[OCTOBER 29, 1897–MAY 1, 1945]

Nazi propagandist and close associate of Hitler

Joseph Goebbels was second only to Adolf Hitler as a propagandist of the Nazi movement. Small and sickly as a child, he was deemed ineligible for military service because of a clubfoot. His able and agile mind nonetheless led him to obtain a doctoral degree in German literature in 1921.

Goebbels joined the Nazi Party in 1924, entering a milieu where his talents were quickly recognized. Hitler appointed him as head of the Nazi Party in Berlin in 1926. In that city the party was in chaos, but within a year, Goebbels had expelled a third of the membership, put those remaining to work in creating effective propaganda, and begun a weekly newspaper titled Der Angriff (The attack). He made Bernhard Weiss (whom he nicknamed "Idisor"), the Jewish deputy commissioner of the Berlin police, his particular target. Although support for the Nazi...