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Featured Event 1945 Death

May 1

Goebbels Dead in Bunker: Nazi Propaganda Machine Ends

He was Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and shot his wife and six children before shooting himself in the Reich Chancellery garden on May 1, 1945. Joseph Goebbels was born in Rheydt in 1897, had a clubfoot, and built the Nazi propaganda apparatus from a small party department into a ministry that controlled all German media. He was present at the Wannsee Conference. He burned books. He kept a diary that documented Nazi decision-making with disturbing clarity. He was Chancellor of Germany for one day. Then he killed himself and his family.

May 1, 1945

81 years ago

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