Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on the 29th of October 1897 in Rheydt, an industrial town south of Mönchengladbach near Düsseldorf. He suffered from a deformed right foot that turned inwards due to a congenital disorder or bone infection.
What role did Joseph Goebbels hold during World War II?
Hitler appointed Goebbels head of the newly created Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in March 1933. The ministry set up offices in the 18th-century Ordenspalais across from the Reich Chancellery to centralize Nazi control over all aspects of German cultural and intellectual life.
How did Joseph Goebbels die and when did his death occur?
On the 1st of May 1945 Goebbels and Magda left the bunker to walk up the garden of the Chancellery where they killed themselves with cyanide. Their bodies were doused with petrol and partially burned before being buried by Soviet forces at a SMERSH facility in Magdeburg.
Why did Joseph Goebbels support the extermination of Jewish people?
Goebbels was antisemitic from a young age but his views grew more radical after joining the Nazi Party. His diary entries show awareness of fate awaiting Jews and he stated publicly that a judgment is being carried out on the Jews which is barbaric but thoroughly deserved.
What happened to Joseph Goebbels' remains after World War II?
In 1970 KGB director Yuri Andropov authorized an operation to destroy the remains found in Magdeburg. A Soviet team used detailed burial charts to exhume five wooden boxes from the SMERSH facility and scattered the ashes into the Biederitz river tributary near the Elbe.