Editing Joseph Goebbels (section)

==History==

=== Early life ===
Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on October 29<sup>th</sup>, 1897 in Rheydt, German Empire, to Fritz and Katharina Maria Goebbels. He suffered from osteomyelitis, a condition that affects the bone marrow. As he developed this at the age of seven the disease affected his growth. As an adult, he stood at just 5 foot 4 inches (roughly 163cm) and had one leg which was far shorter than the other. He had to wear a leg brace for most of his life, and this caused him to be at the center of ridicule throughout his schooldays, but whilst attending university in Heidelberg he told fellow students that he had been injured in battle, despite the fact he had been turned down for military service. Or he may have had a club foot instead of osteomyelitis (sources vary). Goebbels married Magda Quandt in 1931 and they had 6 children: Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Holdine, Hedwig and Heidrun, who they killed with cyanide in 1945 before taking their own lives. Magda also had a surviving son from a previous marriage, Harald Quandt, who died in 1967.

=== Role in [[World War II|WW2]] ===
In the last months of the war, Goebbels’ speeches and articles took on an increasingly apocalyptic tone and by the beginning of 1945, with the Soviets on the Oder and the western Allies crossing the Rhine, Goebbels could no longer disguise the fact that defeat was inevitable.

He knew what that would mean for himself: "For us," he had written in 1943, "we have burnt our bridges. We cannot go back, but neither do we want to go back. We are forced to extremes and therefore resolved to proceed to extremes."

In his diaries, he expressed the belief that German diplomacy should find a way to exploit the emerging tensions between [[Joseph Stalin]] and the West, but he proclaimed foreign minister [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]], whom Hitler would not abandon, incapable of such a feat. When other Nazi leaders urged Hitler to leave Berlin and establish a new center of resistance in the National Redoubt in Bavaria, Goebbels opposed this, arguing for a last stand in the ruins of the Reich capital.

By this time, Goebbels had gained the position he had wanted so long – at the side of Hitler, albeit only because of his subservience to [[Martin Bormann]], who was the Führer's ''de facto'' deputy.

[[Hermann Göring]] was utterly discredited, though Hitler refused to dismiss him until April 25<sup>th</sup>. [[Heinrich Himmler]], whose appointment as commander of Army Group Vistula had led to disaster on the Oder, was also in disgrace, and Hitler rightly suspected that he was secretly trying to negotiate with the western Allies. Only Goebbels and Bormann remained totally loyal to Hitler. Goebbels knew how to play on Hitler's fantasies, encouraging him to see the hand of providence in the death of United States President [http://real-life-heroes-and-good-guys.wikia.com/wiki/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt] on April 12<sup>th</sup>, 1945.

=== Last days ===
On April 22<sup>nd</sup>, largely as a result of Goebbels' influence, Hitler announced that he would not leave Berlin, but would stay and fight, and if necessary die, in defence of the capital.

Unlike many other leading Nazis at this juncture, Goebbels proved to have strong convictions, moving himself and his family into the Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery building in central Berlin. He told Vice-Admiral Hans-Erich Voss that he would not entertain the idea of either surrender or escape: "I was the Reich Minister of Propaganda and led the fiercest activity against the Soviet Union, for which they would never pardon me," Voss quoted him as saying. "He couldn't escape also because he was Berlin's Defence Commissioner and he considered it would be disgraceful for him to abandon his post," Voss added.

In his last will and testament, Hitler named no successor as Führer or leader of the Nazi Party. Instead, Hitler appointed Goebbels Reich Chancellor; Grand Admiral [[Karl Dönitz]], who was at Flensburg near the Danish border, Reich President; and [[Martin Bormann]], Hitler's long-time chief of staff, Party Minister. Goebbels knew that this was an empty title. Even if he was willing and able to escape Berlin and reach the north, it was unlikely that Dönitz, whose only concern was to negotiate a settlement with the western Allies that would save Germany from Soviet occupation, would want such a notorious figure as Goebbels heading his government.

As it was, Goebbels had no intention of trying to escape. Voss later recounted: "When Goebbels learned that Hitler had committed suicide, he was very depressed and said: 'It is a great pity that such a man is not with us any longer. But there is nothing to be done. For us, everything is lost now and the only way left for us is the one which Hitler chose. I shall follow his example'."

On April 30<sup>th</sup>, with the Soviets advancing to within a few hundred meters of the bunker, Hitler dictated his last will and testament. Goebbels was one of four witnesses. Not long after completing it, Hitler shot himself. Of Hitler's death, Goebbels commented: "The heart of Germany has ceased to beat. The Führer is dead."

On May 1<sup>st</sup>, within hours of Hitler's suicide on April 30<sup>th</sup>, Goebbels completed his sole official act as Chancellor of Germany (Reichskanzler). He dictated a letter and ordered German General Hans Krebs, under a white flag, to meet with General Vasily Chuikov and to deliver his letter. Chuikov, as commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, commanded the Soviet forces in central Berlin. Goebbels' letter informed Chuikov of Hitler's death and requested a ceasefire, hinting that the establishment of a National Socialist government hostile to Western plutocracy would be beneficial to the Soviet Union, as the betrayal of Himmler and Göring indicated that otherwise anti-Soviet National Socialist elements might align themselves with the West. When this was rejected, Goebbels decided that further efforts were futile. Shortly afterward he dictated a postscript to Hitler's testament:

"The Führer has given orders for me, in case of a breakdown of defense of the Capital of the Reich, to leave Berlin and to participate as a leading member in a government appointed by him. For the first time in my life, I must categorically refuse to obey a command of the Führer. My wife and my children agree with this refusal. In any other case, I would feel myself ... a dishonorable renegade and vile scoundrel for my entire further life, who would lose the esteem of himself along with the esteem of his people, both of which would have to form the requirement for further duty of my person in designing the future of the German Nation and the German Reich."

Later on May 1<sup>st</sup>, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Erich_Voss Vice-Admiral Hans-Erich Voss] saw Goebbels for the last time: "Before the breakout from the bunker began, about ten generals and officers, including myself, went down individually to Goebbels's shelter to say goodbye. While saying goodbye I asked Goebbels to join us. But he replied: 'The captain must not leave his sinking ship. I have thought about it all and decided to stay here. I have nowhere to go because with little children I will not be able to make it'."

=== Death ===
At 8 pm on the evening of May 1<sup>st</sup>, Goebbels arranged for an [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] dentist, Helmut Kunz, to kill his six children by injecting them with morphine and then, when they were unconscious, crushing an ampule of cyanide in each of their mouths.

According to Kunz's testimony, he gave the children morphine injections but it was Magda Goebbels and Stumpfegger, Hitler's personal doctor, who then administered the cyanide. Shortly afterward, Goebbels and his wife went up to the garden of the Chancellery, where they killed themselves. The details of their suicides are uncertain.