological enemy the Bolshevik Communists of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 Operation Barbarossa the largest land invasion in military history involving three million German soldiers commenced and it proved enormously successful to begin with by the early winter of 1941 German divisions had Advanced to near Moscow and Leningrad there was now a real possibility that the war would end in Nazi domination of the continent of Europe as all of this was occurring Magda took on a leading role as a symbol of how Nazi women at home in Germany should behave while their husbands and Sons were fighting on the fronts or leading the war effort from military headquarters Elsewhere for instance she trained as a Red Cross nurse shortly after the War Began and appeared in many photo opportunities in the months that followed to emphasize this role much was also made of the fact that her eldest child her son Harold from the marriage to guntakant was serving as a pilot in the luftwaffe moreover because Hitler was not married to his partner Ava Braun and it was consequently not appropriate given the standards of the time for her to entertain visiting dignitaries and heads of state and their wives the responsibility for doing so often fell to Magda and the Goebbels this was a time-consuming Endeavor in the early 1940s as the new heads of puppet regimes and vassal states which had been created across Europe were required to travel to Berlin and bend the knee figuratively speaking to the Nazi leaders in the capital of the Reich a much more controversial issue concerned the Nazi State's changing attitudes towards the reich's Jewish population and how Magda responded to this when the Nazis seized power in 1933 there were approximately half a million Jews living in Germany this was a relatively small percentage of the overall population and the favored policy of the party during the remainder of the 1930s was to make life as uncomfortable as possible for these 500 000 German Jews with the ultimate goal of forcing them to leave the country thus under the Nuremberg Laws Jews in Germany were broadly robbed of their citizenship and an immense amount of Rights pogroms followed and violence and indiscriminate arrests of Jews in the country were escalating massively in 1938 and 1939 and then things went even further a huge proportion of Europe's Jews lived in Poland in the 1930s over 3 million consequently after the annexation of Poland in the opening months of the war more extreme attitudes began to develop and by the summer of 1941 it had been decided by Hitler and others that a policy of mass murder or genocide would be initiated millions of Jews from across the Reich were to be detained and transported to a series of death camps in Poland and surrounding regions and there they would be gassed to death the Holocaust of Europe's Jews would eventually result in the death of approximately 6 million people as the wife of one of the most senior figures within the Nazi regime Magda cannot but have been aware of what was now unfolding in Poland and elsewhere there is a striking element to all of this when we consider her background Magda had been raised for several years in her youth as an adopted daughter of Rickard friedlander while she had also briefly dated Heim arlotharov a leading Jewish Zionist in her youth she seems not to have been possessed of any anti-semitic feeling herself and once when asked about the persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime she simply stated that it was Hitler's wish and that her husband had to go along with it although this was a complete Distortion of Joseph goebbel's own committed anti-Semitism but what is striking is that Magda did very little to intervene to save the lives of any Jewish people she had known she might possibly have provided Anonymous Aid to the Frank's family who had themselves provided help to Magda and her mother way back in 1914 when they were traveling to Berlin from Brussels after they had been deported from Belgium at the start of the first world war but for her former adoptive father Ricard friedlander she did nothing she had ceased to have any contact with him years earlier he was eventually arrested and is believed to have perished in a Nazi concentration camp in 1939. in many ways the Holocaust was initiated because the Nazis had come to believe that victory in the war was now inevitable the endless succession of striking military victories which occurred between September 1939 and the Autumn of 1941 had convinced Hitler and his acolytes that they would soon be triumphant across Europe then they would have no one to answer to for their genocidal approach to the Jews but this hubris was soon counted even as the final plans for the Holocaust were being put in place the war in Russia was beginning to turn against the Germans that winter the Nazi armies failed to take Moscow and Leningrad and slowly the full might of the Soviet Union was mobilized against the German invasion in tandem the United States entered the war on the side of Britain and the Soviet Union in December 1941 following an unprovoked attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by Nazi Germany's Ally the Empire of Japan faced with this combined Alliance the war effort began to turn in 1942 and by early 1943 had shifted dramatically that spring and summer the Russians turned the tide and started pushing the Germans back into Ukraine and Poland while the Western allies opened a southern front in Sicily after winning the battle for control of North Africa moreover the United States had agreed that victory over Nazi Germany in Europe would take priority over the campaign in the Pacific against the Empire of Japan it was all very ominous for the Nazi regime as this succession of reverses occurred from the winter of 1941 onwards magda's relationship with Hitler and the Nazi cause in general entered a period of contradictory fluxes on the one hand for her as for so many others in Germany the sheen of invincibility that had once surrounded the fuhrer and the Nazi mission in the early stages of the war had very much been tarnished the best efforts of her husband's propaganda machine aside on more than one occasion she was seen to be openly dismissive of Hitler's views and statements while at social events in Berlin while in 1944 she was willing to state in public that the Nazi leader had become delusional in many of his views on the war a dangerous statement to make in public in an authoritarian state where secret police were everywhere but by then Magda had her reasons for some personal bitterness at the war situation her eldest child from her first marriage her world had been captured while fighting against the Allied invasion of Italy and was being held in a prisoner of war camp from which he would not be released until 1947. nagda would never see him again yet in stark contrast to these more negative sentiments were occasions on which Magda could display a zealous commitment to the Nazi cause when Joseph gave a famous speech at the sport palast in Berlin on the 18th of February 1943 in which he had whipped up the crowd and asked them fervently if they wanted Total War Magda dutifully attended with their two eldest children Helga and Hildegard moreover whatever her misgivings in private might have been she continued to visit Hitler regularly when he was in Berlin and remained one of his closest female confidants all in all her response to the declining War situation and towards Hitler was changeable and difficult to decipher if Magda did have a growing disillusionment with Hitler then it was not unfounded by 1944 the fuhrer was an increasingly delusional figure one who rejected the sound's strategic thinking of many of his Generals in favor of dubious military strategies he favored himself he continued to cling to the ideological belief that the Western allies would soon have a major falling out with the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his ministers once this occurred Hitler reasoned Britain and the U.S would find common cause against the Bolsheviks and Communists of the Soviet Union this never occurred instead in the summer of 1944 the Western allies finally opened a western front in northern France which Stalin had long requested them to do in order to draw German forces away from Eastern Europe with three fronts now operating on the continent one in Eastern Europe one in Italy and one in France the Nazis began to rapidly relinquish control of the lands they had conquered since 1930 39 by the spring of 1945 the British Americans Canadians and French were spreading out across Western Germany occupying the Rhineland but it was the Russians who had moved over the river Elba in northeastern Germany which were the more pressing issue for families like the Goebbels in the late spring of 1945 having surrounded Berlin they began the last battle to take the German Capital many senior Nazis contemplated fleeing Berlin at this point but Magda and Joseph Goebbels ensconced themselves in the center of the city with Hitler as the Allies entered Germany the Goebbels had removed their children from one of their country estates to svalen Verde Villa outside Berlin from there the sound of artillery and bombings could soon be heard far off in the distance and the children were brought into Berlin itself on the 22nd of April as the Red Army was massing around Berlin and entering the main suburbs the six children were brought to the Phila bunker in the center of the city a bunker below the rice chancellery this was effectively the command center of what was left of the Third Reich Hitler and his main staff had moved in here in January 1945. by late April it had become a desperate place where a somber Hitler received final visits from some of the most senior Nazi Party members in many instances he merely dismissed them asserting that they had failed him however the Goebbels were not amongst these zealously Magda and Joseph were to remain here underground in Central Berlin with the Fiora until the very end for his loyalty Hitler changed the order of succession in a completely futile gesture appointing Goebbels as his successor and renouncing hellmann going who it had long been understood would succeed should Hitler die one followed in the last days of April and the 1st of May are relatively well known in the broad sense but why they occurred with regard to the Goebbels family is perhaps less understood Hitler had determined to take his own life rather than falling into the hands of the Soviet Union Joseph Goebbels seemingly had a similar view and in a cryptic message he had broadcast on German radio in late February 1945. he seems to have alluded to the idea that his children's lives would not be worth living if the Nazi Corps perished on the 15th of April as The Noose tightened on Berlin he had published an article in the paper dasri in which he again questioned if life would be worth living when the Third Reich finally fell thus it appears that for months leading up to the siege of Berlin Joseph had been contemplating the possibility of suicide if the miracle of Earth falling out between the Allies did not occur and the Nazi regime was completely defeated whether he had discussed this or not with Magda is also an known but she herself seemingly alluded to plans to commit suicide and for her and Joseph to kill their children in the process in the final weeks of the war moreover when several senior figures within the regime offered to help smuggle the children out of Berlin Magda refused all offers all of this suggests a plan which while it might not have been entirely committed to was at least premeditated and thought out as a possible option if the worst should happen whatever the motives or the background might have been we do know precisely what did occur as artillery bombardments were heard ever closer to Central Berlin and as the fearobanka began to shake from explosions above Hitler decided to marry his long-term partner Ava Braun on the night of the 29th of April the following day the Nazi leader and his bride committed suicide for a brief time magda's husband now became the leader of the Third Reich as German Chancellor his tenure of that office is really remembered for only one event in which Magda was the central protagonist on the 1st of May the six Goebbels children Helga who was 12 years old Hildegard who was 11 nine-year-old Helmut eight-year-old haldina and Hedwig and heidelin who were just six and four years old respectively were killed exactly how this occurred has been a matter of extensive debate some accounts later held that an SS dentist helmet krince injected each of the children with morphine and that cyanide capsules were then crushed in their mouths once they had lost Consciousness others suggest that Hitler's physician in his last weeks Ludwig stumpfeger gave the children morphine or some other sedative In sweetened drinks and they were then killed once this had an effect but what is usually agreed is that it was Magda Goebbels who killed six of her seven children on the 1st of May 1945 most likely by administering cyanide herself thereafter Magda and Joseph proceeded upstairs to the Garden of the rice chancellery where they committed suicide they appear to have swallowed cyanide pills and left orders with the SS guards with them that once the poison started to take effect they were to shoot them repeatedly if necessary their bodies were then doused in petrol and satellite just a day later Soviet troops enter the rice chancellery and found the charred remains of Magda and her husband still lying in the garden the SS members there had apparently ignored orders to bury their remains once they had burned their corpses the surface of the rice chancellery building was secured that afternoon and so it was not until the 3rd of May that Russian troops went down into the fura bunker and discovered the six children lying dead in their beds dressed in their night clothes with ribbons in their hair their bodies were taken away for autopsy it remains unclear to this day where or if they were buried by the Soviet authorities the location of the remains of Magda and Joseph is also unknown they like those of several others from the bunker were buried and exhumed again several times over in the months that followed as the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin appears to have changed his mind repeatedly about what should be done with them as with their children it is unclear where the remains of Magda and Joseph were buried or their final ashes deposited Magda Goebbels was one of the most prominent figures involved in the Nazi regime having become interested in the party in 1930 in the aftermath of her first divorce she quickly became involved with Joseph Goebbels and by 1931 was considering marriage to him but the relationship was tempestuous from the beginning and when they married in December of that year it seemed as much at the behest of Hitler than out of any real desire to wet the rise of the Nazis to power brought social status and wealth outwardly to German Society the Goebbels were the epitome of the perfect German family in the new Germany with their brood of Aryan children and seemingly picture-perfect life furthermore in the absence of Hitler having a wife Magda became a surrogate first lady appearing regularly in Nazi propaganda often with her children but behind the facade was a deeply troubled marriage one in which both Magda and Joseph engaged in a string of Affairs when one of these became a potential source of Scandal in 1938 Hitler intervened and made it clear that divorce was out of the question in that sense it was an unusual poster first family magda's ideological approach to Nazism was just as contradictory here was a woman who had been partially raised by an adoptive Jewish father who had dated a Jewish man in her Youth and who was clearly not possessed of much anti-Semitism who in the 1930s nevertheless became the unofficial first lady of the most anti-Semitic government to ever exist her attitude towards Hitler and the war could be similarly ambivalent criticizing the figure in front of friends but acting as one of his closest female confidants at the same time but most inexplicable of all was the perverse loyalty she displayed towards Hitler in the final days of the conflict rather than escaping with her six children from Berlin which she could have done she elected to bring them to Hitler's bunker and on the 1st of May the day after Hitler committed suicide Magda Goebbels murdered her six children aged between 12 and 4 year years of age before she and Joseph killed themselves for Joseph there can have been no hope of any fate other than a rest trial and execution in the aftermath of the war but Magda would have probably escaped with a few years in jail while her children were not guilty of any crimes as such her heinous act at the last moment was born not of necessity but out of the fanatical and inexplicable loyalty which so many Germans developed towards Hitler and the Nazi cause what do you think of Magda Goebbels how can the contradictions in her personality and her decision to kill her own children be explained please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] The Man known to history as Paul Joseph Goebbels was born in the town of Wright in West Germany on the 29th of October 1897. he was born into a modest family and his background was quite unremarkable his father was Fritz Goebbels he worked in the local Wick Factory and eventually Rose to become a foreman there his mother Katarina Maria odenhausen was half Dutch the daughter of a blacksmith Katarina had a close connection with her son and she and Joseph remained close throughout his life both Joseph's parents were devoted Roman Catholics though later in his life Goebbels had to persistently refute allegations they were partly Jewish the family was solidly lower middle class enough that a family piano was purchased in 1909 a symbol of their upwardly mobile aspirations but Fritz Goebbels was earning Just 4 000 marks annually and had no liquid assets consequently the young Joseph did not come from any significant wealth and his early life was characterized by efforts to attain a greater financial and social position Goebbels suffered from ill health as a child he had a club foot that he acquired in his early years following a bout of osteomyelitis a swelling of the bone marrow this left his leg deformed for the remainder of his life and he also had lung problems and so much of his later Psychology was shaped by insecurities about his health problems and lack of athleticism this was compounded by his rejection for military service when he sought to enlist in the German Army at the height of the first world war his later writings are suffused with statements which make it clear that he was attempting throughout his life to compensate for his physical deformity through his literary and political ambitions the world in which Joseph Goebbels reached his teenage years and then young man hoodin was one of turmoil in the summer of 1914 conflict enveloped Europe when a regional diplomatic crisis in the Balkans expanded to lead to a war involving all of Europe's major powers on one side were arrayed Britain France Italy and Russia with the United States joining these allied powers in 1917. on the other the German Empire the austro-hungarian Empire and the ottoman Turkish Empire formed an alliance known as the Central Powers as a native of Western Germany Goebbels would have spent his early years watching German soldiers passing through on trains towards the Western Front in Northeast France where the bulk of the fighting took place in horrific trench warfare between 1914 and 1918. consequently his spurning by the military in his formative years was a difficult experience for the young Goebbels Germany eventually lost the war in November 1918 and was forced into a highly punitive series of Peace treaties the following year generally referred to Under the Umbrella terms of the Treaty of Versailles the German Reich was stripped of a huge amount of its territory which was granted to other countries and made up much of the new country of Poland formed to the east of Germany after the war ended under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles Germany was also forced to pay punitive monetary remuneration to France and Britain for its alleged fault in causing the war furthermore Germany was forced to reduce its Army to a tiny contingent of men and was prohibited from re-militarizing the Rhineland region of Western Germany the terms were negotiated by the government of the Weimar Republic which was formed in Germany following the dissolution of the second German Reich or Empire named after the town in central Germany where the new Republic was formed early in 1919 in time Weimar would become a derogatory term for those who had negotiated Germany's humiliating surrender to the Allied powers and The Architects of the peace became known as the November criminals goebbel's life in the years that followed was highly formative for him for a while he considered entering the priesthood but his commitment to his parents Catholicism cooled eventually he also spent periods of time at multiple Universities at mon Munich wurzberg and Freiburg before eventually earning a PhD in German philology from Heidelberg University in 1921 at just 24 years of age he would later publish his work just one of 14 books he had written by 1940 following his time at Heidelberg Goebbels attempted to establish himself in the early 1920s variously as a journalist novelist and playwright but he was broadly unsuccessful in his Endeavors somewhat like Hitler who had aspired to become a watercolor artist in his early years Goebbels had sought a career in the Arts and literature through his writing but was frustrated in his efforts as this occurred he became increasing disaffected in the course of 1923 and 1924 like many other young men who were disillusioned with life in post-war Germany Goebbels found himself drawn to a new political party in Bavaria which had earned a reputation for controversy in a short period of time the National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi party had been established in Munich in 1920 its goals were the overturning of the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles which had ended the war Germany Armament and re-expansion of the German State into Eastern Europe from its earliest days the Nazi party was also an extremely anti-semitic party and envisaged the total exclusion of the Jewish Community from German life it was led by a young Austrian called Adolf Hitler under his leadership the Nazis attempted a failed coup d'etat in Munich on the 8th of November 1923. the beer hall push as it became known was quickly snuffed out on the 9th of November by the regional authorities Hitler and some of his closest Associates were tried for treason in March 1924 and imprisoned the abortive Revolt possibly Drew Goebbels to the Nazis he had been moving increasingly in right-wing political circles throughout 1924 his radicalization at this time may also have been owing to the occupation of the Rua area of Western Germany by French and Belgian troops between January 1923 and August 1925. in response to Germany defaulting on its War reparations payments on the 22nd of October 1924 the Goebbels family home in Wright was searched by Belgian police and the following day Goebbels himself was interrogated by the occupation police it is hardly coincidental that two weeks later in November 1924 he wrote and published an article in a newspaper at the fogish of high height in which he called for Hitler's early release from prison Hitler was indeed released early on the 20th of December 1924 by which time Goebbels had joined the Nazi party beginning the association which would dominate the remainder of his life goebbel's role in the Nazi party grew in the Years had followed we know a great deal about his life from the mid-1920s through goebbel's own writings starting in 1923 he kept a series of extensive Diaries unbroken for 22 years down to his death in 1945. these Diaries were taken to Russia after the war and have only become fully available since 2008. straight matching to 32 volumes in the modern print editions they provide a uniquely detailed insight into the life career and thoughts of one of the leading members of the Nazi leadership they also provide what one of the foremost historians of Nazi Germany Ian Kershaw has deemed a vitally important source of insight into Hitler's thinking and action particularly in his Ascent to power in the 1920s and early 1930s the Diaries Give extensive details of goebbel's career in the initial years of his membership of the Nazi party in his early days he was under the patronage of Gregor Strasser a leading member of the party who led a branch of the Nazis that leaned more towards socialism and anti-capitalism in opposition to Hitler's right-wing faction and owing the strasse's influence in 1924 Goebbels was appointed as a spokesperson for the party in the Rhineland region where he originally hailed from his role as a propagandist for the party also began at this time as he was set to start work as a writer and editor for the party newspaper the falkisha bail bhakta or the people's Observer during these years of the mid-1920s Goebbels found himself increasingly drawn into an internal struggle within the Nazi regime over the ideological future of the party this was driven by a split between Hitler who favored a hard-line anti-semitic nationalist approach with only a limited emphasis on socialism and starsa goebbel's Diaries reveal that he sympathized with both sides he was drawn to the more socially grounded Outlook of strata but he increasingly favored Hitler from late 1925 onwards having read Hitler's anti-semitic biography Mein Kampf or my struggle which Hitler had written while serving his prison sentence for the failed beer hall putch in 1924 and the first volume of which was published in 1925. following multiple meetings with the charismatic Hitler at a party Conference held in Bamberg in Northern Bavaria on the 14th of February 1926 Goebbels became a committed adherent of the Nazi leader it has been speculated that Goebbels was an extreme narcissist and needed a figurehead or leader of some sort from whom he could gain affirmation and approval this would certainly explain the obsession he developed with gaining Hitler's esteem in the mid-1920s an obsession which would characterize the relationship over the 20 years that followed goebbel's support for the leader boarded on zealotry and from this point forward Goebbels began his long Association as one of Hitler's closest allies in recognition of his Rising position within the party Goebbels was appointed as Gaul lighter or Regional commander of Berlin within the Nazi party in August 1926 a position he would hold until his eventual death in 1945. in Berlin in an effort to promote the party in the capital Goebbels developed many of the propaganda strategies which became Hallmarks of the Nazis in the years ahead these involved using large posters of vibrant red and black ink often emblazoned with the swastika the Nazi party's symbol and with Stark political messages these banners often featured at large torch-lit party rallies filled with symbolism which became a staple of the party in the years that followed Goebbels also founded a party newspaper called de angref or the attack in the capital combining his propaganda strategy with violence and intimidation Goebbels also had the Nazis uniformed paramilitary body the essay engage in attacks and violence in beer halls in Berlin in the months that followed his appointment as a consequence of all this work Goebbels won election to Parliament in the reichstag elections held on the 20th of May 1920 8 his election was especially surprising as the Nazis generally performed poorly in these elections particularly in the cities and their power base was largely confined to the Munich region of Bavaria and some parts of the Countryside by 1928. the attitude of the new reichstag Deputy towards parliamentary democracy was Stark having stated we are entering the reichstag in order that we may arm ourselves with the weapons of democracy from its arsenal we shall become reichstag deputies in order that the Weimar ideology should itself help us to destroy it goebbel's statements that the Nazis could undermine the German Republic from within Parliament itself may have seemed fanciful given the party's election result in 1928 but all of this began to change in 1929 after years of Rapid economic growth in the 1920s the United States stock market began to overheat and collapse in the Autumn of 1929 starting in September share prices began to fall culminating on the 25th of October with the largest one-day selling off of shares in U.S history what became known as Black Friday was the peak of the Wall Street Crash It ushered in the Great Depression which would see economies all over the world impacted in the years ahead still suffering from its War debt and other political and economic problems Germany was particularly susceptible to the problems created by the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression and in the years ahead as the German economy contracted and millions of Germans lost either their jobs or their savings the Nazi party with its message of resentment and xenophobia would grow in popularity the first major electoral boom occurred in 1930 an election was called in the spring for the 14th of September 1930. Goebbels was Central to the Nazis electoral campaign shaping the party's message around opposition to the terms of the Versailles treaty which had ended the first world war and the humiliating terms of which Germany continued to suffer under thousands of meetings were held Countrywide in the resulting election the Nazis went from being a minor party which had actually lost support in the 1928 election to the second largest party in Germany with nearly one in five voters supporting them this translated into 107 seats in the 577-seat reichstag only the Centrist Social Democratic party won more seats taking 143 the Social Democratic party were consequently in a position to lead the government significantly the Communist Party of Germany came in third in the election winning 77 seats as such the extremist parties won a great share of the vote in this election as the effects of the Great Depression hit home in Germany the rise of the Communists also allowed the Nazis to depict themselves in the years ahead as a bull walk against a potential communist takeover of Germany as one of the Nazi's Chief propagandists Goebbels was Central to its efforts to exploit fears over a communist surge in the years ahead between 1930 and the next reichstag elections the Berlin galaita was developing new methods of disseminating the Nazi message he began experimenting with the new medium of silent films something which would play a central role in spreading the Nazis ideology and wartime propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s the radio was also exploited effectively by Goebbels when Hitler ran unsuccessfully for the office of German president in 1932 Goebbels oversaw the broadcasting of regular radio messages detailing the fiora's almost daily plane Journeys around Germany to torch-lit parades where he stirred up increasing support amongst Protestants middle-class business owners and women these were groups in German Society who increasingly favored the Nazis as the German banking system neared collapse in 1931 and efforts by the Centrist administration in Berlin to negotiate German debt relief with Britain and France failed although Hitler lost the 1932 presidential election to Paul Von Hindenburg a German hero of the first world war the Nazi leader buoyed by Goebbels propaganda and election strategizing had nevertheless performed very well coming a close second upon Hindenburg it was inevitable that this newfound support for the party would translate into greater electoral success when a new reichstag election took place new elections were imminent by 1932 in their efforts to ensure that both the Nazis and the Communists were kept out of government a coalition of centuries parties had been operating minority governments for months when the first election since 1930 was held on the 31st of July 1932 the Nazis became the largest party in Germany for the first time this was largely owing to socio-economic circumstances the unemployment rate in Germany had reached nearly 30 percent by 1932 people's savings had been obliterated the banking system was on the verge of total collapse and the Centrist governments had seemed incapable of arresting the situation despite successfully negotiating to have the majority of Germany's War reparations debt canceled by expertly manipulating popular resentment and anger at the prevailing economic conditions the Nazi party won 230 seats in the July 1932 reichstag elections thus the Nazis along with Goebbels a major driving force behind their propaganda and election campaigns had ascended to become the dominant party in Germany by the summer of 1932. nearly two out of every five voters had supported Hitler and his party however they lacked a majority in Parliament and negotiations with some of the more Centrist parties to establish a coalition broke down in the Autumn of 1932. consequently Germans had to return to the polls in November 1932 for the second time that year the reichstag elections held on the 6th of November 1932 were the last free and fair elections held in Germany prior to the establishment of the German Third Reich although the Nazis lost votes they yet again emerged as the largest party winning 196 seats and one in three votes the elections of November 1932 continued the Parliamentary stalemate yes better solution was in the making for several months an uneasy Alliance but an alliance nonetheless had been developing between the Nazi party and some Centrist political forces along with the powerful industrial lobbyists who ran German business the latter were wary of the Nazis but were prepared to countenance supporting Hitler and the party Goebbels had become the leading propagandist for if the Nazis could prevent the rise of the parties of the left in Germany as such the industrialists and centrists agreed to do business with the Nazis in 1932 in an effort to prevent the further rise of the Communist party and their allies on the left of the political Spectrum the Specter of Soviet Russia where the Communists had risen to power following the Russian Revolution of 1917 hung large over Germany in 1932. inadvertently it would facilitate the rise of Hitler and the destruction of the Weimar Republic following extensive negotiations a coalition of the Nazis Center parties and industrialists was finally concluded on the 30th of January 1933. Hitler became chancellor of Germany the head of the government and the Nazis were given three of the 11 cabinet positions Goebbels was frustrated not to receive one of these positions but he would not have long to wait to Mark the event he oversaw a huge torch-lit parade in Berlin on the night of the 30th of January 1933 attended by approximately sixty thousand supporters of the Nazis it featured brigades of ss and sa members the paramilitary branches of the Nazi party and would prefigure the military parades which would become ubiquitous in Germany for the next 12 years of Nazi rule the new government moved quickly to consolidate its power punitive measures to repress the Communist party and other parties of the left were quickly implemented in February 1933 a fire at the reichstag on the 28th of February was then used as a pretext for passing emergency legislation which briefly gave the government additional powers and a snap reichstag election was called for the 5th of March voter intimidation and fraud was employed in the resulting campaign but the Nazis was still only able to win 44 of the vote which translated into 288 seats in the reichstag this however was enough on the 23rd of March 1933 the Nazis excluded the Communists and others from the reichstag and intimidated several other parties in order to ensure that an enabling Act was passed by an overwhelming majority through both houses of the parliament this enabling act decreed that the German Chancellor and his government could effectively suspend the government and rule by decree for a period of four years the passage of it through the reichstag effectively spelled the end of the Weimar Republic and the establishment of a single party Nazi rule in Germany Goebbels did not have to wait until the passage of the enabling act to acquire the ministerial position he had long sought on the 14th of March 1933 Hitler appointed Goebbels as head of the newly created Reich Ministry for public Enlightenment and propaganda over the next 12 years and for the duration of the German Third Reich Goebbels would enforce Nazi ideology throughout Germany and Europe through his ministry goebbel's thoughts on propaganda and its uses were perhaps best expressed in a speech entitled The Art of propaganda which he made before the political education seminar of the Nazi party in Berlin on the 9th of January 1928 here he stated propaganda shows that it is good if over a certain period of it it can win over and fire up people for an idea if it fails to do so it is bad propaganda if propaganda wins the people people it wanted to win it was presumably good and if not it was presumably bad no one can say that your propaganda is too crude or low or brutal or that it is not decent enough for those are not the relevant criteria its purpose is not to be decent or gentle or weak or modest it is to be successful thus goebbel's view was clear the end always Justified the means when it came to State propaganda and any methods however crude or deceptive could be used if they furthered Hitler's and The Wider Nazi party's ideological goals a sense of the scale of control which Goebbels hoped to exercise over German life through his ministry can be glimpsed by examining the organizational structure of his Department it was divided into multiple branches which variously dealt with broadcasting the national and Foreign Press films censorship the Arts music and theater Mass rallies race issues indoctrination of German Youth and counter-offensives against anything which was deemed to be foreign or domestic propaganda directed against the Nazi state over the next 12 years from its headquarters across from Hitler's own offices in the Reich chancellery Goebbels would shape the ideology of the Nazi party and the Third Reich no one did more to shape how the German people perceived the Nazis and their governance of Germany Goebbels propaganda methods were immensely varied one of his first major acts was the massive repression of German art and culture writers and artists who were considered anti-german in their actions were silenced and their Works destroyed or suppressed Goebbels was also Central to a series of mass book burnings which swept through Germany shortly after the ascent to power of the Nazis the foremost occurrence being on the 10th of May 1933 that evening German students in Berlin oversaw the burning of over 25 000 books which were deemed ungerman these included works by Karl Marx ayuri Maria remark Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud Goebbels was Central to the events in Berlin on the 10th of May and gave a speech before thousands of people in which he encouraged the crowd to reject the moral corruption which searched books instilled suffusing his oration with the anti-Semitism which was the trademark of the Nazi party he stated at the event in Berlin that the era of Jewish intellectualism is at an end these events showed how far Goebbels had drifted from his earlier life the PHD student and would be writer of 1921 had become the overseer of mass book burnings and cultural destruction unsurprisingly in the years ahead many prominent authors such as Thomas Mann began to leave Germany Goebbels continued in these years to mold German culture to the goals of Nazi ideology using the Reich chamber of culture which was established in September 1933. the Arts was subordinated to the Nazi cause for instance new new films being produced in Germany henceforward often had a Nazi message sometimes a subtle one but one which aided the Nazi cause much of this sought to portray Hitler as the savior of Europe against the threat of bolshevism and communism taking power in Germany and Elsewhere on the continent goebbel's control of the German film industry became absolute in March 1937 when the German film industry was nationalized and came virtually entirely under his ministry's control around this time he stated his views on how Cinema could be used as an art which expresses an attitude through its National Socialist character and by taking up National Socialist problems but should do so in a way which did not appear deliberate and remains in the background even more consequential was goebbel's exploitation and control over the national press and methods of communication Germany had more papers than almost all other European countries under the Weimar Republic but under goebbel's Ministry the Nazi party effectively took control over the major newspapers journalists were briefed by Goebbels Ministry and often had what they printed dictated to them by the party apparatus journalists who diverged from the Nazi message were often intimidated or arrested his control of and exploitation of the new and emerging types of mass media was even more comprehensive under his leadership the ministry for public Enlightenment and propaganda distributed millions of radios to Germans this was the mass medium which Goebbels preferred for indoctrination of the German people in the first year of full Nazi rule alone over 50 of Hitler's speeches were broadcast on radio the emerging medium of film was also exploited in this way loudspeakers were set up in public places throughout Germany so that state messages could be drilled into people in public places Goebbels was also Central to the organization of the huge Nazi party rallies which were held throughout Germany in the years ahead the most infamous example was the 1934 Nazi party Congress rallies at Nuremberg the events of which were immortalized in the propaganda film of the same directed by Laney Riefenstahl the Triumph of the will which won many film Awards around Europe in the 1930s and has been called one of the most effective pieces of political propaganda ever made the effects over time of this constant affirmation of the Nazi message was immense in their rise to power the Nazis had never been able to attain the support of more than about a third of the German people in the last free reichtag elections in November 1933 the party had gleaned only one third of the votes however by the late 1930s in large part owing to Goebbels propaganda work the Nazis had become more popular Countrywide and faith in Hitler's leadership was immense as a result when a referendum was held on the 19th of August 1934 to appoint Hitler officially as fewer or leader of Germany with the combined offices of Chancellor and president it was passed by an overwhelming majority of 88 in favor a result which was only partly fraudulent indicating the growing popularity of the Nazis and in the months and years after their rise to power there is little doubt the Goebbels work as a propagandist was highly successful after the Nazis seized power in the 1930s at the same time goebbel's own political power was growing in the 1930s he was generally disliked by his colleagues in government indeed an article in Life magazine in 1938 noted that Goebbels likes nobody is liked by nobody and runs the most efficient Nazi Department despite his aloofness towards most of his colleagues he was one of Hitler's closest confidants when Hitler decided to combine the offices of German Chancellor and president of Germany following the death of the president Paul Van Hindenburg in August 1934 it was Goebbels who made the announcement By Radio to the German Nation on the 2nd of August as well as this Hitler had become close with goebbel's family on the 19th of December 1931 Goebbels had married Magda richel they had numerous children in the 1930s and the family became referred to as the first family of the Reich Hitler having remained a bachelor without children other signs of goebbel's prominence in the regime followed for instance he was appointed as president of the organizing committee for the summer and winter Olympics when they were held in Berlin in 1936 a major role which put him center stage in Germany for an International Event Goebbels was also involved in the growing persecution of Germany's Jewish population in the Years following the Nazis Ascent to power his anti-Semitism was long-standing and was one of the reasons why he had been attracted to the Nazi party and Hitler in the 1920s yet there were also contradictions to goebbel's anti-Semitism in his student years he had a close relationship with several Jewish teachers for a time and he dated Elsa Yanka a Jewish school teacher for several years in the early 1920s he even considered marrying her despite these contradictions in his attitudes towards German jury Goebbels quickly became one of the most enthusiastic persecutors of Germany's Jews following the nazia sent to power in 1933. in October of that year he was responsible for passing the Reich press law through which all Jewish editors were removed from working at German newspapers and other print Outlets throughout these years there are repeated references in his Diaries to efforts to de-jurify German culture when a set of laws known as the Nuremberg laws were passed on the 15th of September 1935 effectively prohibiting Jews from holding German citizenship and from marrying Germans Goebbels had propaganda pieces published in Outlets such as the newspaper deshsterma justifying the prohibitions and attacks on Germany's Jews his propaganda continued to feed the Nazi State's growing anti-Semitism in the years ahead as the first concentration camps were set up in Germany to house political prisoners including many Jews in early November 1938 Goebbels was Central to the worst anti-semitic program in Germany prior to the outbreak of the war on the 7th of November 1938 a Jewish teenager Herschel grinspan shot a German Diplomat Ernst Von rat at the German Embassy in Paris pomgrad died two days later on the 9th of November later that evening Goebbels gay gave a speech at a commemorative event marking the 15-year anniversary of the beer hall putch of 1923 in which he made it clear that spontaneous acts of violence and attacks on Jews and their property would be tolerated by the government in response to formal Arts death a later report stated that goebbel's speech had clearly been intended to indicate that while the Nazi party and the government did not wish to be seen as perpetuating retaliations on the Jewish Community it was essentially stating that they should be organized and carried out on an unofficial basis What followed was an orgy of violence on the night of the 9th of November 1938. Krishna lacht or the Knight of the broken glass as it has become known saw the Nazi paramilitary forces and gangs of German citizens attack Jewish businesses homes and synagogues throughout Germany approximately 100 Jews were murdered in the hours of violence over 200 synagogues were ransacked or destroyed at as many as 7 000 Jewish businesses had Windows broken or worst damage inflicted perhaps as many as 30 000 Jews were also detained on fabricated charges and confined to the new concentration camps which were proliferating around Germany the psychological effects were even worse the Jews thereafter in Germany were aware that they were a people under Perpetual attack it is estimated that several hundred Jews committed suicide in the days and weeks following the pogrom and many Jewish families began to consider leaving Germany however Christal Nacht was important of worse to come while Goebbels was one of the most Ardent supporters and actors in Germany's growing anti-semitic policies he was less enthusiastic about the Nazi States drift towards war in the late 1930s the Nazis had long been committed to re-establishing German military power in contravention of the heavy restrictions placed on the size of the German Army and Air Force Under the terms of the Versailles treaty from 1933 onwards Hitler and the Nazi leadership began expanding the German air force the luftwaffe and the German Army the Vermont and on the 7th of March 1936 German troops were sent into the Rhineland region of Western Germany which had been established as a demilitarized zone under the terms of Versailles further aggression followed in the years ahead on the 12th of March 1938 Germany annexed Austria uniting the two german-speaking countries under Nazi rule the Angelus as it has become known made clear Germany's aggressive intentions in Europe and the other European powers were increasingly fearful of war from early 1938 onwards however Britain's prime minister Neville Chamberlain tried to pacify Hitler through concessions in the months ahead particularly as the Nazis began pressing a claim to the sudeten land region of Czechoslovakia in the Autumn of 1938 on the 14th of September 1938 Goebbels published an aggressive editorial in the folkisha baobacter promoting German claims to the region owing to the large number of ethnically German people living there eventually in early October 1938 Germany was ceded the sudeten land in return for a guarantee that Hitler would otherwise respect czechoslovakia's Independence this was breached in early March 1939 as Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in the days ahead the country and neighboring Hungary were variously either annexed by Germany or formed into satellite vassal States thus by the spring of 1939 the Nazis had established themselves as masters of all of Central Europe but Britain and France were now clear that Hitler and Germany could not be pacified as a consequence when the Germans invaded Poland on the 1st of September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later on the 3rd of September 1939 the second world war had commenced in its initial stages the war was a resounding success for Germany Poland was quickly overrun and divided up between Germany and Soviet Russia in the Autumn of 1939 with whom a non-aggression pact had been agreed despite the ideological differences between the fascist Nazis and the Communist Russians the following April Denmark and Norway were invaded and quickly conquered then on the night of the 9th of May 1940 after months of military buildup in Western Germany the vermacht received orders to invade France through the low countries of the Netherlands Belgium and Luxembourg over the next five weeks they followed a complete military collapse of France Paris was captured on the 14th of June 1940 effectively ending the military campaign and on the 25th of June an Armistice was signed as a preliminary to establishing a puppet government in France Germany had effectively conquered Western Europe Britain had only barely managed to pull its Army out of Mainland Europe and back to Britain in time undertaking a daring Naval evacuation of over 300 000 troops from the port town of Dunkirk in northern France between the 26th of May and the 4th of June consequently Britain was able to continue in the war and Germany would have to undertake a protracted effort to weaken its resolve through bombing campaigns in 1940 and 1941. the blitz as this campaign became known was ultimately unsuccessful despite these early successes Goebbels was less enthusiastic about the prospects of war in 1939 than many of the other senior members of the Nazi party at times he was entirely realistic for instance an entry in his Diaries in April 1940 noted we must achieve victory in the course of this year otherwise the material superiority of the opposite side would become too strong a war of many years would also be difficult to maintain for psychological reasons nevertheless he was Central to the war effort the Reich Ministry for public Enlightenment and propaganda was effectively responsible for shaping the state's message about the war effort and what German citizens were told about what was happening in 1939 and 1940. from the start of the invasion of the low countries and France in May 1940. Goebbels wrote and published editorials which were broadcast nationally on German radio video and often published in newspapers for instance between May 1940 and the spring of 1945 Goebbels published 218 editorials in the newspaper he had founded that's right or the Empire this was published weekly so goebbel's writings glorifying the war effort and denouncing Germany's enemies were rarely absent from any edition of the paper as the war progressed Goebbels also increasingly exploited the medium of film to glorify the German war effort at home and abroad films of the German armies progressing through Poland and France became Staples of German life though these depictions of German Valor would have to be increasingly doctored from late 1941 onwards as the German Army began to suffer increasing setbacks and as it did goebbel's job increasingly became about managing the expectations of the German people what was needed from the spring of 1942 onwards was resolve in a war that would not be over soon and which was almost certainly doomed to end in German defeat Goebbels was also Central to the increasingly barbaric methods being used to persecute the Jews of Germany and occupied Europe on the 30th of January 1939 Hitler had delivered a speech in the reichstag which Goebbels had been in involved in writing in which it was declared that if Europe was cast into war the Jewish people would be held responsible by the Nazi State and the annihilation of the Jews of Europe would be undertaken in the years ahead this threat was put into action following the conquest of Poland a huge ghetto largely populated by Poland's considerable Jewish population was established in Warsaw in October 1939 the following month polish Jews were legally required to wear armbands or yellow stars to indicate they were Jews this stipulation would eventually be imposed in Germany by Goebbels Express order in September 1941 and on the 20th of May 1940 a concentration camp was established at Auschwitz in southern Poland a place which would become the epicenter of the Holocaust which followed in the years ahead however the most terrible moment in the Nazi State's persecution of the Jewish people did not come until 1942. on the 20th of January 1942 at a conference at Van Ze a Berlin suburb it was effectively decided by the Nazi party to begin Exterminating the Jews of nazi-occupied Europe the final solution as it has become known was resulted in the Holocaust of approximately 6 million Jews between 1942 and the end of the war in 1945. there is no doubting the significance of goebbel's role in the persecution of Europe's Jews the development of the final solution and the Holocaust in general in a radio address he made on the 16th of November 1941 as a more extreme approach towards the Jews was being developed within the Nazi hierarchy Goebbels made his views clear in an outlandish address he claimed that the Jews were responsible for the war which now enveloped all of Europe and much of the wider world the Jews Goebbels asserted were receiving a penalty that is certainly hard but more than deserved going on he stated that the Jews must be removed from the German community for they endanger our national Unity this is an elementary principle of racial National and social hygiene who cares about their difficulties there is no doubting that goebbel's anti-Semitism was extreme by the early 1940s this manifested itself further in the production of anti-Semitic propaganda films during the war year is such as the Eternal Jew a film made in 1940 in which Jews were depicted as parasites who were undermining social and political order these efforts by Goebbels to sway public opinion against the Jews of Germany and Europe was largely responsible for creating an environment in which hundreds of thousands of people were at least partially complicit in the murders of millions of Europe's Jews in the years that followed moreover there is no doubt that he was entirely aware of what was occurring at Auschwitz and the other extermination and labor camps of Eastern and Central Europe having received the details of the Evans a conference in early March 1942 Goebbels noted in his diary that he assumed about 40 percent of the Jews in these camps would be put to work producing amarans and other War material but in a chilling turn of phrase he stated that the other 60 percent would almost certainly be liquidated there is no doubt that Goebbels was one of the central architects of the sustained policy of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany and in the Holocaust itself indeed as the Jews of Berlin were being deported to concentration camps from the capital in the early summer of 1942 Goebbels urged Hitler to speed up this process bemused at this time but it might even be better to liquidate them in Berlin itself as this would be more efficient than shipping them to the camps as the final solution was being developed German Fortunes in the war were declining in the summer of 1941 Hitler turned his attentions away from Britain and Western Europe towards the east it was now time he believed to confront Bolshevik Russia and acquire labens or living space for the German people in Eastern Europe on the 22nd of June 1941 Operation Barbarossa was initiated and an army of three million Germans invaded Russia in the weeks it followed the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe crumbled as the poorly trained and equipped Russian armies were devastated by the oncoming German forces by the Autumn the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was contemplating negotiating peace terms whereby the Soviet state would cede much of Eastern Europe to the German Third Reich but at this point Hitler's Ambitions got the better of him and envisaging a total victory over bolshevism he directed further drives towards the major Russian cities of Leningrad Moscow and Stalingrad this was to be the Fatal moment for the Third Reich as the Russian winter of 1941 set in the German Army's progress eastwards slowed confronted by a Russian army that suffered enormous casualties but which had a seemingly never-ending stream of Manpower and improperly supplied with winter clothing and arms which could not withstand the Russian winter the German wehrmacht began to experience significant setbacks on the Eastern Front Goebbels became Central to these events in many ways for instance on the 17th of December 1941 he was placed in charge of the drive in Germany to collect winter clothing to be sent to the Eastern front as a matter of urgency by the spring of 1942 a stalemate had set in on the fronts near Leningrad Moscow and Stalingrad with the latter City experiencing one of the bloodiest and most catastrophic sieges in Modern Warfare more and more resources were pumped into Stalingrad as the winter of 1942 neared and the region became The Crucible of war in which the confrontation between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia would be decided when The Siege eventually ended in Victory for the Soviets in early 1943 the result of the war was sealed the Russians henceforth were now on the offensive and began the long inexorable campaign westwards towards Berlin reconquering on their way all of the lands of Eastern and Central Europe that the Nazis had occupied between 1939 and 1941. this reversal in fortunes for the Third Reich was further compounded in the years ahead as a southern front was first opened in Italy when a combined British and American Force invaded Sicily on the 10th of July 1943 and then a western front was established when the Western allies invaded France on D-Day on the 6th of June 1944. Goebbels took on an Ever more important role in the war effort from 1942 onwards as these escalating military reverses began Recent research has highlighted how several members of the Nazi leadership became increasingly incapacitated from 1942 by various illnesses and even drug addiction particularly so in the case of both Hitler and the head of the luftwaffe the German air force hellmann Girling the latter of whom was heavily addicted to opiates as Hitler sank into a miasma of delusion about German war prospects and needed ever greater amounts of painkillers to alleviate various ailments more and more of the day-to-day direction of government in Berlin fell on goebbel's shoulders particularly as Hitler was increasingly ensconced in a military bunker in Poland Goebbels was one of the most clear-sighted of the German leadership Hitler was broadly delusional about the prospects of victory until late in the war but as early as 1942 Goebbels was aware of the unlikelihood of Victory now that the Russian campaign had stalled in 1941 and the German Army was unlikely to win the war on the Eastern Front this was made clearer in the winter of 1942 When the tide was turned in Russia with German defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad as a consequence from the spring of 1943 Goebbels began arguing for what he termed Total War by which he meant that all of the state's resources would be employed to the maximum degree possible to fight the war at a meeting of the Nazi faithful at the Berlin sport palast a huge Sports stadium in the capital on the 18th of February 1943. Goebbels laid out his belief about what was needed in what has been deemed to be his most famous speech Germans would have to live a spot exhausting way of life henceforward Goebbels asserted in his speech which was broadcast nationally on radio he argued that Germans would have to work 14 or 16 hour days to keep up the war machine but this was necessary to keep Europe from falling almost entirely under the control of Bolshevik Russia having stirred up the thousands of attendees who had been selected for their Nazi credentials he ended by asking the frenzy crowd do you want Total War although Hitler was won over by the idea of Total War he would take until the 23rd of July 1944 before he officially appointed Goebbels as Reich plenipotentiary for the total war effort this was just three days after a failed attempted coup by senior members of the vermacht which had sought to assassinate Hitler and end the war shocked by the coup effort Hitler committed himself to goebbel's extreme plan for Total War just days later with this new position Goebbels was charged with overseeing the deployment of all parts of society to facilitate the Army's efforts the position was a major confirmation of goebbel's seniority in the Nazi leadership with the promotion essentially being an acknowledgment that Goebbels had supplanted Hermann Gering as Hitler's second in command of the Nazi party and was now his ostensible successor should he die goebbel's efforts to put his ideas on Total War into effect in the weeks and months ahead met with mixed results he focused first on increasing the numbers of men entering the armed forces the numbers of the rank and file in the German wehrmacht had fallen drastically in 1942 and 1943 owing to huge casualties on the Eastern front and with the opening of additional fronts by the Allies in France and Italy the German Army was stretched extremely thin by 1944 to combat this Goebbels increased the age limit to which German women were required to work in German factories producing raw material of all kinds from 45 to 55. this had the benefit of freeing up many men who had been working in the factories for active service on the front yet in the end these measures were not effective the German state was simply too under-resourced and not possessed of sufficient Manpower by 19 44 and the additional men who were conscripted into the German Army were simply replacing those who were dying or being captured on a daily basis as the Russians Advanced from the East and the Americans and the British from the west and the South ultimately Total War achieved little other than the further impoverishment of the German people and the conscription of old men and boys into the German Army in the last desperate stages of the war in the winter of 1944 and the spring of 1945. yet Goebbels never wavered the last of his 218 wartime editorials in dasri called for resistance to the very end even as the Soviet armies closed in on Central Berlin in January 1945 the Soviet forces crossed into Eastern Germany and the Americans and British simultaneously Advanced into the Rhineland in Western Germany following a bitter struggle in the Arden Forest of Belgium and Luxembourg in December 1944 and January 1945. German defeat was clearly just months away and Hitler and the Nazi leadership were now hoping that a falling out might occur between the English-speaking allies and the Russians which might work in Germany's favor this never came and in the spring of 1945 the only question was whether the Russians advancing from the east or the British and Americans from the West would seize Berlin despite these setbacks goebbel's commitment to Total War never wavered it was expressed most forcefully in the final weeks of the war in an article in Das Reich magazine published on the 22nd of April 1945 entitled resistance at any price here goebbel's fanaticism and willingness to let everything in Germany be destroyed in defense of the remnants of the Reich is laid bare the war has reached a stage at which only the full efforts of the nation and of each individual can save us the defense of our freedom no longer depends on the army fighting at the front each civilian each man and woman and boy and girl fight with unequaled fanaticism no Village and no City may give in to the enemy indeed perhaps it was his unwavering fanaticism and commitment to the Nazi cause in the final days of the Third Reich which led Hitler to appoint his propaganda Minister as his successor when the fuhrer took the decision to end his life on the 30th of April 1945 goebbel's few hours as head of the German state were a ghastly conclusion to his own life on the 1st of May a day after Hitler's suicide he sent an offer for a ceasefire to General vasilichwikov the head of the Soviet Army's assault on Berlin when this was rejected he decided to follow his master's example later that day Joseph and Magda Goebbels had their six children sedated with morphine before killing their children by force-feeding them cyanide once they had lost Consciousness Joseph and Magda then headed upstairs where they committed suicide themselves in the garden of the Reich chancellery thus died The Mastermind of so much of the Nazi party's ideology few individuals were as critical in shaping the Third Reich as Joseph Goebbels both prior to the party coming to power and as Reich Minister for public Enlightenment and propaganda in the years ahead he shaped how the Nazi message was presented to German citizens and The Wider world the visual image we have of the Nazi party as being visually dominated by huge parades with massive Nazi banners in red and black is almost entirely owing to how Goebbels choreographed and designed these events and the public view of the Nazis from 1939 he was the decisive figure in deciding what information on the war effort was provided to German citizens and how it was presented he also pushed for an increasingly fanatical all-out War as planet potentiary for Total War moreover he was one of the central individuals in the evolution of the final solution and Holocaust of Europe's Jews as zealous adherent of Hitler's Goebbels was perhaps the most clear-sighted of the Nazi leadership about the prospects of German victory in the second world war and yet his fanatical adherence to the fuhrer and the tenets of national socialism led him to favor dragging Europe to the brink of utter destruction given how close his ideology was to Hitler's own it was perhaps unsurprising that the fuhrer appointed him as his successor in April 1945. what do you think of Joseph Goebbels was he merely a cog in Hitler's government or was he a critical figure in the Third Reich who shaped Nazi policy and how State propaganda was implemented in the 20th century please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching

Channel: The People Profiles

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Id: I5AzEzm7poU

Length: 114min 43sec (6883 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2023