Magda Goebbels

As Russian troops neared Berlin in World War II, Magda murdered her six children in Hitler's bunker, and then committed suicide with her husband, Joseph Goebbels.

In 1930 Magda Friedlander, recently divorced from her husband of eight years, Guenther Quandt, began to date Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Party district leader of Berlin. She was not, as her name suggests, Jewish, but had adopted the surname of her mother’s second husband, who was.

At the same time, Magda was also dating an ardent young Jew, Victor Chaim Arlosoroff. When Arlosoroff discovered Magda was involved with another man and that he was a senior Nazi party member, Arlosoroff flew into a rage, pulled out a gun and fired at Magda. The bullet did not hit her, and Magda permanently broke off her relationship with Arlosoroff, despite his pleas and apologies.

Josef and Magda Goebbels were married in 1931, with Hitler as a witness at their wedding. The marriage produced six children within eight years, one boy and five girls.

To the public, the Goebbels family were presented as the ideal family of the Third Reich.

Magda was often filmed on holiday with her husband and Hitler, laughing and surrounded by her offspring. The truth, however, was Josef and Magda carried on a series of extramarital affairs. Josef Goebbels was a notorious womanizer, with a taste for young actresses. And Magda was involved with her husband’s deputy, Karl Hanke.

After Hitler committed suicide, Magda combed her children's hair, dressed each of them in white nightgowns and put them to bed.

A doctor then administered lethal injections to them all. Magda and Joseph then went to the Chancellery garden and ordered an SS orderly to shoot them and burn their bodies. He obeyed.