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Women of Peace and Those Sided the Wrong of World War II

Khalid Elhassan November 20, 2020 32 min

World War II - Italian resistance movement — Women of the resistance in Italy. Wall Street Journal

14. The Model Nazi Couple

Magda Goebbels in 1933. Bundesarchiv Bild

In 1930, Joseph Goebbels was the chief Nazi in Berlin, tasked with growing the party in the German capital and throughout Prussia, when Magda Quandt joined his staff. In 1921, she had married a businessman, Gunther Quandt, with whom she had a son, Harald, before the couple divorced in 1929. The following year, Magda joined the Nazi party as a volunteer. After a stint at her local branch, she was moved to party headquarters in Berlin.

There, Magda was tasked with overseeing Joseph Goebbels’ private papers. It did not take long before the smooth-talking Goebbels made his move, and by early 1931, he and Magda had started a relationship. They were married on December 19^th of that year, with Hitler acting as best man. Harald, Magda’s son from her previous marriage, was quickly won over by his stepfather, and formed a strong attachment to Joseph Goebbels.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.