Julius Streicher
Der Stürmer Publisher

Julius Streicher (February 12, 1885 – October 16, 1946) was a prominent Nazi prior to and during World War II. He was the publisher of the Nazi Der Stürmer newspaper, which was to become a part of the Nazi propaganda machine. His publishing firm released three anti-Semitic books for children, including the 1938 Der Giftpilz (The Poison Mushroom), one of the most widespread pieces of propaganda, which purported to warn about insidious dangers Jews posed by using the metaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom. After the war, he was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... 1943 Stürmer issue: Satan Der Stürmer (literally, The Stormer) was a weekly Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in circulation due to legal difficulties. ... is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nazism, or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party, German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) under Adolf Hitler. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... 1943 Stürmer issue: Satan Der Stürmer (literally, The Stormer) was a weekly Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in circulation due to legal difficulties. ... For other uses, see Propaganda (disambiguation). ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... Der Giftpilz is a childrens book published by Julius Streicher in 1938. ... In international law, a crime against humanity consists of acts of persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, as being the criminal offence above all others. ...

Early life

Streicher was born in Fleinhausen, Bavaria, one of nine children of the teacher Friedrich Streicher and his wife Anna (née Weiss). He worked as an elementary school teacher until joining the German Army in 1914. Streicher won the Iron Cross and reached the rank of lieutenant by the time the Armistice was signed in 1918. In 1913 Streicher married Kunigunde Roth, a baker's daughter, in Nürnberg. They had two sons, Lothar (born 1915) and Elmar (born 1918). Fleinhausen is a municipality of the town of Dinkelscherben in the western part of the Bavarian district of Augsburg in Germany. ... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... The Reichswehr (help· info) (literally National Defense or Imperial Defense) formed the military organization of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when the government rebranded it as the Wehrmacht (Defence Force). ... A stylized version of the Iron Cross, the emblem of the Bundeswehr, Germanys Armed Forces. ... Lieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service or police officer rank. ... “Nürnberg” redirects here. ...

National Socialism

In 1919 Streicher was active in the Schutz und Trutz Bund, an anti-Semitic organization. In 1920 he turned to the newly established German Socialist Party (Deutschsozialistische Partei), the platform of which was close to that of the Nazi Party. Streicher moved it in more anti-Semitic directions, which aroused opposition. His battles with other members led him to take his followers to yet another organization in 1921, the German Working Community (Deutsche Werkgemeinschaft), which hoped to unite the various anti-Semitic Völkisch movements. In 1922, Streicher merged his personal following with that of Adolf Hitler, almost doubling the membership of the Nazi Party, and earning Hitler's lifelong gratitude. He participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, which later gave him the privilege of marching at the front of the annual reenactment of the event after the Nazi takeover of power in 1933. This box:      Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed at Jews. ... Hitler redirects here. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup détat that occurred between the evening of Thursday, November 8 and the early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923, when the Nazi partys leader Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the Kampfbund... Year 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1923 Streicher founded the racist newspaper, Der Stürmer of which he was editor, and used it to build up a deep hatred of everything and everyone Jewish. Eventually the newspaper reached a peak circulation of 480,000 in 1935. 1943 Stürmer issue: Satan Der Stürmer (literally, The Stormer) was a weekly Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in circulation due to legal difficulties. ...

Streicher argued in the newspaper that the Jews had contributed to the depression, unemployment, and inflation in Germany which afflicted the country during the 1920's. He claimed that Jews were white-slavers and were responsible for over 90 percent of the prostitutes in the country.

After the refounding of the Nazi party, Streicher became Gauleiter of Franconia. After 1933, he practically ruled the city of Nuremberg and was nicknamed "King of Nuremberg" and the "Beast of Franconia." In 1940, he was stripped of all party offices after being involved in major financial scandals involving Jewish property seized after the anti-Semitic outburst of Kristallnacht in November 1938, and also for spreading untrue stories about Hermann Göring, several furious outbursts towards other Gauleiters and unconcealed adultery. Streicher, however, remained on good terms with German dictator Adolf Hitler until the latter committed suicide on April 30, 1945. On May 23, two weeks after Germany's surrender, Streicher was captured by the Americans. A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau. ... Mittelfranken (Middle Franconia) is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. ... “Nürnberg” redirects here. ... Kristallnacht, also known as Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, Crystal Night and the Night of Broken Glass, was a pogrom[1] against Jews throughout Germany and parts of Austria on November 9–November 10, 1938. ... Hermann Wilhelm Göring ( ) (also Goering in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command of the Third Reich, and commander of the Luftwaffe. ... Hitler redirects here. ...

Streicher's wife, Kunigunde Streicher, died in 1943 after 30 years of marriage. Streicher was married to his former secretary, Adele Tappe, just days before his arrest.

Trial and execution

The corpse of Julius Streicher after his execution in 1946. (R.J.Maranan)

Julius Streicher was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and sentenced to death on October 1, 1946. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the 1947 Soviet film about the trials, see Nuremberg Trials (film). ... is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Streicher was not a member of the military and was not part of planning the Holocaust, the invasion of Poland, or the Soviet invasion. Yet his role in inciting the extermination of Jews was significant enough, in the prosecutors' judgment, to include him in the indictment. Consequently, he holds the distinction of being the only defendent from the Nuremburg trials executed solely for the expression of ideas. For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). ...

During the trial Streicher declared several times that the jailers had tortured him. For reasons that remain unclear today, all of his comments on this issue were erased from the official protocol. But on the audiotape of the Streitcher's trial these comments are present.^{[citation needed]}

His last words, before execution on October 16, 1946, were "Heil Hitler," and, "The Bolsheviks will hang you one day!". He is also reported to have cried out ""Purim Fest 1946!" - i.e., Streicher evidently assumed that Jews would institute a new Holiday on the date of the hanging of himself and his fellow Nazis, as they had instituted Purim to mark the execution of their ancient persecutor and would-be exterminator Haman (see [1] [2][3]). is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Hitler salute (Hitlergruß) is the embodiment of the Hitler cult of personality. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Purim (Hebrew: פורים Pûrîm lots, from Akkadian pÅ«ru) is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance from Hamans plot to annihilate all the Jews of the Persian Empire, who had survived the Babylonian captivity, after Persia had conquered Babylonia who in turn had destroyed the First Temple... Haman is a name that is applied to different personages in different religious traditions: Haman (Bible), appears in the Book of Esther and is the main villain in the Jewish holiday of Purim. ...

The hanging of Julius Streicher did not proceed as planned. The consensus among eyewitnesses is that he died by slow strangulation rather than by the quick death from spinal severing typical with the type of hanging used at Nuremberg. It is believed that the executioner had to intervene under the gallows to silence and finish Streicher, who was still groaning and swinging on the rope moments after the release of the trap-door {see [4])

References

• Bytwerk, Randall L. (2001). Julius Streicher: Nazi Editor of the Notorious Anti-Semitic Newspaper Der Stürmer. New York: Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1156-1. 

External links

• Spiegel TV short biography (German)
• Caricatures from Der Stürmer
• Der Giftpilz ("The Poison Mushroom")
• Hanging Nazi war criminals Article on Streicher's controversial execution
• The Execution of Nazi War Criminals Primary account of the Nuremberg executions by INS reporter Kingsbury Smith