Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)

Member of the Nazi Party from 1924 and of the Reichstag from 1928. Nazi Party leader (Gauleiter) in Berlin from 1926-1945. Goebbels was the Nazi Party’s head of propaganda and in 1933 he was appointed Reich Minister of Propaganda, a position he kept until the end of the war. Goebbels was the man behind the Nazis’ organised anti-Semitic propaganda, starting well before 1933. He was behind the boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933 as well as responsible for anti-Semitic movies such as Der Ewige Jude (‘The Eternal Jew’) and Jud Süss. On 1 May 1945 – disobeying orders from Hitler – Goebbels committed suicide together with his whole family in the Fuehrer bunker in Berlin.