Joseph Goebbels never stood before the judges at Nuremberg. When Nazi Germany collapsed in the spring of 1945, he remained in Berlin and died on May 1, just one day after the death of Adolf Hitler.
That meant the Allies never had the chance to try one of the most important figures in Nazi Germany. But if Goebbels had survived the Battle of Berlin and fallen into Allied hands, the question is intriguing. Would he have been executed?
The answer is almost certainly yes. Goebbels would likely have been considered one of the most important Nazi prisoners the Allies captured.
Although he was not a battlefield commander and did not personally run an extermination camp, his position within Hitler's government was extremely important. For more than 12 years, Goebbels controlled a large part of the propaganda machine in Nazi Germany.
He helped spread hatred, encouraged Germans to support Hitler's wars, and defended the regime even when he knew grave crimes were being committed. But Joseph Goebbels had been one of Hitler's closest followers long before World War II began.
Born in 1897, he joined the Nazi Party during the 1920s and quickly showed his talents as a speaker and as a propagandist. Hitler recognized his abilities and appointed him Gauleiter, or Nazi Party leader, in Berlin in 1926.
Goebbels used newspapers, posters, speeches, and political rallies to promote Hitler and attack the Nazis' opponents. He became one of the most recognizable faces of the entire movement.
After Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Goebbels was rewarded with a very powerful position. He became Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
The title sounds relatively harmless, but the reality was entirely different. Goebbels' ministry exercised enormous influence over what Germans could read, hear, and watch.
Newspapers were controlled, radio broadcasting was carefully managed, and films were censored and used to promote Nazi ideas. Books the regime considered unacceptable were removed, while writers, journalists, and artists faced censorship and persecution.
Goebbels understood better than most Nazi leaders that controlling information is an important means of controlling a population. He was also a fanatical antisemite.
Nazi propaganda constantly portrayed Jewish people as dangerous enemies of Germany. Newspapers, films, posters, and speeches repeated stereotypes and conspiracy theories.
This propaganda helped make persecution appear acceptable to parts of German society and helped pave the way for more violent measures. Goebbels himself was deeply involved in that process.
One particularly significant event took place in November 1938. Following the murder of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris, Nazi leaders encouraged a massive wave of violence against Jews throughout Germany and Austria.
During what became known as Kristallnacht, synagogues were burned, shops were destroyed, and thousands of men were arrested. Goebbels played an important role in inciting that violence.
That alone would have made his activities an important subject for Allied prosecutors after World War II. But the evidence against him became even more serious during the war.
Goebbels knew that the Jews of Europe were being systematically killed. This is especially important when considering what could have happened at a trial.
After the war, many Nazi officials tried to claim they knew nothing or little about the Holocaust. Goebbels would have found such a defense very difficult because he left behind extensive diaries.
These diaries provide historians with remarkable evidence of what he knew and what he thought. In March 1942, for example, Goebbels recorded information related to the fate of Jews deported to occupied Poland.
His diaries made clear that he was aware that enormous numbers of people were being killed. Instead of expressing horror, he regarded the extermination of these people as part of the radical program the Nazi regime was carrying out.
Such entries in his diaries could have provided devastating evidence in a courtroom. Prosecutors would not simply have needed to argue that Goebbels should have known what was happening. They could have used his own words and writings to prove his knowledge.
Yet his influence also grew as Germany began losing the war. After the catastrophic German defeat at Stalingrad, Goebbels delivered one of the most famous speeches of the Nazi era.
On February 18, 1943, he appeared before a carefully selected audience at the Berlin Sports Palace and demanded what he called total war. Germany was now facing an increasingly desperate military situation.
Goebbels called for the complete mobilization of society for the conflict. He wanted greater sacrifice from the German population and more resources directed toward continuing the war.
By 1944, his authority had increased again. After the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, Goebbels became Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War.
He was given greater authority to mobilize the workforce and the remaining resources in Germany. Even as Germany's defeat became inevitable, Goebbels continued to fight.
This would have made him one of the most important surviving Nazi leaders if he had been captured in 1945. The best indication of what could have happened to him comes from the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, or the Nuremberg trials.
Beginning in November 1945, 22 major Nazi defendants were initially tried. Among them were Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Albert Speer, and Julius Streicher.
Twelve defendants were ultimately sentenced to death, including Martin Bormann, Hitler's private secretary, who was tried in absentia. However, the comparison between Goebbels and Julius Streicher reveals a great deal.
Streicher was one of the most notorious antisemites in Nazi Germany. He published Der Stürmer, a newspaper filled with extremist attacks against Jewish people.
It is important to note that Streicher was not convicted because he personally ran a concentration camp or ordered armies to carry out massacres. His importance to the Nuremberg prosecutors lay largely in his persistent incitement against Jewish people.
The court convicted Streicher of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death. He was then hanged in Nuremberg on October 16, 1946.
That was the legal precedent that would have been extremely dangerous for Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels had been far more powerful within the Nazi state than Streicher.
Streicher's political influence had already declined before World War II, while Goebbels remained close to Hitler until the final days of the regime. More importantly, Joseph Goebbels controlled a government ministry.
His influence extended to German newspapers, radio, cinema, publishing, and public information. Millions listened to his speeches, and he was one of the principal public voices of the Nazi dictatorship.
If Streicher could be convicted for his role in encouraging persecution, Goebbels would have faced an extremely serious case. He would also have been confronted with his diaries, his speeches, and his official records.
So it would not have been easy for him to portray himself as a minor government official who was simply following orders. He had spent years publicly supporting Hitler and promoting Nazi ideology.
There was another striking factor that would have increased his importance as a prisoner. In Hitler's political testament, written on April 29, 1945, Hitler appointed Goebbels Reich Chancellor.
So, technically, Goebbels became head of the German government after Hitler's death on April 30. His tenure as chancellor lasted about one day, but it showed how close he was to Adolf Hitler.
Goebbels refused to leave Berlin. During the final days of April 1945, he moved with his wife Magda and their six children into the bunker complex beneath the Reich Chancellery.
Soviet forces were approaching and the Third Reich was collapsing around them. Then Hitler died on April 30.
But the next day, Goebbels and his six children were killed inside the bunker. Joseph and Magda then died on May 1.
Their bodies were removed and burned, and were later discovered by Soviet forces. His death meant that Goebbels never faced interrogation or trial.
Had he surrendered instead, he might have become one of the most prominent defendants at Nuremberg. Courtroom images today might show Goebbels sitting beside Göring, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, and other leading figures of Hitler's regime.
No one can say with complete certainty what verdict the judges would have reached. The Nuremberg court did not automatically execute every high-ranking Nazi official.
Rudolf Hess, for example, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Albert Speer received 20 years, and Admiral Karl Dönitz received 10 years. Others were acquitted entirely.
Individual responsibility had to be proven. But Goebbels would have been in an extremely and exceptionally dangerous position.
He helped create and maintain Nazi Germany's propaganda system. He encouraged persecution. He also knew what was happening to Jews throughout Europe.
He continued to support Hitler's policies until the final hours of the regime. Most damaging of all, much of the evidence could be drawn directly from his own speeches and diaries.
The fate of Julius Streicher also provides the clearest indication of what would have happened. If Streicher's incitement was enough for the court to convict him of crimes against humanity and send him to the gallows, it is hard to imagine that Goebbels would have escaped anything.
But if Goebbels had survived Berlin and been captured by the Allies, he would almost certainly have been taken to Nuremberg and then executed.