Sunday, November 29, 2009

Goebbels could rarely disguise that he walked with a limp. But how did he acquire this disability? There is certainly no truth in the rumour he himself spread that it stemmed from a wartime injury. He was rejected by the German armed forces because of poor health, merely serving as an army clerk for a few months in 1917. But neither was he born with a club foot. This was a myth spread by his political enemies, who mocked that a member of the vaunted 'master race' was congenitally a weakling. Almost certainly the problem stemmed from the poliomyelitis he contracted as a child.

Goebbels was perhaps the only person in the Third Reich who could smile and laugh with Hitler around and get away with it.



.....for it was he who skilfully propagated the idea that Hitler was some sort of superman-saviour who would rescue Germany from humiliation and return her to greatness. His most important achievement, he said, was the 'Hitler myth': it was he who gave Hitler 'the halo of infallibility'. Hugh Trevor-Roper once judged that, had Hitler's other lieutenants not existed, Nazism would have been much the same; but Goebbels was 'an impresario of genius', without whom Nazism would have been very different.

Yet this consummate cynic --who insisted in his diary that 'Life is shit' -- was in fact a closet romantic.

Initially Goebbels and Hitler had different political views and ambitions and were not at all friends or allies. But Hitler immediately understood that Goebbels could be very useful to him because of his experience as a writer and his talent for distributing propaganda.

Joseph Goebbels relationship with Hitler before, and during the war was not always rosy. His position within the Nazi Party changed several times depending upon alliances and changes of fortune. Hitler intervened in Goebbels personal affairs in regard to his wanton womanizing which infuriated Goebbels.

"When Goebbels learned that Hitler had committed suicide, he was very depressed and said: 'It is a great pity that such a man is not with us any longer. But there is nothing to be done. For us, everything is lost now and the only way left for us is the one which Hitler chose. I shall follow his example'."



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GREAT HISTORY VIDEOS



Joseph Goebbels has often been cited as the man who did the most to help Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rise to power; he was the architect of the party's propaganda machine and helped to craft the public image of Hitler as he became one of the most hated and feared leaders of his time, and masterminded the greatest crime of the 20th Century. However, while Hitler's life outside of politics has long been a subject of interest, less is known about Goebbels, and The Goebbels Experiment is a documentary which draws upon Goebbels' own journals and rare archival to craft a portrait of his private side, including his passion for the Nazi cause, his devotion to Hitler, his battle with depression, his dramatic mood swings, and his severe contempt for anyone who did not live up to his standards.


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