Alfred Rosenberg was born in 1902 in Siegen. After receiving his doctorate in law at the University of Heidelberg in 1922, he served as a legal clerk and in the Foreign Office in Berlin. He rose rapidly in the Nazi Party hierarchy, becoming one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates in 1933. Rosenberg published anti-Semitic pamphlets, edited the political journal Völkischer Beobachter (National Observer), and drafted the laws under which Jews were systematically persecuted during this period
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He was instrumental in promoting Nazi propaganda abroad and was one of the main collaborators of Josef Goebbels in his propaganda ministry. In 1938 he became Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsbevollmächtiger für die besetzten Ostgebiete) and led the planning of mass deportations of Jews to concentration camps. Reichskommissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums (Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom) was another of his titles.