Darwinism also influenced Goebbels’ support for war:
Another consequence of the biologically grounded racism of the Nazis was the continual underestimation by their leaders of the military capabilities of the Russians. Goebbels, for example, repeatedly wrote in his diaries that the Bolsheviks would collapse like a “house of cards,” that their army was “scarcely battleworthy,” probably because “the low intelligence level of the average Russian makes the use of modern weapons impossible.”54
Goebbels firmly believed “all is fair in love and war”— but especially war. As a result, he demanded that Germany throw out the Geneva Convention rules for the treatment of prisoners of war and murder all of the over 40,000 allied airmen prisoners held in Germany.55 He believed the world “belonged to him Who took it.”56 So fanatical was Goebbels that, when the allies had entered Berlin and it was abundantly clear that the war was lost, Goebbels remarked, “If a single white flag is hoisted in a Berlin street, I shall not hesitate to have the whole street and all its inhabitants blown up.”57
Goebbels once stated that he was a misanthropist and has “comPlete contempt for men and their behaviour.”58 German historians Linda Schmittroth and Mary Rosteck wrote that Goebbels, although a formidable personality and a first class intellect, was an excellent
Example of the fact that morality does not necessarily go along with high intelligence. This very well-educated man, who influenced the minds of millions of Germans, used his talents to spread hate and violence. Having no respect for people whose ideas differed from his own, he ordered the large-scale burning of books and the murder of political opponents of German leader Adolf Hitler before and during World War II.59
In the end, Goebbels intellect and education led to the Holocaust and the systematic murder of over 11 million innocent men, women and children by the use of modern technology. As late as April 20, 1945, when it was obvious to almost everyone that the war was lost,
Goebbels was still asking Germans to trust blindly in the Fuhrer and his government who together would lead them out of their present difficulties.60 At this point the Fuhrer and the government could no longer do anything to help their people because they realized it was hopeless. Goebbels then “emphatically” recommended bombing civilian populations if any group attempted to surrender. Some feel this order was motivated partly to punish his own people for losing the war.61
On April 30th, 1945, Hitler with his new wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide in their Berlin Fuhrerbunker and Goebbels became Reich Chancellor. His tenure was brief. In the late afternoon of the following day, Goebbels and his wife, actress Magda Goebbels, sedated, then murdered their six young children with cyanide.62 Soon after, Joseph Goebbels committed suicide with a bullet to his head.63 His self-annihilation was the logical consequence of his ideological nihilism.
World History
