A Republican congressman appalled Democrats at a congressional hearing by quoting infamous Nazi Joseph Goebbels. "A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels: It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion,' and I think that may be what we're discussing here," said Texas' Keith Self. Goebbels was the minister of propaganda for the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. His role was to convince the German people to support Hitler's regime, which he did so by spreading anti-Semitism and orchestrating the 1933 burning of "un-German" books in Berlin.