Paul Joseph Goebbels (often pronounced /ˈɡɜrbəlz/ in English, German: [ˈɡœbəls]; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and the Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism. He was the chief architect of the Kristallnacht attack on the German Jews, which historians consider to be the beginning of the Final Solution, leading towards the genocide of the Holocaust.