Editing Joseph Goebbels (section)

=== 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.