9. A Monstrous Nazi Mother’s Monstrous Display of Nazi Loyalty
To Magda and Joseph Goebbels’ minds, dying with Hitler was not just an ultimate display of loyalty. As a practical matter, it would also spare them from humiliation and punishment at the hands of the victorious Allies. As to killing her children, Magda thought that their death was preferable to their growing up having to hear that their father was one of history’s greatest criminals. She also believed in reincarnation and figured that by killing her children now, she would give them another chance at returning to life, perhaps in better circumstances.
Having convinced herself of the need, and even the desirability, of killing her kids, Magda turned a deaf ear to all offers to smuggle her children to safety outside of Berlin. As to how she would go about killing her children, she decided to first knock them out with morphine, then finish them off by crushing cyanide capsules between their teeth.
