1  Dr Joseph Goebbels was the Third Reich’s master propagandist. He was born on 29th October 1897 in the Rhineland, to a pious Catholic family. He attended a Roman Catholic school and later studied History and Literature at the University of Heidelberg under a Jewish literary historian. During the First world war, military service rejected him because of his crippled foot. His clubfoot was a result of contracting polio as a child. Also, he had a diminutive figure and black hair. His physique led the German people to refer to him as the “little doctor.” What he lacked for in physique his intellect made up for it. Being conscious of his disability, he strived to belong to the ruling class. The fear of being regarded as a self-proclaimed intellectual fueled his insatiable thirst for power. He was described as cynical, hostile and hateful to the entire human race. All these traits in his personality were as a result of self-loathing, and inferiority complex ("Joseph Goebbels"). He was also quite skilled at igniting the same emotional state of rage and hatred that he felt onto masses both verbally and via writing. A friend introduced him to socialist and communist ideas. Later, he joined the NSDAP in 1922. Initially, he was not antisemitic. Goebbels was under Professor Friedrich Gundolf, a Jewish professor renowned as a Goethe scholar and a close disciple of the poet Stefan George, whom he looked up to and admired ("Joseph Goebbels | German Propagandist"). The development of his antisemitic beliefs is believed to be purely tactical. Before joining the Nazi party, his talents were unappreciated. He tried his luck as a novelist. He only wrote a single book that was published in 1926. Nevertheless, Goebbels was intelligent, sensible, sharp, and his oration skills were exceptional (Michael 3).  He put his skills to use for the Nazi administration. The Nazi saw his potential, and he became the district administrator of the National Socialist Worker's Party (NSDAP) in Elberfeld. He established and edited the NS letters (Nationalsozialistischen Briefe). The main theme of these publications was to spread the anti-capitalist opinion and mobilise the citizens. The papers would draw examples from the Soviet Russia which he regarded as a socialist and nationalist country. He was among the co-authors of the Hanover conference in 1926, which called for the expulsion of Adolf Hitler ("Joseph Goebbels"). Goebbels’s political savvy instinct made him switch to Hitler’s side in the same year. Hitler rewarded him by appointing him as the Nazi district leader of Berlin-Brandenburg. Berlin-Brandenburg was on the northern side of Germany where the Strasser brothers were superior. Goebbels was able to take control of the region by establishing and editing his weekly newspaper. He discovered the power of words both oral and written on the credulous German population. He hatched schemes, published propaganda, and orchestrated impressive parades to further his political ...

1. 1
Dr Joseph Goebbels was the Third Reich’s master propagandist.
He was born on 29th October 1897 in the Rhineland, to a pious
Catholic family. He attended a Roman Catholic school and later
studied History and Literature at the University of Heidelberg
under a Jewish literary historian. During the First world war,
military service rejected him because of his crippled foot. His
clubfoot was a result of contracting polio as a child. Also, he
had a diminutive figure and black hair. His physique led the
German people to refer to him as the “little doctor.” What he
lacked for in physique his intellect made up for it. Being
conscious of his disability, he strived to belong to the ruling
class. The fear of being regarded as a self-proclaimed
intellectual fueled his insatiable thirst for power. He was
described as cynical, hostile and hateful to the entire human
race. All these traits in his personality were as a result of self-
loathing, and inferiority complex ("Joseph Goebbels"). He was
also quite skilled at igniting the same emotional state of rage
and hatred that he felt onto masses both verbally and via
writing.
A friend introduced him to socialist and communist ideas. Later,
he joined the NSDAP in 1922. Initially, he was not antisemitic.
Goebbels was under Professor Friedrich Gundolf, a Jewish
professor renowned as a Goethe scholar and a close disciple of
the poet Stefan George, whom he looked up to and admired
("Joseph Goebbels | German Propagandist"). The development
of his antisemitic beliefs is believed to be purely tactical.
Before joining the Nazi party, his talents were unappreciated.
He tried his luck as a novelist. He only wrote a single book that
was published in 1926. Nevertheless, Goebbels was intelligent,
sensible, sharp, and his oration skills were exceptional (Michael
3). He put his skills to use for the Nazi administration.

2. The Nazi saw his potential, and he became the district
administrator of the National Socialist Worker's Party (NSDAP)
in Elberfeld. He established and edited the NS letters
(Nationalsozialistischen Briefe). The main theme of these
publications was to spread the anti-capitalist opinion and
mobilise the citizens. The papers would draw examples from the
Soviet Russia which he regarded as a socialist and nationalist
country. He was among the co-authors of the Hanover
conference in 1926, which called for the expulsion of Adolf
Hitler ("Joseph Goebbels"). Goebbels’s political savvy instinct
made him switch to Hitler’s side in the same year. Hitler
rewarded him by appointing him as the Nazi district leader of
Berlin-Brandenburg.
Berlin-Brandenburg was on the northern side of Germany where
the Strasser brothers were superior. Goebbels was able to take
control of the region by establishing and editing his weekly
newspaper. He discovered the power of words both oral and
written on the credulous German population. He hatched
schemes, published propaganda, and orchestrated impressive
parades to further his political agendas. Propaganda is biased
information that is used to promote a political cause. By 1927,
his powerful voice and his ability to appeal to people’s
emotions made him the most influential demagogue in the
capital city ("Joseph Goebbels | German Propagandist"). The
onset of the great depression made the citizens more credulous
to his manipulation. He silenced his opponents by combining
slander and insinuation to attack them.
Hitler was quite impressed and appointed him as Reich
Propaganda leader of the NSDAP in 1929. Goebbels was solely
responsible for the creation of the myth that Hitler was the
long-awaited messiah-redeemer. The facade created a theatrical
element in almost all of the Nazi meetings, and through planned
stage manipulation he was able to convince German masses to
surrender to their “messiah” willfully. The main idea behind

3. this was to create a pseudo-religious cult that revered Hitler as
one who came to save them from the Marxist, Jews, and
profiteers. He campaigned for Hitler all over the country. They
organised thousands of meetings and speeches in which the two
were able to convince the German people to vote for
them("Joseph Goebbels "). That year the party got 107 seats in
the Reichstag. Goebbels used short silent films for the
campaign. Often, he appealed to people’s fear, and his poster
had an illustration of giants crushing his political opponents.
Once the election was over, he once again declared his hate for
democracy by saying “We are entering the Reichstag, in order
that we may arm ourselves with the weapons of democracy from
its arsenal. We shall become Reichstag deputies in order that
the Weimar ideology should itself help us to destroy it.”
("Joseph Goebbels") During the next election in 1932, he used
his mastery in the techniques of mass persuasion to win over the
hearts of many citizens. However, his efforts were not enough,
and they lost the election. In a shocking twist, the current
president Peter Von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as
chancellor. Goebbels organised a torchlight parade in Berlin to
celebrate Hitler’s appointment to the chancellor ("Joseph
Goebbels | German Propagandist") . Hitler took his time before
appointing Joseph as a Minister, but he was finally appointed as
Minister of Propaganda on 4th March 1933 (Rentschler 27).
This post gave him power over all the communication medi a
such as radio, press, cinemas to mention but a few.
He quickly sought to control all the editors in the state. He
made them publish propaganda through bribery and corruption.
He propagated his racist ideals and even spearheaded the
burning of books ritual. Books from Jewish writers and works
that explained Marxist ideologies were set aflame in huge
bonfires all across the country. He continued his propagation of
hate and incitation of violence. He referred to the USA and
London as the “Jewish financiers.” He managed to get the

4. support of Soviet Russia in attacking London and Washington
for being the chief enemy of the Third Reich. The boycott
against Jewish penetration of professions was staged due to his
mass persuasion. He convinced Germans that Jews had taken
over their business and that was the reason that many Germans
were unemployed.
The Nazi government sought to do things differently for a while
and they suppressed Goebbels instincts to sow discord.
However, he orchestrated the night of broken glasses, which
was organized destruction of synagogues, Jewish houses, and
shops followed by the arrest of Jewish individuals. Later, he
aided in the organization and orchestration of the “Final
Solution
.” The final solution was the mass annihilation of the Jewish
people(“Joseph Goebbels”). He had an inferiority complex that
made him resent humanity.
Hence, the manipulation of the Germans to take arms against
the Jews and the rise of such a tyrant to power can be explained
by Joseph Goebbels manipulation. He was the little man that
pulled all the strings and determined the reality of many
people. Plato’s Allegory could describe the German society
back then.
In Plato’s allegory, he described people who were imprisoned in

5. a cave in such a way that they could not move and look what
was behind them and only saw a wall. Behind these prisoners
was a fire that was raised such that the only thing they saw was
the shadows cast onto the wall in front of them ("The Internet
Classics Archive | The Republic by Plato"). Those who
imprisoned them set a stage and screen and periodically moved
with objects of animals and people and like puppet masters.
Hence the perception of these prisoners was limited to only the
shadows they saw before them. One prisoner was released and
hence had the chance to look behind. He took time before he
figured of that what was behind was the reality as he had grown
quite accustomed to the illusion of shadows. Then, he was led
outside the cave. He saw the sun for the first time and could
move freely. He took the time to appreciate the reality and felt
sorry for those in the cave. He went back to enlighten them.
The story of Joseph Goebbels shows us the power of the
intellectual individuals in society. Goebbels was a scholar. He
used his intellect to paint illusions for the citizens that the Nazi
party was working towards the unification of the nation. The
perception that the citizens got from this demagogue was that of
hatred towards diversity. Hence, according to this parable, the
enlightened ones are the prisoner that got released. It would
have definitely taken time to see what was happening as the
Government was the puppet master. They controlled the

6. information that the citizens received by taking control of the
communication media and eliminating those who dared speak
up. Those who were slightly enlightened about the government
dealings had an obligation to help educate the citizens.
However, the citizens, in this case, are like the prisoners that
remained in the cave when the other came to educate them they
sneered and laughed at him. They believed entirely in the
illusion as they had not experienced the truth. Hence, the
mockery to the enlightened prisoner.
The propaganda that Goebbels used was one that he cleverly
orchestrated for it to be experienced by the people. Due to the
fact that people believe that what they experience they
completely fell for his traps. He would organize beer brawls and
other violent acts and blame it on the opposition to get a good
following.
2
To say that there is a disbelief in how an entire nation was able
to turn a blind eye from the atrocities of a German dictator

7. would seem like a lie in the modern age. Today, Hitler is
considered to be ruthless, manipulative, and evil incarnate.
Those around him, such as his minister of propaganda Joseph
Goebbels, does not fall too far from the evil origin. Considering
all the crimes and murders that happened, it seems almost
impossible to believe that the Germans did not know that what
was being done to the Jews during that time was an evil act.
They were in the same country, there were Germans who had
Jewish friends, and they were more or less at the heart of the
conflict, a number of them saluting the Fuhrer.
However, it cannot also be denied that the atrocities look even
more horrendous from an outsider’s point of view, especially
when those on the inside have been forced to see a view that has
already been filtered and beautified to be more accepting of this
violence. This is the role that the little doctor, more known as
the head of the Minister for Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda during the Third Reich, Joseph Goebbels.
Goebbels earned the right to the name with the way he made use
of the right communication tools, the strategy of going for the
educational system as a foundation for his propaganda, and his
fidelity to his Fuhrer. “A master of psychological manipulation
and one of the earliest propagandists to recognize the enormous
role that radio could play in controlling mass populations,

8. Goebbels pushed the National Socialist agenda with the cold
vehemence of a true believer” (Cosgrove). Because of his
actions, he was told by Adolf Hitler that, "Dr. Goebbels was
gifted with the two things without which the situation in Berlin
could not have been mastered: verbal facility and Intellect. For
Dr. Goebbels, who had not found much in the way of a political
organization when he started, had won Berlin in the truest sense
of the word." ("Joseph Goebbels, 1897-1945").
Early on in July 1932, Goebbels already knew the strategy that
he wanted to take when he was appointed this position. His
vision was on a massive scale; he wanted an empire that “would
control schools, universities, film radio, and propaganda”
(“Ministry Of Propaganda And Enlightenment”). This came to
the point that the national education of the entire German
people were entrusted in his hands. What is interesting with
Goebbels approach is that he even had a disdain for the term,
believing that propaganda pointed to lies. His reach had
mandates for various sectors, including journalists who needed
to follow instructions in reportage to school and their respective
curriculum. The punishment for disobedience resulted in being
terminated or sent to concentration camps.
The biggest change that he effected in Germany was to target

9. schools books and curriculum to teach a history that was of
their own writing. For Goebbels, propaganda here worked as a
way to control the empire they were trying to create.
“Propaganda is a necessity for those wishing to convince a
population to accept their leadership and conform to their
ideologies” (Appleby 3). In fact, the changes were gradual;
swastika flags first made their appearances in textbooks, but
before long, the revisions and censorships occured, all to stress
Germany as the hero in the world’s history and everyone else as
villains or minor roles.
According to Shani, “these books were not only in the
schoolchildren’s satchel or in the school library. They were not
considered propaganda; they were part of the official
curriculum. Parents, grandparents, the children’s whole milieu,
knew what they were learning and memorizing and what they
studied for before exams,and proudly reinforced and supported
them” (Shani). Because of the changes done to the textbooks
and the indoctrination of the mishmash of fact with fantasy
created by the propaganda behind Nazism, the belief became the
absolute truth. “I wasn’t just education and training that made
millions of students believe in it, not with such totality. They
saw the light, they were strengthened in their belief and upheld
scrupulously the ‘new scientific religion’” (Shani).

10. The term “little doctor” shares a very significant to the
underhanded meaning of doctoring a particular situation, thing,
or even person. Doctors are known to cure, heal, and provide
comfort. Yet, even in the modern sense, the term “doctoring”
can refer to an alteration, be it a document or even the more
infamous one, going to a doctor to go under the knife and be
changed via plastic surgery. As in the modern understanding,
“the ‘little doctor’ is still a byword for the black arts of
political spin and politicians regularly accuse each other of
telling fibs ‘worthy of Goebbels’” (Jones). The title also applies
to Joseph Goebbels, who was known to be Hitler’s “little
doctor.” Perhaps the only irony in his moniker is the word
“little,” for there is nothing little or insignificant about his
actions and decisions that changed Hitler’s image and tidied it
up to swallow Berlin whole in doubt and delusion.
If there was to be a great example of the cavemen in Plato’s
“Allegory of the Cave,” it would have to be Brunhilde Pomsel,
Joseph Goebbels’ secretary. In an interview with The Guardian
before the release of a documentary featuring her interview,
Pomsel gave a few details about her time as secretary to the
little doctor. Among the excerpts of her dialogue, the words that
she uttered and the attitude that she had taken were disturbingly
similar to those of the Cavemen.

11. The comfort and privileges she had as Goebbels’ secretary was
her own cave. Whether it was enjoying a 275-mark salary worth
a fortune during the time or being showered with gifts like the
blue silk suit she was given as compensation for the destruction
of the flat that she owned with her parents during the bombing
raid, she was trapped with the projections of the shadows in
front of her. She was unable to turn the other way, because she
was even schooled from the start with a Prussian discipline and
thrived in the attention that Goebbels’ advisers gave her as his
secretary. From the beginning of the period, Pomsel was already
trapped, her neck and legs chained only so she look forward to
the deceptions that Hitler and his army had put up.
Goebbels was one of the passersby, the leader of them who
would direct how objects were projected and what can be
projected for them to see. He was the one moving behind the
shadows, or if we can extend the metaphor, the one directing
how the passersby would move around, how the would act, and
what they would show the onlookers, such as Pomsel. This
emphasizes Pomsel’s reactions about how they, as part of the
Nazi party, were treated and seen. For her, she should not have
been persecuted as she feels that she did no wrong. She was
merely following orders; when she was told not to look at a
document, she felt compelled to do so and was proud when she
was able to do it (Connolly).

12. The objects that were being passed through the raised way to
reflect shadows are the idealisms that Goebbels and the Nazi
party had. They were changed and altered to become mere
shadows of the reality of what they were. For instance, the
reality of the world’s history was filtered through and projected
back in a new form through a revised and censored education of
the entire German people. And given how entire generations and
children were taught these doctrines, it became hard for them to
truly separate the reality of what they learned from the reality
of the world. This is mostly because they were forced and
chained to study a particular brand of history, and this came to
be their truth. So even if someone who has seen the reality of
the cave and come back to warn them, all they can do is either
deny what happened like Pomsel or become defensive about the
philosophies. It may not necessarily be that they are condoning
evil willingly; they may not just be equipped enough to
recognize that it is evil, with the background, education, and
experience that they had growing up in a world of Nazi
propaganda.