Why did Magda Goebbels choose to kill her six children instead of letting them live after the Nazi party was defeated?


 Among the saddest accounts of the last days of the war is that of the six children of Goebbels.


The eldest was Helga, born in 1932. She was popular with Adolf Hitler, who was reputed to be kind and enjoy her company and hence her tragic end is even more horrible.

As soon as it was obvious that there was no hope to win the war, Magda Goebbels made a decision that her children could not live in the world where Nazi Party was not in power. She rejected all attempts of saving them.


On May 1, 1945 the very next day after Hitler was dead, Magda started her gruesome scheme. The children were first injected with morphine by a doctor with an intention of ensuring that they would fall into deep sleep so that they do not feel anything. They were kept in a coma when the lethal dose of cyanide was poured down their mouths.


Five of these children are said to have passed away in their sleep and their death was not violent. And this was not the case with Helga. It is recorded that the morphine was not entirely successful in working on the 12-year-old and she roused and struggled.


She forcefully fought her mother and the doctor who were trying to kill her. Later photographs reveal that she has very serious bruises on her face, and it seems that her jaw can be broken in the fight. It was only Helga who faced the reality of her death and its reality that was so frightening, in those last few minutes.

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