The course of Streicher's incitement and
propaganda may be traced more or less in chronological order by
referring to short extracts from "Der Stuermer." The
extracts which follow were selected at random. They were selected
with a view to showing the various methods which Streicher employed
to incite the German people against the Jewish race, but his
newspapers are crowded with them, week after week, day after day. It
is impossible to pick up any copy without finding the same kind of
invective and incitement in the headlines and in the articles.
In a speech which Streicher made in 1922 in
Nurnberg, after abusing the Jews in the first paragraph, he went on
to say:
"We know that Germany will be free when the
Jew has been excluded from the life of the German people."
(M-11).
In a speech in 1924 he stated:
"I beg you and particularly those of you
who carry the cross throughout the land to become somewhat more
serious when I speak of the enemy of the German people, namely, the
Jew. Not out of irresponsibility or for fun do I fight against the
Jewish enemy, but because I bear within me the knowledge that the
whole misfortune was brought to Germany by the Jews alone.
"I ask you once more, what is at stake
today? The Jew seeks domination not only among the German people
but among all peoples. The communists pave the way for him. Do you
not know that the God of the Old Testament orders the Jews to
consume and enslave the peoples of the earth?
"The government allows the Jew to do as he
pleases. The people expect action to be taken. You may think about
Adolf Hitler as you please, but one thing you must admit. He
possessed the courage to attempt to free the German people from the
Jew by a national revolution. That was action indeed." (M-12).
In a speech in April 1925 Streicher declared:
"You must realize that the Jew wants our
people to perish. That is why you must join us and leave those who
have brought you nothing but war, inflation, and discord. For
thousands of years the Jew has been destroying the nations. Let us
make a new beginning today so that we can annihilate the
Jews." (M-13)
This appears to be the earliest expression of one
of the conspirators' primary objectives -- the annihilation of the
Jewish race. Fourteen years later it became the official policy of
the Nazi Government.
In April 1932 Streicher made the following
statement:
"For 13 years I have fought against
Jewry."
*******
"We know that the Jew whether he is
baptized as a Protestant or as a Catholic, remains a Jew. Why
cannot you realize, you Protestant clergymen, you Catholic priests,
you who have scales before your eyes and serve the god of the Jews
who is not the God of Love but the God of Hate. Why do you not
listen to Christ, who said to the Jews, 'You are children of the
devil'." (M-14).
(1) The
Ant-Jewish Boycott of 1933.
When the Nazi Party came to power, they officially
started their campaign against the Jews by the boycott of 1 April
1933. The boycott was agreed on and approved by the whole government,
as appears from Goebbel's diary (2409-PS).
Streicher vas appointed the chairman of the
central committee for the organization of that boycott. He started
his work on Wednesday, 29 March (2156-PS).
On that same day the central committee issued a
proclamation announcing that the boycott would start on Saturday at
10:00 -AM sharp:
"Jewry will realize whom it has
challenged." (M-7).
On 30 March, two days before the boycott was due
to start, an article was published under the title, "Defeat the
Enemy of the World !by Julius Streicher, official leader of the
central committee to combat the Jewish atrocity and boycott
campaign" (2153-PS). The article stated, in part:
"Jewry wanted this battle. It shall have it
until it realizes that the Germany of the brown battalions is not a
country of cowardice and surrender. Jewry will have to fight until
we have won victory.
"National Socialists! Defeat the enemy of
the world. Even if the world is full of devils, we shall succeed in
the end." (2153-PS) .
As head of the central committee for that boycott,
Streicher outlined in detail the organization of the boycott in
orders which the committee published on 31 March 1933 (2154-PS). The
committee stressed that no violence should be employed against the
Jews during the boycott, but not for humanitarian reasons. The order
was issued because, if no violence were employed, Jewish employers
would have no grounds for discharging their employees without notice,
and for refusing to pay them any wages. The Jews were also reported,
apparently, to be transferring businesses to German figureheads in
order to alleviate the results of this persecution; accordingly the
committee declared that any property so transferred was to be
considered as Jewish for the purpose of the boycott (2154-PS).
It is therefore clear that early in 1933 Streicher
was taking a leading part, as appointed by the Government, in the
persecution against the Jews.
Further extracts from Streicher's newspapers
illustrate the form which his propaganda developed as the years went
on. An article in the New Year's issue of a new paper founded and
edited by Streicher -- a semimedical paper called "The People's
Health Through Blood and Soil" -- is an example of the
remarkable lengths to which he went in propagandizing against the
Jews:
"It is established for all eternity; alien
albumen is the sperm of a man of alien race. The male sperm in
cohabitation is partially or completely absorbed by the female, and
thus enters her bloodstream. One single cohabitation of a Jew with
an Aryan woman is sufficient to poison her blood forever. Together
with the alien albumen she has absorbed the alien soul. Never again
will she be able to bear purely Aryan children, even when married
to an Aryan. They will all be bastards, with a dual soul and a body
of a mixed breed. Their children will also be crossbreeds; that
means, ugly people of unsteady character and with a tendency to
illnesses. Now we know why the Jew uses every artifice of seduction
in order to ravish German girls at as early an age as possible; why
the Jewish doctor rapes his patients while they were under
anaesthetic. He wants the German girl and the German woman to
absorb the alien sperm of the Jew. She is never again to bear
German children. But the blood products of all animals right down
to the bacteria like the serum, lymph, extracts from internal
organs etc., are all alien albumen. They have a poisonous effect if
directly introduced into the blood stream either by vaccination or
by injection. By these products of sick animals the blood is
ravished, the Aryan is impregnated with an alien species. The
author and abettor of such action is the Jew. He has been aware of
the secrets of the race question for centuries, and therefore plans
systematically the annihilation of the nations which are superior
to him. Science and authorities are his instruments for the
enforcing of pseudo-science and the concealment of truth."
(M-20).
At the beginning of 1935, the following extract,
entitled "The Chosen People of the Criminals," appeared in
"Der Stuermer":
" *** and all the same, or, let us say,
just because of this, the history book of the Jews, which is
usually called the Holy Scriptures, impresses us as a horrible
criminal romance, which makes the 150 penny-dreadfuls of the
British Jew, Edgar Wallace, go green with envy. This 'holy' book
abounds in murder, incest, fraud, theft, and indecency."
(2697-PS).
In a speech on 4 October 1935 (the month following
the proclamation of the Nurnberg Decrees) Streicher made a speech
which is reported in the Voelkischer Beobachter and is entitled in
that newspaper "Safeguard of German Blood and German
Honor." The report in that article reads in part:
"Gauleiter Streicher speaks at a German
Labor Front mass demonstration for the Nurnberg laws."
*******
"We have therefore, to unmask the Jew, and
that is what I have been doing for the past fifteen years."
(M-54).
In a leading article in "Der Stuermer"
Streicher again emphasized the part which he himself had taken in
this campaign:
"The 'Stuermer's' 15 years of work of
enlightenment has already led an army of those who know -- millions
strong -- to National Socialism. The continued work of the 'Stuermer'
will help to ensure that every German down to the last man will,
with heart and hand, join the ranks of those whose aim it is to
crush the head of the serpent Pan-Juda beneath their heels. He who
helps to bring this about helps to eliminate the devil, and this
devil is the Jew." (M-6).
The extraordinary length to which Streicher went
in his propaganda is illustrated by the publication in "Der
Stuermer" of a photograph of the burning hull of the airship
"Hindenburg, which caught fire in June 1937 in America. The
caption beneath the picture includes the comment:
"The first radio picture from the United
States of America shows quite clearly that a Jew stands behind the
explosion of our airship Hindenburg. Nature has depicted clearly
and quite correctly that devil in human guise."
Although it is not clear from that photograph, the
meaning of that comment is apparently that the cloud of smoke in the
air is in the shape of a Jewish face.
In a speech in September 1937 at the opening of
the Wilhelm Gustloff bridge in Nurnberg, Streicher declared:
"The man who murdered Wilhelm Gustloff had
to come from the Jewish people, because the Jewish text books teach
that every Jew has the right to kill a non-Jew, and, indeed, that
it is pleasing to the Jewish God to kill as many non-Jews as
possible.
"Look at the way the Jewish people have
been following for thousands of years past; everywhere murder,
everywhere mass murder. Neither must we forget that behind
present-day wars there stands the Jewish financier who pursues his
aims and interests. The Jew always lives on the blood of other
nations; he needs such murder and such victims. For us who know,
the murder of Wilhelm Gustloff is the same as ritual murder."
"It is our duty to tell the children at
school and the bigger ones what this memorial means."
*******
"The Jew no longer shows himself among us
openly as he used to. But it would be wrong to say that victory is
ours. Full and final victory will have been achieved only when the
whole world has been rid of Jews." (M 4)
Extracts from the correspondence columns of "Der
Stuermer," show another method which Streicher employed in his
propaganda (M-26; M-27; M-28). The correspondence columns of every
issue are full of purported "letters" from Germans
protesting that some German has been buying shoes from a Jewish shop,
etc., thus by printing these letters assisting in the general boycott
of the Jews.
(2) "Ritual Murder" Propaganda.
Another form of propaganda employed by Streicher
concerned the "Ritual Murder." Sometime in 1934 "Der
Stuermer" began publishing accounts of Jewish ritual murder
which horrified the whole world to such an extent that even the
Archbishop of Canterbury, together with people from every country in
the world, protested that any government should allow such matter to
be published in their national newspapers.
Streicher based his ritual murder propaganda on a
medieval belief that during their Eastertide celebrations the Jews
were in the habit of murdering Christian children. Streicher
misrepresented this medieval belief to make it appear that not only
was this done in the Middle Ages, but that the Jews are still doing
it and still want to do it. A few passages from "Der Stuermer"
together with descriptions of photographs published therein will
illustrate the type of propaganda that Streicher was putting out
concerning "ritual murder":
"This the French front-line soldier should
take with him to France: The German people have taken a new lease
of life. They want peace, but if anyone tries to attack them, if
anyone tries to torture them again, if anyone tries to push them
back into the past, then the world would see another heroic epic;
then heaven will decide where righteousness lies -- here, or where
the Jew has the whiphand and where he instigates massacres, one
could almost say the biggest ritual murders of all times. If the
German people are to be slaughtered according to the Jewish rites,
the whole world will be thus slaughtered at the same time."
*******
"As you have drummed morning and evening
prayers into your children's heads, so now drum this into their
heads, so that the German people may gain the spiritual power to
convince the rest of the world which the Jews desire to lead
against us." (M-2).
A photograph published in "Der Stuermer"
in April 1937 purports to show three Jews ritually murdering a girl
by cutting her throat, with the blood pouring out into a bucket on
the ground The caption underneath that photograph is as follows:
"Ritual murder at Polna. Ritual murder of
Agnes Hruza by the Jews Hilsner, Erdmann, and Wassermann, taken
from a contemporary postcard.
Another article in "Der Stuermer", in
April 1937, describes what is alleged to happen when ritual murder
takes place, and the blood is mixed with the bread and drunk by the
Jews in their feast. During the feast the head of the family is
supposed to explain:
"May all gentiles perish -- as the child
whose blood is contained in the bread and wine." (2699-PS).
An article in "Der Stuermer" for July
1938 has these further remarks to make on "ritual murder":
"Whoever had the occasion to be an
eye-witness during the slaughtering of animals or to see at least a
truthful film on the slaughtering-will never forget this horrible
experience. It is atrocious. And unwillingly, he is reminded of the
crimes which the Jews have committed for centuries on men. He will
be reminded of the ritual murder. History points out hundreds of
cases in which non-Jewish children were tortured to death. They
also were given the same incision through the throat as is found on
slaughtered animals. They also were slowly bled to death while
fully conscious." (2700-PS).
On special occasions, or when Streicher had some
particular subject matter to put before Germany, he was in the habit
of issuing special editions of "Der Stuermer." "Ritual
murder" was such a special subject that he issued one of these
special editions dealing solely with it, in May 1939. One of the
photographs published in this issue shows a child having knives stuck
into its side, from which blood is spurting; and below the pedestal
on which the child stands are five presumably dead children bleeding
on the ground. The caption beneath that picture reads as follows:
"In the year 1476 the Jews in Regensburg murdered six boys. They
drew their blood and tortured them to death in an underground vault
which belongs to the Jew Josfel. The judges found the body of the
murdered boys; and blood stains are on an altar."
Two other pictures are explained by their
captions. One reads: "For the Jewish New Year celebrations in
1913, World Jewry published this picture. On the Jewish New Year and
on the Day of Atonement the Jews slaughtered a so-called 'kapores'
cock; that is to say, dead cock, whose blood and death is intended to
purify the Jews. In 1913 the 'kapores' cock had the head of the
Russian Czar Nicholas II. By publishing this postcard the Jews
intended to say that Nicholas II would be their next purifying
sacrifice. On 6 July 1918, the Czar was murdered by the Jews Jurowsky
and Goloschtschekin."
The other picture shows the Jews holding a similar
bird:
"***the 'kapores' cock which has the head
of the Fuehrer. The Hebrew script says that one day Jews will kill
all Hitlerites. Then the Jews will be delivered from all
misfortunes, but in due course the Jews will realize that they have
reckoned without an Adolf Hitler.
In addition to reproductions of a number of
previous articles on "ritual murder" beneath a picture of
Streicher, another picture bears the caption: "At the Passover
Meal. The wine and Matzoh, unleavened bread, contains non-Jewish
blood. The Jew prays before the meal. He prays for death to all
non-Jews."
The fifth page of this same issue reproduces some
of the European and American newspaper articles and letters
protesting against this propaganda on "ritual murder."
Among these is the "Stuermer's" answer to the letter from
the Archbishop of Canterbury, written to the editor of the London
Times in protest (M-10)
Page 6 contains another picture of a man having
his throat cut; again the usual spurt of blood falling into a basin
on the floor, with the following caption:
"The ritual murder of the boy Heinrich. In
the year 1345 the Jews in Munich slaughtered a non-Jewish boy. The
martyr was declared holy by the church."
On page 8 appears another picture entitled:
"The Holy Gabriel. This boy was crucified
and tortured to death by the Jews in the year 1690. The blood was
drawn off him."
Page 11 reproduces a piece of sculpture on the
wall of the Wallfahrts Chapel, representing the ritual murder of a
boy named Werner. The picture shows the boy strung up by his feet and
being murdered by two Jews. Page 12 reproduces another picture taken
from the same place. The caption is:
"The embalmed body of Trient who was
tortured to death by the Jews."
Page 13 contains another picture; somebody else
having a knife stuck into him; more blood coming out into a basin. On
page 14 are two pictures. One is said to show the ritual murder of
the boy Andreas. The other is the picture of a tombstone, and the
caption reads as follows:
"The tombstone of Hilsner. This is the
memorial to a Jewish ritual murderer, Leopold Hilsner. He was found
guilty of two ritual murders and was condemned to death by hanging
in two trials. The emperor was bribed and pardoned him. Masaryk,
the friend of the Jews, liberated him from penal servitude in 1918.
On his tombstone Iying Jewry calls this twofold murderer an
innocent victim."
The next page produces yet another picture of a
woman being murdered by having her throat cut in the same way. Page
17 produces a picture of the Archbishop of Canterbury together with a
picture of an old Jewish man, with a caption reading:
"Dr. Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the highest dignitary of the English Church, and his allies, a
typical example of the Jewish Race."
The last page contains a picture of "Holy
Simon, who was tortured to death."
This issue of "Der Stuermer" is nothing
but an incitement to the people of Germany who read it, an incitement
to murder. It is filled with pictures of murder, murder alleged to be
against the German people. It is an encouragement, to all who read it
to avenge themselves in the same way.
In January 1938 the persecution of the Jews became
more and more severe another special issue of "Der Stuermer"
was published. A passage from the leading article in that issue
written by Streicher, states:
"*** The supreme aim and highest task of
the state is therefore to conserve people, blood, and race. But if
this is the supreme task, any crime against this law must be
punished with the supreme penalty. 'Der Steurmer' takes therefore
the view that there are only two punishments for the crime of
polluting the race:
"1. Penal servitude for life for attempted
race pollution.
"2. Death for committing race
pollution." (M-39).
The following are some of the headlines on the
articles contained in that edition:
"Jewish race polluters at work."
*******
"Fifteen year old non-Jewess ravaged."
*******
"A dangerous race polluter. He regards
German women as fair game for himself."
*******
"The Jewish sanatorium. A Jewish
institution for the cultivation of race pollution."
*******
"Rape of a feeble-minded girl."
*******
"The Jewish butler. He steals from his
Jewish masters and commits race pollution." (M-40).
Another article appearing in "Der Stuermer,"
written by Streicher's editor, Karl Holz, states:
"The revenge will break loose one day and
will exterminate Jewry from the surface of the earth." (M-35).
Again, in September 1938, "Der Stuermer"
published an article describing the Jews as follows:
"A parasite, an enemy, an evil-doer, a
disseminator of diseases who must be destroyed in the interest of
mankind."(M-36).
This is no longer propaganda for the persecution
of the Jews; this is propaganda for the extermination of Jews, and
for the murder not of one Jew but of all Jews (see 2698-PS).
A picture published in "Der Stuermer" in
December 1938 shows a girl being strangled by a man whose hands are
around her neck. The shadow of the man's face, which is shown against
the background, has quite obvious Jewish features. The caption under
that picture is as follows:
"Castration for Race Polluters. Only heavy
penalties will preserve our womenfolk from a tighter grip from
ghastly Jewish claws. The Jews are our misfortune."
(3)The
Anti-Jewish demonstrations of November 1938.
While his anti-Jewish propaganda was becoming
constantly fiercer, Streicher took a leading part in the organized
demonstrations against the Jews which took place on 9 November 1938
and 10 November 1938. In the autumn of that year, on the occasion of
a meeting of press representatives in Nurnberg, Streicher organized
the breaking-up of the Nurnberg synagogues. It was announced that
Streicher personally would set the crane in motion with which the
Jewish symbols would be torn down from the synagogues 1724- PS). The
event was described as follows:
" *** the synagogue is being demolished!
Julius Streicher himself inaugurates the work by a speech lasting
more than an hour and a half. By his order -- so to speak as a
prelude of the demolition -- the tremendous Star of David came off
the cupola." (2711-PS).
Streicher took active part in the November
demonstrations of that year, particularly in his Gau of Franconia.
The Nurnberg demonstrations were reported as follows in the "Fraenksche
Tageszeitung, which was Streicher's paper, on 11 November:
" *** In Nurnberg and Furth it resulted in
demonstrations by the crowd against the Jewish murders. These
lasted until the early hours of the morning. Far too long had one
watched the activities of the Jews in Germany."
*******
"After midnight the excitement of the
populace reached its peak and a large crowd marched to the
synagogues in Nurnberg and Furth and burned these two Jewish
buildings where the murder of Germans had been preached.
"The fire-brigades, which had been notified
immediately, saw to it that the fire was continued to the original
outbreak The windows of the Jewish shopkeepers, who still had not
given up hope of selling their junk to the stupid Goims, were
smashed. Thanks to the disciplined behavior of the SA men and the
police, who had rushed to the scene, there was no plundering."
(M-42).
On 10 November, the day of the demonstrations,
Streicher made a speech stating in part as follows:
"From the cradle, the Jew is not being
taught, like we are, such texts as, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself,' or 'If you are smitten on the left cheek, offer then
your right one.' No, he is told: 'With the non-Jew you can do
whatever you like.' He is even taught that the slaughtering of a
non-Jew is an act pleasing to God. For 20 years we have been
writing about this in 'Der Stuermer'; for 20 years we have been
preaching it throughout the world and we have made millions
recognize the truth."
"The Jew slaughtered in one night 75,000
people; when he emigrated to Egypt he killed all the first-born,
i.e. a whole future generation of Egyptians. What would have
happened if the Jew had succeeded in driving the nations into war
against us, and if we had lost the war? The Jew protected by
foreign bayonets, would have fallen on us and would have
slaughtered and murdered us. Never forget what history has taught
us." (M-41)
After the November 1938 demonstrations,
irregularities occurred in the Gau of Franconia in connection with
the organized Aryanization of Jewish property. Aryanization of Jewish
property was regulated by the Nazi State, which had decreed that the
proceeds of the transfer of Jewish properties to Aryans were to go to
the State. In Streicher's Gau of Franconia, however, a good deal of
the proceeds never found their way as far as the State. -As a result
Goering set up a commission to investigate what had taken place. The
report of that commission (1757-PS) describes what had been taking
place in Streicher's Gau:
"*** Following upon the November
demonstrations the Deputy Gauleiter, Holz, took up the Jewish
questions. His reasons can be given here in detail on the basis of
his statement of 25 March 1939:
"The 9th and 10th of November 1938.
"In the night of the 9 November 1938 and 10
November 1938 and on 10 November 1938, events took place throughout
Germany which I [Holz] considered to be the signal for a completely
different treatment of the Jewish question in Germany. Synagogues
and Jewish schools were burnt down and Jewish property was smashed
both in shops and in private houses. Besides this, a large number
of particular Jews were taken to concentration camps by the police.
Toward midday we discussed these events in the Gauleiter's house.
All of- us were of the opinion that we now faced a completely new
state of affairs on the Jewish question. By the great action
against the Jews, carried out in the night and morning of the 10th
of November, all guiding principles and all laws on the subject had
been made illusory. We were of the opinion (particularly myself)
that we should now act on our own initiative in this respect. I
proposed to the Gauleiter that in view -of the great existing lack
of housing, the best thing would be to put the Jews into a kind of
internment camp. Then the houses would become free in a twinkling,
and the housing shortage would be relieved, at least in part.
Besides that, we would have the Jews under control and supervision.
I added 'The same thing happened to our prisoners of war and war
internees.' The Gauleiter said that this suggestion was for the
time being impossible to carry out. Thereupon I made a new proposal
to him. I said that I considered it unthinkable that, after the
Jews had had their property smashed, they -should continue to be
able to own houses and land. I proposed that these houses and this
land ought to be taken away from them, and declared myself ready to
carry through such an action. I declared that by the Aryanization
of Jewish land and houses a large sum could accrue to the Gau out
of the proceeds. I named some million of marks. I stated that, in
my opinion, this Aryanization could be carried out as legally as
the Aryanization of shops. The Gauleiter's answer was something to
this effect: 'If you think you can carry this out, do so. The sum
gained will then be used to build a Gau school.' "
*******
"The Aryanization was accomplished by the
alienation of properties, the surrender of claims, especially
mortgage claims, and reductions in buying price.
"The payment allowed the Jews was basically
10% of the nominal value or nominal sum of the claim. As a
justification for these low prices, Holz claimed at the Berlin
meeting of 6 February 1939, that the Jews had mostly bought their
property during the inflation period for a tenth of its value. As
has been shown by investigating a large number of individual cases
selected at random, this claim is not true." (1757-PS)
The second part of this report, which contains the
findings of the commission, reads in part as follows:
"*** Gauleiter Streicher likes to beat
people with a riding whip but only if he is in the company of
several persons assisting him. Usually the beatings are carried out
with sadistic brutality.
"The best known case is that of Steinruck,
whom he beat bloodily in the prison cell, together with Deputy
Gauleiter Holz and SA Brigadier General Koenig. After returning
from this scene to the Deutscher Hof he said: 'Now I am relieved. I
needed that again!' Later he also stated several times that he
needed another Steinruck case in order to 'relieve' himself.
"In August 1938, he beat Editor Burker at
the District House together with District Office Leader Schoeller
and his Adjutant Koenig.
"On 2 December 1938 he asked to have three
youthful criminals (15 to 17 years old) who had been arrested for
robbery brought to the room of the director of the Criminal Police
Office in Nurnberg-Furth. Streicher who was accompanied by his son,
Lothar, had the youths brought in singly and question them about
their sex life and in particular, through clear and detailed
questioning, he laid stress on determining whether and since when
they masturbated. ***
"*** The last one of these three boys he
beat with his riding whip, with blows on the head and on the rest
of the body." (1757-PS)
A later passage shows the authority and power
which Streicher held in his Gau:
"According to reports of reliable witnesses
Gauleiter Streicher is in the habit of pointing out on the most
varied occasions that he alone gives orders in the district of
Franconia. For instance, at a meeting in the Colosseum in Nurnberg
in 1935 he said that nobody could remove him from office. In a
meeting at Herkules Hall, where he described how he had beaten
Professor Steinruck, he emphasized that he would not let himself be
beaten by anybody, not even by an Adolf Hitler.
"For, this also must be stated here, in
Franconia the Gau acts first and then orders the absolutely
powerless authorities to approve." (1757-PS)
That report shows the kind of treatment and
persecution which the Jews were receiving in the Gau over which
Streicher ruled. It further shows the absolute authority with which
Streicher acted in his district.
As a result either of that investigation or of
some other matter, Streicher was relieved of his position as
Gauleiter in February 1940, but he did not cease from propaganda or
from control of his newspaper. In an article written in "Der
Stuermer," on 4 November 1943, Streicher declared:
"It is really the truth that the Jews, so
to speak, have disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish
reservoir of the East, from which the Jewish plague has for
centuries beset the peoples of Europe, has ceased to exist.
However, the Fuehrer of the German people at the beginning of the
war prophesied what has now come to pass." (1965-PS).
That article, signed by Streicher, shows that he
had knowledge of the Jewish exterminations which were going on in the
East. Streicher's article was written in November 1943. In April 1943
the Warsaw ghetto was destroyed. Between April 1942 and April 1944
more than 1,700,000 Jews were killed in Auschwitz and Dachau. It
seems clear from this article that Streicher knew what was happening,
perhaps not the details, but the fact that Jews were being
exterminated.
(4) Perversion of Youth.
Streicher paid particular attention to the
instruction and perversion of the children and youth of Germany. He
was not content with inciting the German population. He started to
poison the minds of the children at school at the earliest possible
date. He continually emphasized the need for teaching children
antisemitism. In a speech as early as June 1925 Streicher said:
"I repeat, we demand the transformation of
the school into a national German institution of education. If we
let German children be taught by German teachers, then we shall
have laid the foundations for the national German school. This
national German school must teach racial doctrine."
*******
"We demand, therefore, the introduction of
racial doctrine into the school." (M-30)
The "Fraenkische Tageszeitung" of 19
March 1934 reports Streicher's address at a girls' school at
Preisslerstrasse:
"Then Julius Streicher spoke about his life
and told them about a girl who at one time went to his school and
who fell for a Jew and was finished for the rest of her life."
(M-43)
Every summer in Nurnberg a youth celebration was
held. At this pagan rite the youth of Nurnberg were rallied,
organized, and incited, encouraged by Streicher. Streicher's speech
to the Hitler Youth on the "Holy Mountain" near Nurnberg on
22 June 1935 contained the following statements:
"Boys and girls, look back to a little more
than 10 years ago. A great war -- the World War -- had whirled over
the peoples of the earth and had left in the end a heap of ruins.
Only one people remained victorious in this dreadful war, a people
of whom Christ said its father is the devil. That people had ruined
the German nation in body and soul. Then Adolf Hitler, unknown to
anybody, arose from among the people and became the voice which
called to a holy war and battle. He cried to the people for
everybody to take courage again and to rise and get a helping hand
to take the devil from the German people, so that the human race
might be free again from these people that have wandered about the
world for centuries and millennia, marked with the sign of Cain.
"Boys and girls, even if they say that the Jews were once the
chosen people, do not believe it, but believe us when we say that
the Jews are not a chosen people. Because it cannot be that a
chosen people should act among the peoples as the Jews do
today." (M-1).
A report of Streicher's address to 2,000 children
at Nurnberg at Christmas-time, 1936, states:
"'Do you know who the Devil is,' he asked
his breathlessly listening audience. 'The Jew, the Jew,' resounded
from a thousand children's voices."(M-44).
Streicher was not content with writing and
talking. He issued a book for teachers, written by one Fink and
published from the "Der Stuermer" offices, called "The
Jewish Question and School Instruction." This book emphasizes
the necessity of anti-semitic teaching in schools, and suggests ways in which the subject can be
introduced and handled. The preface, written by Streicher, reads in
part as follows:
"The National Socialist state brought fundamental changes into
all spheres of life of the German people.
"It has also presented the German teacher
with some new tasks. The National Socialist state demands that its
teachers instruct German children in social questions. As far as
the German people is concerned the racial question is a Jewish
question. Those who want to teach the child all about the Jew must
themselves have a thorough knowledge of the subject.
"Those who take to heart all that has been
written with such feeling by Fritz Fink, who for many years has
been greatly concerned about the German people, will be grateful
for the creator of this outwardly insignificant publication."
(M-46). The preface is signed by Julius Streicher, City of the
Reich Party Rallies, Nurnberg, in the year 1937.
The introduction to this book reads as follows:
"Racial and Jewish questions are the
fundamental problems of the National Socialist ideology. The
solution of these problems will secure the existence of National
Socialism and with this the existence of our nation for all time.
The enormous significance of the racial question is recognized
almost without exception today by all the German people. In order
to attain this recognition our people had to travel through a long
road of suffering.
"No one should be allowed to grow up in the
midst of our people without this knowledge of the monstrous
character and dangerousness of the Jew." (M-46).
A later passage in the book contains this
statement:
"One who has reached this stage of
understanding will inevitably remain an enemy of the Jews all his
life and will instill this hatred into his own children." (M-
46).
"Der Stuermer" also published some
children's books. Although Streicher himself did not write the books,
they were published from his publishing business, and they are on the
same line of everything else published and issued from that business.
Among these books was one entitled "Don't trust the Fox in the
green meadow nor the Jew on his oath." It is a picture book for
children. The pictures all depict Jews in an offensive light. And
Opposite each picture there is a little story. For instance, opposite
one picture, which portrays an unpleasant-looking Jewish butcher
cutting up meat, there appears the following
"The Jewish butcher: he sells half refuse
instead of meat. A piece of meat lies on the floor; the cat claws
another. This doesn't worry the Jew butcher since the meat increases
in weight. Besides one mustn't forget he won't have to eat it
himself." (M-32).
The story opposite another picture reads as
follows:
"Jesus Christ says 'The Jew is a murderer
through and through'. And when Christ had to die the Lord didn't
know any other people who would have tortured Him to death so he
chose the Jews. That is why the Jews pride themselves on being the
chosen people." (M-32).
Other pictures in this book portray: a girl being
led away by an evil-appearing Jew; Streicher smiling benignly at a
children's party, greeting the little children; children looking at
copies of "Der Stuermer" posted on a wall; Jewish children
being taken away from an Aryan school by an unpleasant-looking
father, with all the Aryan children shouting and dancing and enjoying
the fun very much (M-32).
Another book, called "The Poisonous
Fungus," is very similar in character and appearance, and
likewise calculated to poison the minds of readers. One of the
pictures in this book shows a girl sitting in a Jewish doctor's
waiting room. The story that goes with this picture is not a very
pleasant story, but it is only by adverting to these matters that it
becomes possible to believe the kind of education which German
children received from Streicher.
The story reads as follows:
"Inge sits in the reception room of the Jew
doctor. She has to wait a long time. She looks through the journals
which are on the table. But she is much too nervous to read even a
few sentences. Again and again she remembers the talk with her
mother. And again and again her mind reflects on the warnings of
her leader of the League of German Girls: 'A German must not
consult a Jew doctor. And particularly not a German girl. Many a
girl that went to a Jew doctor to be cured, found disease and
disgrace!'
"When Inge had entered the waiting room,
she experienced an extraordinary incident. From the doctor's
consulting room she could hear the sound of crying. She heard the
voice of a young girl: 'Doctor, doctor, leave me alone!'
"Then she heard the scornful laughing of a
man. And then, all of a sudden, it became absolutely silent. Inge
had listened breathlessly.
"'What may be the meaning of all this?' she
asked herself and her heart was pounding. And again she thought of
the warning of her leader in the League of German Girls.
"Inge was already waiting for an hour.
Again she takes the journals in an endeavor to read. Then the door
opens. Inge looks up. The Jew appears. She screams. In terror she
drops the paper. Horrified she jumps up. Her eyes stare into the
face of the Jewish doctor. And this face is the face of the devil.
In the middle of this devil's face is a huge crooked nose. Behind
the spectacles two criminal eyes. And the thick lips are grinning,
a grinning that expresses: 'Now I got you at last, you little
German girl!'
"And then the Jew approaches her. His
fleshy fingers stretch out after her. But now Inge has composed
herself. Before the Jew can grab hold of her, she smacks the fat
face of the Jew doctor with her hand. One jump to the door.
Breathlessly Inge runs down the stairs. Breathlessly she escapes
the Jew house." (1778-PS).
Another photograph shows youthful admirers
standing around looking at Streicher's picture, with the following
commentary:
"'Without a solution of the Jewish question
there will be no salvation for mankind.' That is what he shouted to
us. All of us could understand him. And when, at the end, he
shouted 'Sieg Heil' for the Fuehrer, we all acclaimed him with
tremendous enthusiasm. For two hours Streicher spoke at that
occasion. To us it appeared to have been but a few minutes."
(1778-PS).
The effect of all this propaganda is evident from
the columns of "Der Stuermer" itself. In April 1936 there
was published a letter, which is typical of many others that appear
in other copies from children of all ages. The third paragraph of
this letter, signed by the boys and girls of the National Socialist
Youth Hostel at Grossmuellen, reads:
"*** Today we saw a play on how the devil
persuades - the Jew to shoot a conscientious National Socialist. In
the course of the play the Jew did it too. We all heard the shot.
We would have all liked to jump up and arrest the Jew. But then the
policeman came and after a short struggle took the Jew along. You
can imagine, dear Stuermer, that we heartily cheered the policeman.
In the whole play not one name was mentioned, but we all knew that
this play represented the murder by the Jew Frankfurter. We were
very sick when we went to bed that night. None felt like talking to
the others. This play made it clear to us how the Jew sets to
work." (M-25).
