Johanna Maria Magdalena "Magda" Goebbels (née Ritschel; 11 November 1901 – 1 May 1945) was the wife of Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. A prominent member of the Nazi Party, she was a close ally, companion, and political supporter of Adolf Hitler. Some historians refer to her as the unofficial "first lady" of Nazi Germany, while others give that title to Emmy Göring. With defeat imminent during the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II in Europe, she and her husband murdered their six children before committing suicide in the Reich Chancellery gardens. Her eldest son, Harald Quandt, from a previous marriage, survived her. Early life Magda was born in 1901 in Berlin, Germany to an unwed couple, Auguste Behrend and building contractor and engineer Oskar Ritschel. The couple were married later that year and divorced in either 1904 or 1905. Some sources claim their marriage took place before Magda's birth, although there is no evidence to support the occurrence of a prior wedding. When Magda was five, her mother sent her to Cologne to stay with her ex-husband. In 1908, her mother married Richard Friedländer, a wealthy Jewish merchant who worked in Brussels, who adopted Magda and whose surname she adopted. In Brussels, Magda was enrolled at the Ursuline Convent in Vilvoorde where she was remembered as "an active and intelligent little girl". Further contacts with Ritschel, a member of the Krefeld Masonic Lodge in Duisburg, suggest that Magda may have been introduced there to Buddhism. In 2016, it was reported that Friedländer may have been Magda's biological father, as stated in his residency card, found in the Berlin archives by writer and historian Oliver Hilmes. Magda's adoption may have been required for her parents' delayed marriage, to update the girl's 'illegitimate child' status. From 1908 until the outbreak of World War I, the family remained in Brussels. In 1914, all Germans were forced to leave Belgium as refugees to avoid repercussions from the Belgian people after the German invasion. The family moved to Berlin where Magda attended the high school Kolmorgen Lycée. Behrend divorced Friedländer in 1914, and in 1919, Magda was enrolled in the prestigious 'Töchternheim Holzhausen' (Ladies' College Holzhausen) near Goslar. While in Berlin, Magda befriended Lisa Arlosoroff and later became intimate with her brother Haim, an ardent Zionist. During her relationship with Haim, she briefly wore a Star of David he