11th September 1938
Goebbels children

Goebbels children

The Goebbels children were the five daughters and one son born to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph and Magda Goebbels. The children, born between 1932-1940, 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 many theories of how they were killed; one is that Magda Goebbels gave them something 'sweetened' to drink. Currently, the most supported theory is that they were killed with a cyanide capsule.

Harald Quant

(1921-1967)

Magda and Günther Quandt were married on 4th January 1921, and her first child, Harald Quandt, was born on 1st November 1921. Magda and Günther Quandt's marriage ended in divorce in 1929. Magda joined the Nazi Party on 1st September 1930, and did some volunteer work, although she has not been characterised 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 19th 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 Goebbels' household.

Harald would later serve as a lieutenant in the Luftwaffe. Harald was Magda's only child to survive the Second World War; he went on to become a leading West German industrialist during the 1950s and 1960s. He died when his personal aircraft crashed in Italy in 1967, and was survived by his wife and five children.

Helga Susanne

(1932-1945)

Born on 1st September 1932. Helga was a 'daddy's girl' who preferred her father to her mother. Goebbels was proud of his eldest daughter and would go straight to her cot as soon as he returned from his office, to take her on his lap.

She was reported to have been a lovely baby who never cried and just sat listening uncomprehendingly to the Nazi officials with 'her blue eyes sparkling'. It was not unusual for Hitler, who was fond of German 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 20th April 1936, his birthday.

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

(1934-1945)

Born on 13th 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 20th April 1936, his birthday. Hilde was eleven years old at the time of her murder.

Helmut Christian

(1935-1945)

Born on 2nd 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 26th 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 30th 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

(1937-1945)

Born on 19th 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!'). 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 favourite, to which she responded with devotion. She was eight years old at the time of her murder.

Hedwig Johanna

(1938-1945)

Born on 5th 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 shy of her seventh birthday, at the time of her murder.

Heidrun Elisabeth

(1940-1945)

Born on 29th 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.

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.[28] 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.[29]

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".[30] They are reported to have played with Hitler's dog Blondi during their time in the bunker complex,[31] 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.[13] Junge said she was with the children on the afternoon of 30 April, when Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves.

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