Joseph Goebbels at Nuremberg?

[peterpandude85]

If Joseph Goebbels had been tried at Nuremberg, how do you think he would have been sentenced?

 

[The Tai-Pan]

I think he is headed for the noose. The Allies were very clear that 'inciting' others to violence was a serious offense and they indicted others way farther down the propaganda food chain.

 

[cra0422]

I said this on another thread. While there is a SLIGHT possibility he gets a lengthy prison sentence (if not life), but considering he was essentially Hitler's mouthpiece and one of his most devoted followers, if not the most devoted, he's most likely getting the noose

 

[stevej713]

Definitely getting hanged, though he would likely ingest cyanide first.

 

[Resurgam]

Let me put it this way.

Julius Streicher got the noose, and he had far less influence and power than Goebbels did.

 

[The Tai-Pan]

Let me put it this way.

Julius Streicher got the noose, and he had far less influence and power than Goebbels did.

That was the person I was alluding to, but could not recall his name.

 

[Resurgam]

That was the person I was alluding to, but could not recall his name.

Here's what the Tribunal said about Streicher, who had nothing to do with the actual planning and execution of the Holocaust but was... not fond of Jews:

For his twenty-five years of speaking, writing, and preaching hatred of the Jews, Streicher was widely known as " Jew-Baiter Number One." In his speeches and articles, week after week, month after month, he infected the German mind with the virus of anti-Semitism. and incited the German people to active persecution. Each issue of " Der Sturmer", which reached a circulation of 600,000 in 1935, was filled with such articles, often lewd and disgusting.

Streicher had charge of the Jewish boycott of 1st April, 1933. He advocated the Nuremberg Decrees of 1935. He was responsible for the demolition on 10th August, 1938, of the Synagogue in Nuremberg. And on 10th November, 1938, he spoke publicly in support of the Jewish pogrom which was taking place at that time.

But it was not only in Germany that this defendant advocated his doctrines. As early as 1938 he began to call for the annihilation of the Jewish race. Twenty-three different articles of " Der Sturmer " between 1938 and 1941 were produced in evidence, in which the extermination " root and "branch" was preached. Typical of his teachings was a leading article in September, 1938, which termed the Jew a germ and a pest, not a human , being, but " a parasite, an enemy, an evil-doer, a disseminator of diseases who must be destroyed in the interest of mankind." Other articles urged that only when world Jewry had been annihilated would the Jewish I problem have been solved, and predicted that fifty years hence the Jewish graves " will proclaim that this people of murderers and criminals has after all met its deserved fate." Streicher, in February, 1940, published a letter from one of " Der Sturmer's " readers which compared Jews with swarms of locusts which must be exterminated completely" Such was the poison Streicher injected into the minds of thousands of Germans which caused them to follow the National Socialists policy of Jewish persecution and extermination. A leading article of "Der Sturmer" in May, 1939, shows clearly his aim:

" A punitive expedition must come against the Jews in Russia. A punitive expedition which will provide the same fate for them that every murderer and criminal must expect. Death sentence and execution. The Jews in Russia must be killed. They must be exterminated root and branch."

As the war in the early stages proved successful acquiring more territory for the Reich, Streicher even intensified his efforts to incite the Germans against the Jews. In the record are twenty-six articles from 'Der Sturmer ", published between August, 1941 and September, 1944, twelve by Streicher's own hand, which demanded annihilation and extermination in unequivocal terms. He wrote and published on 25th December, 1941:

" If the danger of the reproduction of that curse of God in the Jewish blood is to finally come to an end, then there is only one way-the extermination of that people whose father is the devil."

And in February, 1944, his own article stated:

" Whoever does what a Jew does is a scoundrel, a criminal. And he who repeats and wishes to copy him deserves the same fate, annihilation, death."

With knowledge of the extermination of the Jews in the Occupied Eastern Territory, this defendant continued to write and publish his propaganda of death. Testifying in this trial, he vehemently denied any knowledge of mass executions of Jews. But the evidence makes it clear that he continually received current information on the progress of the "final solution ". His press photographer was sent to visit the ghettos of the East in the Spring of 1943, the time of the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Jewish newspaper, " Israelitisches Wochenblatt", which Streicher received and read, carried in each issue accounts of Jewish atrocities in the East, and gave figures on the number of Jews who had been deported and killed. For example, issues appearing in the summer and fall of 1942 reported the death of 72,729 Jews in Warsaw, 17,542 in Lodz, 18,000 in Croatia, 125,000 in Rumania, 14,000 in Latvia, 85,000 in Yugoslavia, 700,000 in all of Poland. In November, 1943, Streicher quoted verbatim an article from the " Israelitisches Wochenblatt " which stated that the Jews had virtually disappeared from Europe, and commented " This is not a Jewish lie." In December, 1942, referring to an article in the "London Times " about the atrocities, aiming at extermination, Streicher said that Hitler had given warning that the second World War would lead to the destruction of Jewry. In January, 1943, he wrote and published an article which said that Hitler's prophecy was being fulfilled, that world Jewry was being extirpated, and that it was wonderful to know that Hitler was freeing the world of its Jewish tormentors.

In the face of the evidence before the Tribunal it is idle for Streicher to suggest that the solution of the Jewish problem which he favoured was strictly limited to the classification of Jews as aliens, and the passing of discriminatory legislation such as the Nuremberg Laws, supplemented if possible by international agreement on the creation of a Jewish State somewhere in the world, to which all Jews should emigrate.

Streicher's incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitutes persecution on political and racial grounds in connection with war crimes as defined by the Charter, and constitutes a crime against humanity.

I invite the OP to consider that if this person got death simply for his propaganda, the fate of the Gauleiter of Berlin who had full knowledge, gave full support, and contributed to the planning and execution of the Final Solution is quite clear.

 

[James Ricker]

Joseph Goebbels was a silver-tongued devil and one of the few extremely competent Nazis but he was also the gold medal son-of-a-bitch of the 20th century
He would try to avoid a death sentence and probably come real close but he would be done in when the other Nazis, who hated his guts testified against him

 

[Yankeewolf]

Would be interesting to see Goebbels as a Kishi-type figure who came to power post-war. But, Nuremberg and the Japanese war crimes tribunal were different beasts, one was a well-oiled machine and one was much more slapdash in its planning and execution. Goebbels would swing, no matter what.

 

[Aghasverov]

One interesting aspect would be how he survived to be tried at Nuremberg... now, suppose he survived either because his cyanide poisoning failed, or if he had a bout of cowardice and didn't take his dose, after Magda and the children had succumbed to the poison...
That would make for an interesting case, as the bastard could be tried (perhaps separately) for the premeditated murder of 6 individuals himself, on top of the four charges levelled at the other defendants...

 

[Tabs]

Everyone's said it already but, just because it's fun to say so: Goebells gets the noose. He probably pulls a Himmler and does himself in before the execution, though.

 

[Megafighter3]

I mean, he did orchestrate the murder of that one director, so that's probably not gonna help his case.

 

[redjirachi]

There is a reason why he killed himself; Goebbels knew his best-case scenario when the Allies found him was a trial followed by a quick stop and a sudden drop. This was a "fall on the sword" situation, so I'm not going to call him an outright coward. What I am going to call him is "repugnant even by the low standards of high-ranking Nazis" because he took his children with him. He could've at least showed some humanity and used his last moments to try and help his family escape.

 

[Cathleen]

the youngest couple of his children might be alive in 2021 as they were born around the early 1940s. Would the six kids grow up in the Bonn Republic or the GDR?

 

[Aghasverov]

the youngest couple of his children might be alive in 2021 as they were born around the early 1940s. Would the six kids grow up in the Bonn Republic or the GDR?

Goebbels, if I'm not mistaken, was a Rhinelander... not sure where Magda was from. My guess would be in the BRD...

 

[Lalli]

No way how Goebbels vaoids noose. He was totally on responce on demunaisation process of Jews and Slavs and supported war effort of nazis. Goebels anyway would bedangerous defedant. And guards should do much of work to stop him killing himself before is hanged.

the youngest couple of his children might be alive in 2021 as they were born around the early 1940s. Would the six kids grow up in the Bonn Republic or the GDR?

They probably grouw up and live in West Germany. I can't Soviets allowing them live in their areas.

Goebbels, if I'm not mistaken, was a Rhinelander... not sure where Magda was from. My guess would be in the BRD...

I think too that Goebbels was from Rihneland but not sure. But I am not sure if Magda would bethat who is going to care her children. She was extremely devout nazi and killed her children because couldn't stand them living in the world without nazism. So iether Magda is different. is killed earlier or then she tries to kill her children but on some reason is stopped and probably put to prison. So someone else would care bout kids. But not sure who. IIRC Magda had some rlelatives but not sure if Joseph had some close relatives. I would assume that their parents' were already either dead or too old to take care about their grandchildren.

 

[Matt Wiser]

Goebbels gets the noose. No ifs, ands, or buts. If Streicher was hung for his articles in Der Sturmer, the not-so-good Doktor goes up the 13 steps along with him.

As for the children? Speer did offer to take the children to a hideout along the Elbe, close to where the future British Zone would be, and it would've been easy to get them into British custody from there. Magda, however, would have none of it.

 

[alspug]

The most difficult part of any Nazi children is how to stop the abuse of the world making them hate it.

I understand several of the Hitler family members decided to never have children and they where not Adolf's children. The revulsion people feel when they hear the name Hitler is palpable and causes survivors terror.

As for Goebbels it really depends how old the children where as to what they have seen and done. The same issue has shown up more recently with the children of some of the more extreme people in the world over the last 20 to 30 years. Some of the kids as young as 5 or 6 took part in execution in the modern world so not sure how that goes with the the 1940's.

 

[Resurgam]

Regarding the Goebbels’ stellar parenting… there’s some evidence the eldest child realized what was going on and she was… physically assisted into taking Stumpfegger’s potion.

 

[Cathleen]

Indeed. Soviet doctors found the child had a broken jaw and heavy bruises.