Author(s): Peter Longerich

War

As a young man, Joseph Goebbels was a budding narcissist with a constant need for approval. He became increasingly politically involved, finding personal affirmation within the ranks of the German National Socialist Party. What followed was a rapid descent into anti-Semitism and ideology, and a corresponding ascent through the ranks of the Nazi Party, where he became an integral member of Hitler's inner circle and built a brutal campaign of Nazi propaganda. Goebbels became one of Hitler's most loyal acolytes and his named successor, following in the fuhrer's footsteps to the very end in a grisly mass suicide of himself and his entire family. Although Goebbels wielded considerable power within the Nazi party and in wartime Germany, Longerich reveals him as a man dogged by his insecurities and consumed by his fierce adherence to the Nazi cause. Challenging the carefully constructed self-portrait that Goebbels left as his legacy in his diaries, Longerich delves deep into the mind of the Reich's master propagandist to provide a shocking first-hand account of how the Nazi message was conceived.