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What kind of people make you ashamed to be a human being?

Some people may know this woman, others may not. She is , the wife of 's Propaganda Minister, .

In April of 1945, the Nazi Regime collapsed. Hitler went to his bunker under the Chancellor Building in . During this time many of the top Nazi officials sent their wives and children away to a safer area. However, Magda had insisted on joining her husband when he commit suicide beside the Fuhrer. This alone was a disturbing aspect to see how fanatically loyal someone can become to a cause, but it is only made worse when she brought her six children- Helga (12), Hilde (11), Helmut (10), Holde (9), Hedwig (7) and Heidrun (4). Before April in 1945, Joseph Goebbels had attempted to persuade Magda to take herself and the children to safety on numerous occasions. Curt Reiss's book, along with many other biographies on Goebbels identify this fact. He suggested that her wife take herself and the children to a neutral area. Magda refused to do so. On a later date, he also suggested to Magda that she should consider taking herself and the children to the British, claiming they wouldn't hurt her or the children. Once again, she refused. Throughout their time of being in the Bunker, they both received repeated offers to take the children to safety. Each time, they refused. In the end, both Magda and Joseph inevitably organized an SS dentist to give the children morphine injections in order for them to be put to sleep. While they were asleep, she went ahead and crushed cyanide into their mouths. Five of them died suddenly except for the eldest, Helga. When the Russians found the children's bodies in the Bunker, Helga had bruises and marks all over face with her jaw being reportedly broken. It has been speculated that Helga must have woken upon from the morphine and fought off her murderer, who was her own mother. By all accounts, the children were murdered as she could not see the children growing up in a world without National Socialism. Or, to put in the lamest terms, a world without Hitler. There was also the issue with the Russians to put into consideration as well. The Russians were surrounding Berlin from all directions and raping as many girls and women as they could. The Goebbels family had five young girls under the age of twelve. If the Russians had found them alive, it is likely they would have done the same to them. Personally, I can never comprehend thinking about murdering your own children. When putting into perspective the situation they were in, herself and Joseph committing suicide can be understandable (I don’t support or hold any sympathy, I’m merely stating it is understandable why they believed they had no alternative option), but to murder your own children is something else entirely. Had Magda taken the children and herself out of Berlin months prior, they all very well could have survived.

This is a picture of her children and husband. Magda also had another child from her previous marriage, Harold, however, he had been captured by the Allies and was not present in the Bunker when Magda murdered them.

Top l-r: Hilde (11), Helmut (10), Helga (12). Bottom l-r: Hedwig (7), Joseph (47), Heidrun (4) and Holde (9).

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