Joseph Goebbels: The Nazi Party

Throughout World War II, the Nazi government, run by Adolf Hitler, ruled Germany with their extremist views. Because Germany was in the middle of a Great Depression, they had no one else to believe in but Hitler. He took advantage of Germany’s hopeless population by putting blame on the Jews for all of Germany’s problems. The Nazi Party and the Gestapo controlled Germany’s population, and sent Jews and other races that were deemed undesirable to the concentration camps. Hitler’s views inspired many leaders to join the Nazi Party, such as: Klaus Barbie, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goring, Rudolf Hess, and Friedrich Katzmann. These leaders either took part in rounding up the prisoners, taking a part in the police force, or taking a part in the
Nazi government itself. The Nazi Party was Germany’s political party during World War II. It was originally founded by Anton Drexler, and was called the German Workers Party. The party grew rapidly as members from war veteran and paramilitary groups joined, and membership later became mandatory. Germany's Great Depression also contributed in gaining members. The Party controlled German society, including cultural, political, and social activities. It was declared one political party on July 14, 1933. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, was declared chancellor in 1933, and this allowed for the Nazi Party to have more control in Germany’s government, the Reichstag. (Nazi Party) Adolf Hitler took control of the Nazi Party after Drexler. He was forced to serve eight months in prison after an unsuccessful attempt at a government overthrow. (Brezina, 8) After being released, Hitler developed a twenty-five point program that became the basis of the Nazi government. (Nazi Party) The Nazi Party viewed aspects of anti-semitism, (Brezina, 9), anti-marxism, anti-communism, anti-bolshevism, anti-slavism, and fascism. They showed their hatred of Jews through the Holocaust. (Nazi)
The Nazi Party had certain ideals that they taught to Nazi youth and the Nazi Party members. They respected and taught racial hygiene, and believed in the superiority of the white, Germanic, Nordic, and Aryan races. The party was taught to reject the very ideas of a democracy. (Nazi) The party believed that the Germanic race was superior, and called it the Aryan master race. They viewed the Jewish to be a poisonous race, and targeted gypsies, handicapped people, and African Americans. The Nazi Party deemed the deaf, mentally ill, and the blind to be inferior. The races to which the Nazis deemed inferior were operated on, to make them unable to have children. Nazi teachers began teaching Hitler’s principles of racial science, such as measuring and judging by nose length, skull size, hair color, and eye color. (Nazi Racism) The Nazi Party additionally supported Hitler’s hatred for the religion of Christianity and its beliefs. Hitler hated these aspects of Christianity: it protected the weak, Christianity was Jewish, it forgave sin, and he believed that the belief in salvation and resurrection were nonsense. (Trueman)
The Gestapo was Nazi Germany's political police, and was responsible, along with the SD, for the millions of Jews and other undesirable races that were rounded up and sent to death camps and/or concentration camps. (Gestapo) The Gestapo was created by Nazi leader Hermann Göring, and in 1934, it was taken over by Heinrich Himmler. (He was later replaced by Heinrich Mueller) The first head of the Gestapo was Rudolf Diels. (Trueman, Chris N. “The Gestapo”) The Gestapo had no restraints from the civil government to operate, and were apart of mobile kill squads. (Gestapo) They hunted threats to the Nazis such as: Jews, homosexuals, communists, and Jehovah’s witnesses. The Gestapo attacked resistance movements and their greatest weapon was the fear they created. It had its own court, laws, jury, and judges, and had the power to arrest, interrogate, and to incarcerate people. (Trueman, Chris N. “The Gestapo”) In 1939, the Gestapo became a part of the Reich Security Central Office. (aka, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt) (Gestapo) They used the legal process of People’s Court, where a death sentence for the victim was almost always guaranteed. The Gestapo was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials. The leader of the gestapo, Heinrich Mueller, was never brought to justice for his crimes. The atrocities that the gestapo committed by the International Tribunal. (Trueman, Chris N. “The Gestapo”)
One leader of the Nazi Party was Joseph Goebbels.
Joseph Paul Goebbels was born on October 29, 1897 in Rheydt, Germany. (“Joseph Goebbels." Britannica) He contracted polio as a young child, (Joseph), and as a result, he grew up with a clubfoot, that left him feeling inadequate from everyone else. Later on, he enrolled in the University of Bonn in 1917 to study literature. He volunteered to fight in World War I for Germany’s army, but was turned away due to his disability, height, and weight, but he was later called to the war to do paperwork. Goebbels joined the Hitler-lead Nazi Party in 1925, and became the district administrator of the party in 1926. He became one of the twelve Nazi deputies in 1928. Joseph was later promoted to the head of party propaganda, public information, and Nazi elections in 1930. (“Joseph Goebbels."
Britannica)
Under Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels served in the Third Reich, and was president of the newly created Chamber of Culture. (Joseph) In the mid-1920s, he began to view Jews as the cause for Germany’s economic issues, and he, as a result, became very violent towards Jews. In 1933, he was rewarded with the role of Reichsminister of Propaganda. (“Joseph Goebbels." Britannica) Goebbels controlled and organized boycotts of Jewish businesses, German society, and Foreign propaganda. (Joseph) On November 9, 1938, the event of Kristallnacht took place, to which Joseph Goebbels was responsible for. (“Joseph Goebbels." Britannica) He became the Reich Plenipotentiary for total war after pledging his support for total war on August 25, 1944. (Joseph)
Goebbels had the nickname “Father of Lies”, because he made up many uses of brainwashing, by using dishonesty to influence the minds of the German people.
One example of this is when Joseph told the German people that Hitler died fighting with the Nazi army, rather than telling the truth that Hitler committed suicide. At the end of the war, Goebbels was given the role of Reich chancellor that had been left to him by Hitler, but he decided not to fulfill the role. Joseph wanted to commit suicide soon after Hitler did, but could not bring himself to do it. Instead, he and his wife, Magda, later sedated their six children, then killed them. Soon after doing this, Goebbels and Magda killed themselves on May 1, 1945 in Berlin, Germany. (“Joseph Goebbels."
Britannica)