Joseph Goebbels

The Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany (1933-1945)

→ As one of Hitler's closest associates and devote followers, Joseph was a brilliant orator and connected with Hitler through his extreme hatred for the Jews.

→ Under his leadership, the Propaganda Ministry exerted complete control over media, arts and information. He was a very talented orator and visionary for mass cultural media production

• Example of his work
• Role in consolidating power
• What made him so effective

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Herman Goring

Nazi politician and military leader from 1935

→ Son of a wealthy diplomat, Goring was a veteran ace fighter pilot of WW1 and committed a war crime

→ During the third Reich, Goring became the second most powerful man in Germany as Hitlers named successor.

→ As leader of the SA since 1923, he also founded the Gestapo in 1933 and orchestrated most of the military aspects of the NAZI state.

• Characterised as an individual who was 'Born a Nazi'. A successful fighter in the wake of WW1 but not a very good leader.
• Further information about Goring

Heinrich Himmler

Leader of the SS, intellectual and devout supporter of Hitler

→ The SS started as a smaller group of personal guards but slowly grew in the 1930's into a more powerful political military.

• He became chief of police and oversaw all security forces including the gestapo.
• Obsessed with racial purity and the Nazi Racial Theory and heavily supported the Volksgemeinschaft ideology

→ Himmler organised the death of the Brown Shirts leadership during the Night of long Knives.

• Other Details about Himmler

Reinhard Heydrich

High ranking German Nazi official

• On of the central architects of the holocaust.

Hitler described him as "the man with the iron heart"

→ Founded the SD, an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi party via arrests, deportations and killings.

• Other key individuals