The Goebbels children were the five daughters and one son born to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda. The children, born between 1932 and 1940, were murdered by their parents in Berlin on 1 May 1945, the day both parents committed suicide.
Magda Goebbels had an elder son, Harald Quandt, from a previous marriage to Günther Quandt. Harald, then aged 23, was a prisoner of war when his younger half-siblings were killed. There are different theories of how they were killed; the most supported theory is that they were murdered with cyanide capsules given to them by their mother or by another person acting according to their mother’s orders.
Naming Some historian writers have contended that the children's names all begin with "H" as a tribute to Adolf Hitler, who was fond of all the children, but there is no evidence to support this; rather, it supports that Magda's "H" naming was the idea of her first husband, Günther Quandt, who chose names beginning with "H" for his other two children by his first wife. This claim is supported by Magda's mother, Auguste Behrend, who stated that the family made an innocent hobby of searching for new baby names beginning with "H" for each successive child.Behrend, Auguste. "My daughter Magda Goebbels", Schwaebische Illustrierte, 26 April 1952.
Children
Helga Susanne Born on 1 September 1932, Helga was a "daddy's girl" who preferred her father to her mother. She would sit in her father's lap after he came home. It was not unusual for Hitler, who was fond of the children, to take her on to his own lap while he talked late into the night. She was photographed with Hilde presenting Hitler with flowers on 20 April 1936, his birthday.Klabunde, Anja. Magda Goebbels, illustrations between pp. 182–183
Helga was twelve years old when she was murdered. Bruises found on her body postmortem (mostly on her face) led to wide speculation that she had struggled against receiving a cyanide capsule, which was used to kill her by crushing it between her teeth.
Hildegard Traudel Born on 13 April 1934, Hildegard was commonly called "Hilde". In a 1941 diary entry, Joseph referred to her as "a little mouse". She was photographed with Helga presenting Hitler with flowers on 20 April 1936, his birthday. Hilde was eleven years old at the time of her murder.
Helmut Christian
Born on 2 October 1935, Helmut was considered sensitive and something of a dreamer. In his diary, Goebbels called him a "clown". When his teacher at the Lanke primary school reported, to his father's dismay, that his promotion to a higher form was doubtful, he responded well to intense tutoring from his mother and his governess and achieved promotion to the next grade. He wore braces on his teeth.
On 26 April 1945, Helmut repeated to Hitler his father's birthday speech, and responded to Helga's protests that he was copying their father by arguing that, no, their father had copied "what he said".
On 30 April 1945, the boy was rude to a 15-year-old nurse who tended to the wounded in the bunker complex. The nurse, Johanna Ruf, slapped young Helmut. She did not know the boy was the son of Goebbels until later. Later that day, Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge stated that while she was with the children in the Führerbunker they heard the sound of Hitler's self-inflicted gunshot. Helmut, who mistook it for the sound of a mortar landing nearby, shouted, "That was a bullseye!" Helmut was nine years old at the time of his murder.
Holdine Kathrin Born on 19 February 1937, Holdine was commonly called "Holde". It is claimed that she got her name when the doctor who delivered her, Stoeckel, bent over her and exclaimed, "Das ist eine Holde!" ("That's a pretty one!")Klabunde, Anja. Magda Goebbels. Meissner claims that Holde was the "least lively" of the children and somewhat "pushed aside" by the others, to her considerable distress, and that Goebbels responded to this by making her something of a favorite, to which she responded with devotion. She was eight years old at the time of her murder.
Hedwig Johanna Born on 5 May 1938, Hedwig was commonly called "Hedda". She insisted, in 1944, that when she grew up she was going to marry SS Adjutant Günther Schwägermann, having been captivated by the fact he had a fake eye. She was six years old, four days short of her seventh birthday, at the time of her murder.
Heidrun Elisabeth Born on 29 October 1940, Heidrun was commonly called "Heide". Heidrun shared a birthday with her father. She was called "the reconciliation child" because she was conceived after her parents reconciled. Rochus Misch described her as a "little flirt" and said she frequently joked with him in the bunker. Heide was four years old at the time of her murder.
Harald Quandt
Magda and Günther Quandt were married on 4 January 1921, and her first child, Harald Quandt, was born on 1 November 1921. Magda and Günther Quandt's marriage ended in divorce in 1929. Magda joined the Nazi Party on 1 September 1930, and did some volunteer work, although she has not been characterized as politically active. From the local branch, she moved to the party headquarters in Berlin and was invited to take charge of Goebbels' own private papers. She and Goebbels first became romantically involved while on a short trip with friends to Weimar, Germany, in February 1931. The couple were married on 19 December 1931, with Hitler as a witness.
Harald not only attended his mother's wedding to Goebbels but also formed quite an attachment with him; sometimes accompanying him to gatherings, standing on the platform near to "Uncle Joseph", wearing his Hitler Youth uniform. After his appointment as minister, Goebbels demanded that Harald's father release Magda from her obligation under their divorce settlement, to send Harald to live with him in the event of her remarriage; by 1934, Harald moved completely to the Goebbelses' household.
Harald later served as a lieutenant in the Luftwaffe. He was Magda's only child to survive the Second World War and went on to become a leading West German industrialist. Harald died when his personal aircraft crashed in Italy, 22 September 1967; he was survived by his wife and five children.
Family life In 1934, in search for privacy for himself and his family, Goebbels bought an imposing house in its own grounds on Schwanenwerder, an island in the River Havel. He also bought a motor yacht, Baldur, for use on the river. Harald had his own nursery on the first floor while Helga and Hilde shared another. The children not only had ponies, but also a little carriage in which to ride around the gardens. Two years later he purchased a neighboring property and extended the park, and included a private "citadel" as his own personal retreat.
Later, the City of Berlin placed a second lakeside house at his disposal, Lanke am Bogensee, as an official residence, which was only large enough for the family to use as a weekend retreat. Goebbels later added a large modern house on the opposite shore of the Bogensee.
The marriage reached a crisis point in the late summer of 1938 over Goebbels' affair with Czechoslovak actress Lída Baarová. Hitler himself intervened, for he was unwilling to put up with a scandal involving one of his top ministers, and demanded that Goebbels break off the relationship. Thereafter Joseph and Magda seemed to reach a truce until the end of September. The couple had another falling out at that point, and once again Hitler became involved, insisting the couple stay together. Hitler negotiated an agreement whereby the actress would be banished and the couple would keep up public appearances, subject to any reasonable conditions Magda might make. One of her conditions was that Goebbels would only be able to visit Schwanenwerder and see the children with her express permission. If, after that year, Magda still wanted a divorce, Hitler would allow it, with Goebbels as the guilty party, and she would retain Schwanenwerder, custody of the children, and a considerable income. Goebbels abided scrupulously by the agreement, always calling for permission before visiting and expressing his regret at missing Magda if she was not there, or taking his place, amiably, with his family at the tea table, if she was. It is claimed that the children did not seem to be aware that their parents were living separately at this time.
In the media
In 1937, Helga and Hilde were photographed with their father at the Berlin Frühjahrsregatta.
The public reconciliation agreement in August 1938 was cemented by the appearance of Helga, Hilde and Helmut with their parents in front of the cameras of UFA, as a cinematic image of domestic reconciliation.Joseph Goebbels: Bio Nationalsozialismus.de Rechercheportal für Schule, Studium und Wissenschaft
In 1939, Goebbels used a concealed camera to film his children as a "healthy" contrast to the disabled children in a propaganda film intended to promote the Action T4, euthanasia of disabled children.
During 1942, the children appeared 34 times in the weekly newsreels, going about their lives, helping their mother, playing in the garden or singing to their father on his 45th birthday. That October, as a gift from the German Newsreel Company, Goebbels was presented with a film of his children playing.Home movies of Magda and her children, summer 1942 (The original title is Goebbels's birthday, "To 29 October 1942")
On 18 February 1943, Helga and Hilde were photographed along with Magda at one of Joseph's best-known events, the total war speech.
Towards the end of 1944, Goebbels sent Magda and his two eldest daughters into a military hospital to be filmed for the weekly newsreels, but abandoned the project on realizing that seeing the terrible injuries of the soldiers was too traumatic for his daughters.
Last days
As the Red Army moved closer at the end of January 1945, Goebbels ordered that his family be moved from the Lanke estate to the relative safety of Schwanenwerder. From there, the children would soon hear the rumble of artillery in the east, and wonder why rain never followed the "thunder".
By 22 April 1945, the day before the Red Army entered the outskirts of Berlin, the Goebbels moved their children into the Vorbunker, connected to the lower Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery garden in central Berlin. He and Magda may have previously discussed suicide and the fate of their young children in a long meeting on the night of 27 January. Hitler and a few personnel were staying in the Führerbunker to direct the final defence of Berlin. German Red Cross leader SS-Gruppenführer Karl Gebhardt wanted to take the children out of the city with him, but was dismissed.
General Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven later described the children as "sad", but nurse Erna Flegel, with whom they had much contact in the bunker, characterised them as "charming" and "absolutely delightful".Harding, Luke, Interview: Erna Flegel, Guardian Unlimited 2 May 2005 They are reported to have played with Hitler's dog Blondi during their time in the bunker complex, where they slept in a single room. While many reports suggest there were three separate bunk beds, secretary Traudl Junge insisted there were only two. The children are said to have sung in unison while in the bunker, performing for both Hitler and the injured Robert Ritter von Greim, as well as having been conducted in play-song by pilot Hanna Reitsch. Junge said she was with the children on the afternoon of 30 April, when Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves.
Murder As the advancing Soviet troops reached Berlin there was much discussion in the Führerbunker by the higher German officials about suicide as a means to escape the inevitable execution and humiliation by the Soviets.