01x01 - Josef Goebbels

[bunniefuu]

They seem like ordinary men.

Articulate, educated, civilised.

But they will turn into
depraved, twisted monsters.

They will commit
acts of unimaginable cruelty

for which they will feel
no shame or remorse.

Here is true evil.

(CANNON FIRES)

Berlin, 1945.

At the heart of the ruined city,

the charred remains of
Dr Joseph Goebbels and his wife.

Close by, the dead bodies
of their six children.

The Goebbels' k*ll their own
children, poison them,

because their love for Hitler
and their love for Nazism

is just so great

that they'd rather
commit infanticide

than to see the world
without their beloved Fuhrer

and their beloved Nazism.

Joseph Goebbels -

the n*zi master of propaganda
and marketing.

Joseph Goebbels
was brilliant at his job.

He starts using simple imagery,
simple wording,

and he knew
exactly what he was doing.

He knew his audience.

Joseph Goebbels,
the man who sold Hitler.

Goebbels elevates Hitler
into a godlike figure,

into a divine presence,

and imbues him with a spirituality

that he hopes
will inspire people on a level

that transcends anything that
ordinary politicians could offer.

Joseph Goebbels,
the club-footed socialist,

university academic, and novelist.

(CROWD CHANTS)

This extraordinarily intelligent man

was one of the most evil men
in history.

(SHIP HORN BLARES)

Born in 1897 near Dusseldorf,

Paul Joseph Goebbels is the sickly
child of a bookkeeping clerk.

Life wasn't particularly easy
for Joseph Goebbels.

He contracted polio very young,

which left him club-footed
and physically frail.

As a student he excels,

at school and then here
at Heidelberg University,

and he decides to become a novelist.

He is a highly intelligent person.

He earns a doctorate
in Romance language and literature

at Heidelberg University.

Goebbels, like many academics,
is left wing.

He believes in a large state,
and state control.

He blames free-market capitalism
for ruining Germany.

Goebbels in the early years is more on
the socialist side of National Socialism.

He is interested in
bringing down capitalism.

Goebbels has read Karl Marx.

Marx vilifies the Jews as usurers
and money-worshippers.

Marx calls Polish Jews
"the smeariest of all races".

Marx even calls his political
opponents "Jewish n*gg*r*s".

Goebbels had a pathological hatred
for capitalism.

He associated capitalism
with a Jewish conspiracy,

and his attacks on the Jews
were inextricably linked

to this hatred of a new,
modern, capitalistic society

which he thought
had corrupted the values

of a traditional and pure Germany.

But Goebbels sees Soviet-style
socialism as the wrong kind.

The Communists
favour industrialisation.

Some of their leaders are Jewish.

They proclaim themselves
internationalists.

Trotsky and his followers argued for
a worldwide revolution.

Goebbels' romantic socialism
looks to the pre-capitalist past.

He idealises
not the industrial working class

but the rural German folk, or Volk.

In the 1920s, Goebbels
is looking for political direction.

He finds it when he comes across
a Bavarian activist - Adolf Hitler.

SHAWCROSS: This is a lightning bolt
moment for Goebbels.

He says, "What Hitler has to say"

"chimes exactly
with what I'm thinking"

"but haven't been able to express."

It's transformational.

MAN: When he had seen Hitler speak,
he had been mesmerised by him,

and in his diaries, he talks about

how he almost feels
a love for Hitler.

He refers to Hitler
as "half-commoner, half-god".

CROWD: Sieg Heil!

Goebbels is enthralled by Hitler

and, as it happens,
Hitler needs Goebbels.

When Goebbels joins the n*zi Party,

it is little more than
a local Bavarian sect.

In Berlin, few people have heard
of Hitler's National Socialists.

It will be Goebbels' job to go there
and put the Nazis on the map.

MAN: This is really significant,
because up until then,

the Nazis
had only really been successful

in their home area around Bavaria,

and Berlin was still largely
under the thrall of the Communists

and other parties.

So, to crack Berlin was a key aim
and objective for the Nazis

and Hitler entrusted it personally
to Goebbels.

In Berlin, Goebbels' first challenge
is to get the Nazis noticed.

In the early years, the Nazis didn't have
control of media outlets or newspapers.

They needed to orchestrate
publicity-grabbing stunts,

and to use an old marketing adage,

no publicity is bad publicity.

Goebbels
makes rabble-rousing speeches

and organises n*zi rallies,
which spill over into violence.

GREEN: Goebbels believes that
Berliners need action and sensation

to keep them engaged,

so when he arrives in Berlin
he incites violence.

He incites people to be angry

and there are lots of riots
and attacks and thuggery,

and he sees this as a way of
swelling the n*zi cause.

Goebbels has the n*zi supporters
dress in home-made uniforms.

These Brownshirts intimidate

and carry out attacks
on h*m*, Communists,

but especially Jews
and Jewish businesses.

The Brownshirts are brazen.

Their attacks are widely reported
in the papers.

(CROWD SHOUTS)

The Nazis of course
were a primary perpetrator

of street violence in Berlin.

The n*zi Brownshirts would be
deliberately sent to a neighbourhood

just to invite trouble.

Goebbels is above all,
at this stage, a rabble rouser.

He really wants
to have actual fights

that are going to create publicity,
create a sense of conflict,

and are therefore just going to
get the Nazis into the news.

But Goebbels wants his own
propaganda vehicle,

so in August 1927, he sets up
a National Socialist newspaper.

It's called Der Angriff -
The Attack -

and that's exactly its purpose.

It was full of vicious attacks

on Communists, Jews, Freemasons,
you name it.

Any supposed enemy of Nazism.

SHAWCROSS: Goebbels used Der Angriff
to focus on

what he thought were the most
important issues of the day,

and perhaps more than
any other leading n*zi,

Goebbels thought the most important
issue of the day were the Jews.

Goebbels calls for
a boycott of Jewish shops

and sends out his Brownshirts

to intimidate ordinary Germans
from using them.

It is they,
the capitalistic, commercial Jews,

who are behind
all Germany's problems.

Goebbels demonises the Jews
in just about every way possible.

The essential message
which he puts in every outlet

is the Jews are to blame.

The Jews are to blame
for everything.

If there's a food shortage,
it's the Jews.

If there's violence, it's the Jews.

NEWSREEL: The New York
Stock Exchange is in a panic.

Everyone wants to sell.

With the Wall Street crash of 1929,

Goebbels' vilification of the Jews
reaches new levels.

Firms fold. Unemployment rises.

Recession spreads around the world.

Berlin is the political capital

but it is also
a manufacturing centre,

and it is clobbered
by the unemployment crisis.

And if all that is not bad enough,

the federal government doesn't seem
to be able to do anything about it.

The crash marks the end
of an easy credit boom,

caused by money printing.

This is the fault
of the American Federal Reserve

and other central banks.

But Goebbels, as ever,
blames the Jews.

(SPEAKS GERMAN)

(CHEERING)

In the run-up to the 1930 election,

Goebbels' poisonous anti-Semitic
campaign is a spectacular success.

The Nazis become the second-largest
party in the Reichstag.

But Goebbels knows
that hate is not enough.

To secure power for the Nazis,

he decides to use
the latest marketing techniques,

and for these he turns to America.

Although Joseph Goebbels
hates capitalism,

he is intrigued by the emerging
advertising industry in America.

American capitalism is producing
vast numbers of consumer goods.

Keeping the coffee in the icebox?

VOICEOVER: Yes, Mr Jones.
It's a new kind of coffee.

To market these goods,

new forms of communication and sales
techniques are being developed.

Goebbels will copy the techniques
used by the ad men on Madison Avenue,

not to sell breakfast cereal
and washing-up powder

but to sell the Nazis.

Goebbels is in the sales business.

He knows he has to sell Hitler
and he has to sell the n*zi Party,

so he turns to
the world of advertising

and he becomes fascinated
and enthralled

by American advertising companies
of the period.

He even hires one
and brings them over.

He could have been selling
washing machines or fridges

with the techniques that he's using

but actually he's selling
the darkness of Nazism.

MAN: Goebbels starts using
very recognisable imagery.

It's simple imagery,
simple lettering, simple wording.

And Goebbels uses his messages
repeatedly.

He's very clever.

They work on a simple level

but if he puts them into a brain
often enough,

they really sink in, they work,
they mean something to people,

and he knew exactly
what he was doing.

He knew his audience.
It was clever stuff.

This drumbeat of repetition

makes people feel
the ideas have to be right,

and they become an innate part
of the way people see the world,

and that is a propaganda
and political tactic

that is still very widely used
today.

ALL: Heil, mein Fuhrer!

Dr Joseph Goebbels applies his newly
acquired marketing techniques

to transform the image
of Adolf Hitler.

Hitler is seen by many Germans

as just a small-minded,
thuggish rabble-rouser -

hateful, embittered,
backward-looking.

But in the run-up
to the 1932 elections,

Goebbels tries to recast him as
modern, dynamic and optimistic.

He sends Hitler on a speaking tour
across Germany.

Hitler travels by plane,
which makes him look glamorous.

Goebbels arranges for Hitler
to speak at rally after rally

with a message of hope and renewal.

(CROWD CHEERS)

The petty Bavarian thug starts to
look like a thoughtful statesman,

with a worked-out set of policies
to turn Germany around.

And it works.

NEWSREEL: The final touch to Adolf
Hitler's vigorous election campaign

was to register his vote.

Here you see the n*zi leader
entering the polling booth,

watched by a small
but enthusiastic crowd.

When Germany takes to the polls
on November 6th, 1932,

over 11 million people
vote for Hitler.

The n*zi Party becomes
the largest in the Reichstag.

Within months, Hitler becomes
Chancellor of Germany.

NEWSREEL: Hitler
gets a tremendous ovation

when leaving
for his first cabinet meeting.

Joseph Goebbels
writes in his diary that night,

"The new Reich has been born.
The German revolution has begun."

When Hitler is appointed chancellor,
he is not instantly a dictator.

He does not instantaneously have
total political control in Germany.

The dictatorship has to be built,

and to do that,
propaganda is fundamental.

From America, Goebbels has learned

the immense marketing power
of celebrity.

Hitler is still
just another German politician.

But Goebbels sets out
to work on his image.

From now on, Hitler will be sold

as the almost mystical redeeming
saviour of the German people -

their guide, their Fuhrer.

This is the beginning
of Adolf Hitler, n*zi superstar.

Goebbels begins to manufacture
an image of Hitler

as this kind of messianic,
almost cult-like figure.

(CROWD CHEERS)

CROWD: Heil!

Heil!

Heil! Heil Hitler!

Goebbels elevates Hitler
into a godlike figure,

into a divine presence, and
imbues him with a spirituality

that he hopes will inspire people

on a level that transcends anything

that ordinary politicians
could offer.

...marschiert Deutschland,
und hinter uns kommt Deutschland!

(CROWD CHEERS)

Over the radio, on film,

in his carefully staged
public appearances,

Hitler is depicted
as a national superhero,

idolised by his screaming fans.

(CROWD CHEERING, SCREAMING)

This is not just clever marketing.
It's not just spin.

Goebbels himself believes in this,
and believes in it passionately.

He has a dedicated and almost
mystical devotion to the Fuhrer.

CROWD: Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

REMY: I think
of all high-ranking n*zi leaders,

Joseph Goebbels' devotion to Hitler
is the most intense.

This is a godless religion, Nazism,

and it has its messiah
in the form of Hitler,

but you can certainly see Goebbels as perhaps
the highest priest in this religion.

The Nazis have gained as much support
as they ever will

by free and democratic means.

They now move to establish
a dictatorship,

and as they do,
Goebbels' job changes.

It is no longer
to influence how people vote,

it is to control what they think.

The first act of n*zi thought control
comes from Germany's universities.

In May 1933, thousands of academics
march in torchlit parades

against the un-German spirit.

In Berlin alone, 40,000 teachers
and students build bonfires

to burn politically incorrect books.

Hundreds of professors sign petitions
supporting the Nazis.

More than half
of Germany's university students

are members
of the n*zi Student Organisation.

97% of Germany's teachers enrol
in the n*zi Teachers Association.

Of all groups supporting the Nazis,

German intellectuals
are among the most enthusiastic.

Book burnings were attended by
many of Germany's leading academics.

It's a sad fact that academics have
not always supported free speech.

Far from it.

REMY: Goebbels is not behind this.

When he finds out
that it's taking place,

of course he rushes to the scene

and he announces
his full support for it.

He very much wants to have control
over these kinds of things

but this was a spontaneous action

taken by highly radicalised
n*zi university students,

and one that he was
in complete support of.

As the books burn,

Goebbels declares the end of Jewish
influence on intellectual life.

GOEBBELS: Heil! Heil!
CROWD: Heil! Heil!

Universities are no longer
places of free and open debate.

Unacceptable opinions are censored.

To extend this regulation of ideas
throughout society,

Goebbels sets up the Reich Ministry of
Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Let's not forget
the Ministry for Propaganda

is also called the Ministry for
Propaganda and Enlightenment.

And only in dictatorships do you
have ministries for enlightenment

in which you are trying
to show the population

what they should be thinking,
and to enlighten them.

To control what Germans think,

Goebbels knows he must control
what they hear and read and say.

Differences of opinion,

the kind of thing you might expect
in a liberal democracy,

were anathema to the n*zi state.

Goebbels directed peoples' thoughts.

Goebbels's job is conformity.

There can be
no diversity of opinion.

Either you think and believe
as a n*zi

or you're an enemy of the state.

As under Communist socialism,
state regulation of the media

will become a cornerstone
of n*zi rule,

and a necessary first step
towards the horrors of Auschwitz.

To establish a dictatorship,
the Nazis must k*ll free speech,

so Goebbels attacks
privately owned newspapers.

He says they reflect the views
of fat cat capitalists,

they spread fake news.

To protect the German public
from their lies,

newspapers will now be regulated
by the state.

News is brought entirely under
the control of Goebbels,

so every idea, every opinion,
every reflection

has to go through Goebbels.

REMY: Of course,
the other side of that is

eliminating oppositional press,
a free press,

and Goebbels is at the centre of it.

Journalists will no longer

answer to the capitalistic
private owners of newspapers.

Newspapers will no longer
compete for readers

in the marketplace
of ideas and opinions.

News will be provided by the state.

The state will be the guardian
of public opinion.

Almost single-handedly he turns
journalists into civil servants,

he turns newspapers effectively
into pro-government pamphlets,

and any newspaper that's seen to
say anything even slightly critical

or not supportive of the n*zi regime

is simply shut down.

With newspapers under n*zi control,

Goebbels turns his attention
to the new media of the time.

LEVINE: For Joseph Goebbels,

the ultimate tool of propaganda
was the radio.

The newspaper, you actually have to
make the effort to read it,

or a book - you have to make
the effort to read it.

But by its very nature,

radio can just be on
in the background.

You can just be picking it up
almost subliminally.

It's a very sort of invasive
form of information.

It was the ultimate means
of propaganda,

and he used it to the hilt.

In capitalist America,

private citizens
are free to set up radio stations,

but in n*zi Germany,
Goebbels bans private radio stations.

Only the state is allowed to
broadcast radio programs.

But in this, he is simply
following Britain's lead.

SHAWCROSS: The Nazis imposed state
control and monopoly of radio.

Of course, the British were doing
exactly the same thing with the BBC.

To help get the message out,

Goebbels makes available
a state-subsidised affordable radio -

the Volksempfaenger,
the "People's Receiver".

He has loudspeakers installed
in public squares, offices, schools,

and even restaurants.

n*zi propaganda is inescapable.

(SPEECH ON RADIO
PLAYS IN BACKGROUND)

But the most exciting new media
of the interwar years is film.

German cinemas
are full of Hollywood movies.

But Hollywood is Jewish
and interracial.

Its movies promote
poisonous capitalistic ideals,

like freedom and individualism.

Germany has budding
talented directors,

like Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder,

but many of them are either anti-n*zi
or, worse still, Jewish.

To counter
the influence of Hollywood,

Goebbels bans American movies
of which n*zi censors disapprove

and he sets up
a n*zi state film industry.

WALTERS: The German film industry

when it comes under
Goebbels' control

starts going from what should be
an artistic powerhouse

of fantastic films made by
independent, dazzling filmmakers

into simply yet another organ
of the n*zi state.

If you live under the n*zi
government and you're a filmmaker,

you don't want to take many risks.

Obviously, the consequences
could be quite severe.

So, although not all films
were overtly propagandistic,

the ones that were made
purely for entertainment's sake

tended to be sort of banal and trite
and actually universally terrible.

You see classically,
of course, Jewish figures

presented in this very hackneyed,
Shylockian way.

(SPEAKS GERMAN)

British and American films are
full of humour, irony and satire.

The Germans, none.

(SPEAKS GERMAN)

The Nazis were deadly serious
and dull.

Life under n*zi rule is miserable
for German cinema audiences,

but head of the n*zi state
film industry Joseph Goebbels

is having a great time.

He runs a really quite effective
casting couch.

If you want a good part in a film

that's under the auspices
of Joseph Goebbels -

and all the films are under
the auspices of Joseph Goebbels -

then it's quite a good idea
to start an affair with him.

One ambitious actress
keen to advance her career

is the alluring Lida Baarova.

Goebbels begins a two-year affair
with Baarova.

For sleeping with Goebbels,
Baarova is richly rewarded.

In the 1930s,
she'll star in 34 films.

Goebbels' control of the newsreels,
meanwhile,

allows him to turn himself and his
family into household celebrities.

Goebbels has married
divorcee Magda Quandt.

They now have six children -

Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Holdine,
Heidrun and Hedwig.

Goebbels features them
in his cinema newsreels -

a kind of n*zi Brady Bunch.

GREEN: Some of the leading n*zi
military commanders would drop in,

almost like visitors
on a celebrity chat show,

and they are portrayed in the
newsreels - at his instruction -

as the perfect n*zi family.

Magda is the pure
and saintly mother,

and the children themselves
are meant to represent

the Aryan future of Germany.

Behind the scenes,
things are more complicated.

Goebbels' wife
is in love with Hitler,

and Hitler is rather keen
on Goebbels' wife.

You can see
there's an attraction there -

maybe something to do with the fact
that Magda was quite upper class,

and that was something
that appealed to Hitler.

In Berlin, the rumour is that Magda
is sleeping with the Fuhrer.

This hardly fits with
Hitler's godlike public image.

He doesn't want
to be involved in that.

He wants to stay clear of that.

He wants to stay as pure
as Germany is pure.

But the reputation of Hitler
is quite safe.

The n*zi state controls
every means of communication

across the whole of Germany.

Goebbels was one of the first
key political figures to realise

how important propaganda is

with all these emerging
new technologies.

He recognises that you have to have
control across the board

of film, emerging television,
radio, books.

And actually, that's probably
Goebbels' smartest move -

is realising that you need to
lump them together.

LEVINE: Goebbels' ministry gave him
an astonishing level of control.

It gave it to this one individual,
this one man,

who could decide
what everybody read,

what everybody listened to,
what everybody did,

how everybody grew up,
how everybody thought, all of it.

Goebbels is, if you like,
a kind of spider

at the middle of this
enormous web of propaganda,

and that's instrumental in
brainwashing the German populace.

CROWD: Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!

With the full power of the state
at his disposal,

Goebbels has all but extinguished
free speech.

Germans are subjected to a constant
barrage of state propaganda.

It becomes unacceptable
to hold dissenting views.

They are able to eliminate
all political opposition

when they make all forms
of political opposition

extremely dangerous.

They create a situation
in which it is extremely dangerous

for Germans to stand up for
their fellow Germans -

for their neighbours,
for their friends,

acquaintances, for their co-workers.

State media control
now allows the Nazis

to do pretty much what they like.

They are in a position to remove
all restraints on themselves,

to begin
putting into actual practice

this idea of removing Jews
and Jewish influence from Germany.

(SHOUTING)

In this rarely seen footage,

Nazis drag Jewish people
from their homes.

Women and old people
are stripped naked and are beaten.

Their homes are taken,
their possessions are taken,

they are dragged and driven,
humiliated and terrified,

into the ghettos.

(CROWD SHOUTS, CHANTS)

There are many Germans
appalled by what they witness,

but Joseph Goebbels' state control of
the media denies them any platform.

The voices of opposition
have been isolated and silenced.

But Joseph Goebbels,
the n*zi's master of propaganda,

faces a new challenge

when in 1939
Hitler decides to invade Poland.

The cost of rebuilding and expanding
Germany's military machine

is staggering, running to
tens of billions of Reichmarks.

This has landed Germany
with a vast national debt.

Hitler's supersized army
cannot be supported indefinitely.

It needs to pay its way,
and that means w*r.

Very few Germans
actively wanted to go to w*r.

There was still a kind of w*r
weariness that afflicted society.

2 million people had died
in the First World w*r,

so it wasn't high up
on anyone's agenda,

but it was Goebbels' job as Minister
of Propaganda to change their minds.

To justify a w*r,
you need an enemy and a threat.

Goebbels helps to sell the idea
that Poland needs to be invaded

through first of all
blaming the Jews,

and also indicating that, really,
Poland is this pretty strong power

that is going to ally itself
with Britain,

and if n*zi Germany
doesn't strike first,

the strike may come
the other way round.

So therefore, it's this idea
of a pre-emptive counterattack

that's very successfully sold
by Goebbels.

Invading Poland is not only
justified, says Goebbels,

there is a compelling need to do so.

NEWSREEL: Poland,
September 1939.

The German foe begins its ruthless
march of conquest.

As head of propaganda, Goebbels
turns the w*r to his advantage.

He won support for the Nazis
with a message of hate.

He established Hitler as Fuhrer
with a message of hope.

Now he will secure total obedience
by instilling fear.

All sort of rules came in
for ordinary Germans.

You weren't allowed, for example, to
listen to a foreign radio station -

that was punishable by death.

If you did anything
that was considered anti-German,

then you were off to a concentration
camp or you were going to be k*lled.

It was a very narrow path.

You had to be completely pro-German.

You had to be totally loyal,
you had to be patriotic,

and if you veered
even slightly off the path,

then you were in big danger.

Goebbels cannot hide from the German
people the existence of the ghettos,

or the thousands of concentration
camps under construction.

Ordinary Germans know
that their Jewish neighbours

are being beaten and taken away.

They hear the shocking stories
told by German soldiers on leave.

WALTERS: Inevitably,
reports of atrocities

committed by the advancing Germans
going into Poland

start to emerge.

Now, Goebbels just goes into...
not just full denial mode,

but also starts to say, "If anything,
it's the Jews are to blame."

Goebbels reassures German people

that harsh actions in w*r
are regrettable but necessary.

He orders every film studio
in Germany

to produce more anti-Semitic
propaganda films.

Films like The Eternal Jew.

The film is shot
in the Polish ghettos.

Very few of the people featured
in the film will survive the w*r.

For the first year of the w*r,

Goebbels' propaganda machine
is running smoothly.

As the Wehrmacht march at speed

into Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Norway, France,

Belgium, Luxembourg
and the Netherlands,

the Allies can do little
to stop them.

For the Nazis,
it's a good news story,

but Goebbels is careful
to manage expectations.

SELWOOD: Underneath it all,
though,

Goebbels realises
that excess is not a good thing.

He sees himself
as the nation's physician.

His role in his mind
is to keep the national mood

at a steady, even temperature.

But now one of Goebbels' underlings
makes a mistake.

n*zi Press Officer Otto Dietrich

announces triumphantly that
the w*r in the east is all but over.

The Russians will surrender
within weeks.

LEVINE: Now, Goebbels knew
that this wasn't the case.

He knew that the fighting
was still going to be long

and it was still going to be bloody.

A lie on that scale that was almost
immediately going to be uncovered

would really shatter confidence
in his whole system,

so he was absolutely furious
with Dietrich about this.

By 1942,
the course of the w*r is changing.

Goebbels, the head of propaganda,

is one of the few Germans
who knows what's really going on.

For the Nazis,
good news is turning into bad.

NEWSREEL: At dusk
the colossal forces set out.

Allied w*r production
is quickly overtaking Germany's.

Hermann Goering's Luftwaffe
is losing control of the skies.

Hitler's aircraft are outclassed
and outnumbered.

Meanwhile the glorious offensive in
the East comes to a juddering halt.

German soldiers
are being slaughtered.

In n*zi newsreels, Goebbels tries to
put a positive spin on events,

but some news can't be buried.

The Russians, who have suffered so
much at the hands of the German army,

are paying them back in kind.

In the Battle of Stalingrad alone,

half a million Germans will be
k*lled, wounded or captured.

NEWSREEL: These prisoners
are just a few of over 300,000.

w*r has put an end
to the absurd n*zi parades.

The smart goose-stepping soldiers
are now dying of frostbite.

All the big talk about an Aryan
master race is wearing thin.

The euphoria has gone.

Defeat on the Eastern Front is
a turning point for the n*zi Reich.

Goebbels looks to Hitler
to stir the national spirits,

to encourage the troops,

to work his Svengali magic...

...but Hitler is nowhere to be seen.

The n*zi superstar
has gone into hiding.

NEWSREEL: New and appropriate film
has reached us.

It shows further episodes in the Red
Army's greatest victory so far -

the victory at Stalingrad.

As the w*r progresses, Hitler takes
less of a prominent public role.

So, in 1943,
he only delivers two speeches.

This is very, very difficult
for Goebbels' propaganda machine,

because how do they explain this?

He is absolutely
the focus of Nazism.

He is the embodiment of Nazism,
and if he's not appearing anymore

it's very difficult for Goebbels
to explain the reason why.

It seems to suggest
that something is going wrong.

SHAWCROSS: If this had been
any other leader,

they would have got rid of him.

But this is Hitler.

Goebbels has presented him as the
answer to all of Germany's problems.

He's turned him into a god.

The Fuhrer
loved the grand n*zi parades

and the cheering crowds,

but the growing certainty
that Germany will lose the w*r

leaves him disorientated,
paranoid and morose.

It is down to Joseph Goebbels
to try and rally the German people.

On the 18th of February, 1943,

Joseph Goebbels makes a speech
at the Sportpalast in Berlin

which is broadcast
to the whole of Germany.

The speech Goebbels gives
at the Sportpalast

electrifies the audience.

It's about total w*r.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

It's about blood, sacrifice,
determination.

And he gives the German people
a simple choice -

there is either total w*r and
total victory, or total defeat.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

Goebbels' oratory is mesmeric

but the euphoria is short-lived.

Most Germans, it seems, aren't as
keen as he is on total sacrifice.

As discontent grows,
Goebbels orders further clampdowns.

REMY: As Germany's military fortunes
deteriorate,

it becomes increasingly dangerous

for Germans to talk about the w*r,

and more and more Germans are being
punished for expressing defeatism.

Throughout 1943,
around 100 Germans a week

are being shot
for defeatism or sabotage.

They're being shot
for telling the truth.

Germany is going to lose the w*r.

NEWSREEL: While the big g*ns
fought it out

with hidden n*zi shore batteries,

our first wave moved in.

With the Allied D-Day invasion,

Goebbels' task
looks increasingly hopeless.

The skies over Germany are crowded

with thousands upon thousands
of American and British planes.

Millions of tonnes of bombs

are blowing Germany's factories,
railways and homes into oblivion.

Hitler is hiding from the carnage,

leaving Goebbels to inspect the
smoking ruins of Germany's cities.

But what can he say,
this master of propaganda?

Blaming the Jews won't work.

And newsreel pictures
of grinning Aryan children

do little to cheer a population that
is fearful and grieving and starving.

In an attempt to boost morale,

Goebbels announces a space-age
wonder weapon - the V-1 rocket.

It can carry a one-tonne expl*sive

into the heart of enemy territory

at 400 miles an hour.

This, Goebbels claims, will turn
the w*r in Germany's favour.

The V-1 flying b*mb was sold
as this fantastic new weapon

that was really going to change
the face of the w*r,

and then it didn't.

This presented a problem
for Goebbels.

If he was overselling this,
what else was he overselling?

What else
was he not telling the truth about?

It got the German public thinking,
"Are we being told the truth?"

There is nothing Goebbels
and his propaganda team can do

to alter reality.

Millions of Germans are dying
as a result of a w*r Hitler started.

Millions more are impoverished,
homeless and in despair.

No amount of media censorship
can hide it.

In October 1944, the Red Army seizes
the German village of Nemmersdorf.

The Russians, who have suffered huge
losses at the hands of the Nazis,

vent their fury on the population,

slaughtering men, women and children.

Goebbels imagines this shocking news
will stir people into action.

By 1944,

the wheels are starting to come off
Goebbels' propaganda chariot,

and the slaughter at Nemmersdorf
by the Russians of Germans

is a classic example,

because Goebbels thinks this is
something he needs to publicise

to buoy up the Germans into defence,

but in fact it terrifies them
and alienates them,

and demonstrates the degree to which

Goebbels has really started to
lose his grip

over the national mood.

In a last desperate effort to rally
support for the Nazis and for w*r,

Goebbels comes up with
his final, deadly publicity stunt.

The Volkssturm - or People's Storm.

GREEN: The Volkssturm
was a civilian army.

They were recruited from individuals
between the ages of 16 to 60.

Goebbels' newsreels
show a feeble army

of thousands of German old men
and boys marching pointlessly.

Marching to their doom.

They'd had no military training
whatsoever.

They were sent in to face
fully armed Russian soldiers

just wearing
their ordinary civilian outfits.

They were mown down
in their hundreds of thousands.

Half a million of them died
in the final stretch of the w*r.

As German conscripts old and young

are forced to sacrifice themselves
pointlessly in the streets of Berlin,

the mighty Aryan warrior Adolf Hitler
and his head of propaganda

are cowering underground,
protected by 13 feet of concrete.

Hitler in the bunker is a sad
and pathetic and lonely figure.

He's been deserted by almost all
the other senior Nazis.

He views this
as the greatest betrayal.

WALTERS: But there's one person
who stays with him to the end,

and that person is Goebbels.

As we know, Goebbels and his wife

have this love triangle, almost,
with Hitler,

and so he's determined
to stay with his beloved Fuhrer

to the very end,

and so is Magda, his wife.

Of course, what this means
is that their six children

are going to have to
stay with Hitler until the end.

On April the 29th,
as the g*ns rage overhead,

Goebbels witnesses the marriage
of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.

The honeymoon is short.

The next day, Hitler and his bride
k*ll themselves.

With Hitler dead in the bunker, the
Goebbelses world has been destroyed.

But the last act
is truly, truly chilling.

REMY: They decide
that they cannot stand the thought

of their children living in a world
without Adolf Hitler.

As the Goebbelses' six children
sleep,

cyanide tablets
are dropped into their mouths.

The eldest girl wakes.

In the struggle to make her swallow
the pill, her jaw is broken.

The Goebbelses k*ll their own
children, poison them,

because their love for Hitler
and their love for Nazism

is just so great that they'd
rather commit infanticide

than to see the world
without their beloved Fuhrer

and their beloved Nazism.

Having k*lled their children,

Joseph and Magda Goebbels
leave the bunker.

They walk to the garden
of the Reich Chancellery.

Joseph Goebbels shoots his wife,

then turns the g*n on himself.

It was Joseph Goebbels,
the Romantic novelist,

who created the Fuhrer myth.

Heil! Heil!
CROWD: Heil! Heil!

It was Goebbels,
the academic intellectual,

who burned the books,
trampled on free speech

and instilled the poison of
National Socialism into Germany.

It was Goebbels, the idealistic
young socialist, who paved the way

for the extermination
of Europe's Jewish population.

It is a chilling lesson
too easily forgotten

that the n*zi holocaust,

among the greatest crimes
ever committed,

would not have been possible but for
Goebbels' state control of the media.

The corpses
of Magda and Joseph Goebbels

are taken by the Red Army
back to Russia.

They are kept until 1970,

when without ceremony
they are destroyed.

Like rubbish,
the ashes are simply thrown away.