On this date, 1 May 1945, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, committed suicide with his wife after poisoning his children. I will post the information about him from Wikipedia.
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| Joseph Goebbels |
Chancellor of Germany | |
In office 30 April – 1 May 1945 | |
President | |
Preceded by | Adolf Hitler |
Succeeded by | Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk (acting) |
Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda | |
In office 13 March 1933 – 30 April 1945 | |
Chancellor | Adolf Hitler |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | Werner Naumann |
Gauleiter of Berlin | |
In office 9 November 1926 – 1 May 1945 | |
Appointed by | Adolf Hitler |
Preceded by | Ernst Schlange |
Succeeded by | None |
Reichsleiter | |
In office 1933–1945 | |
Appointed by | Adolf Hitler |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | None |
Personal details | |
Born | Paul Joseph Goebbels 29 October 1897 Rheydt, Prussia, Germany |
Died | 1 May 1945 (aged 47) Berlin, Germany |
Political party | National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) |
Spouse(s) | Magda Ritschel (m. 1931) |
Children | |
Alma mater | University of Bonn University of Würzburg University of Freiburg University of Heidelberg |
Occupation | Politician |
Cabinet | Hitler Cabinet |
Religion | unknown (formerly Roman Catholic) |
Paul Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devoted followers, he was known for his zealous orations and deep and virulent antisemitism, which led him strongly to support the extermination of the Jews when the Nazi leadership developed their "Final Solution".
Goebbels earned a PhD from Heidelberg University in 1921 with a doctoral thesis on 19th-century literature of the Romantic school. He found work as a journalist and later as a bank clerk and caller on the stock exchange. He also wrote novels and plays, which were rejected by publishers. Goebbels came into contact with the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP) or Nazi Party in 1923 during the French occupation of the Ruhr and became a member in 1924. In 1926 he was appointed Gauleiter (regional party leader) of Berlin. In this position, he put his propaganda skills to full use, attacking the Social Democratic Party of Germany and Communist Party of Germany and seeking to win over their working class supporters. Goebbels stressed the need for the Nazis to emphasize both a proletarian and national character. By 1928, he had risen in the party ranks to become one of its most prominent members.
Goebbels came to power in 1933 after Hitler was appointed chancellor; within six weeks Hitler arranged his appointment as Propaganda Minister. One of Goebbels' first acts was to organize the burning of "decadent" books. Under Goebbels' leadership, the Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted controlling supervision over the news media, arts and information in Germany.
From the beginning of his tenure, Goebbels organized actions against German Jews, commencing with a one-day boycott of Jewish businessmen, doctors, and lawyers on 1 April 1933. These actions eventually led to the outright violence of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938, an open and unrestrained pogrom unleashed by the Nazis across Germany, in which synagogues were burned, Jewish-owned businesses were trashed, Jews were assaulted (many killed), and thousands of Jews were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. Goebbels commissioned a series of antisemitic films including The Eternal Jew and Jud Süß(both 1940). Jud Süß is widely considered to be "one of the most antisemitic films of all time." Goebbels' antisemitic propaganda promoted stereotypes of Jews as materialistic, immoral, cunning, untrustworthy and physically unattractive and rootless wanderers. Goebbels made it a point in such films to warn German girls of the "sexual devastation that Jews had wrought in the past" and to remind them of the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935, which prohibited any sexual relations between Aryans and Jews. In the Nazi ideology, such relations were Rassenschande(racial disgrace), a dishonor of Aryan blood,[7] and were made a punishable offense.
During World War II, Goebbels increased his power and influence through adroit and shifting alliances with other Nazi leaders. By mid-1943, the tide of war was turning against the Axis powers; Goebbels responded by urging the Germans to embrace the idea of total war and mobilization. He remained with Hitler in Berlin to the end. Before he committed suicide, Hitler named Goebbels his successor as Chancellor in his will. Goebbels and his wife Magda killed their six young childrenby giving them poison, then committed suicide. The couple's bodies were burned in a shell crater, but due to the lack of petrol, the burning was only partially effective.