Eighty years ago today, on May 1, 1945 (March 20, 1945 lunar calendar), Nazi war criminal Goebbels committed suicide. Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels On May 1, 1945, Nazi war criminal Goebbels committed suicide. Goebbels, born in 1897 in a Catholic family in Germany, had a leg disability. He studied literature and history at the University of Heidelberg and received a doctorate in philosophy in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party the following year. In 1926, he was appointed head of the Nazi Party in the Berlin-Brandenburg district, which was well appreciated by Hitler. In 1929, he was appointed leader of the Nazi Party's propaganda agency, and played an important role in the Nazi campaign and Hitler's seizure of power. In 1933, he served as Minister of National Education and Propaganda. In 1933, he launched a "book burning" campaign to burn Jewish and Marxist books. Goebbels was good at making up lies and was known for his demagoguery. He promoted Hitler, preached racism, and preached war. After the outbreak of World War II, he encouraged the masses to go to war, preaching "victory or destruction" in the later stages of the war, and refused to surrender. He accompanied and married Hitler in the "Führer's Basement" until the fall of the Nazis in April 1945. Hitler was appointed chancellor before committing suicide. On May 1, Goebbels poisoned his six children and had the SS shoot him and his wife. The lying Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels announced in Berlin that Soviet soldiers had violated German borders and that Germany was forced to take "defensive measures"