Julius Streicher

Julius Streicher (12 February 1885 - 16 October 1946) made propaganda for Nazi Germany.  He published the racist newspaper Der Stürmer. His publishing company also sold three anti-Semitic books for children, including the 1938 Der Giftpilz (The Poison Mushroom).  This was one of the most commonly read pieces of propaganda. The book said that Jewish people were dangerous, just like a nice-looking but deadly mushroom. 

After World War II, Streicher was convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. He was executed.

Early life
Streicher was born in Fleinhausen, Bavaria. He was an elementary school teacher.

In 1913, Streicher married Kunigunde Roth, a baker's daughter, in Nürnberg.

The next year, World War I started. Streicher joined the German Army. During the war, he won the Iron Cross.  By the time the war ended in 1918, Streicher was a lieutenant.  

Streicher and his wife had two sons: Lothar (born in 1915), and Elmar (born in 1918).

Nazism
In 1919, Streicher was active in the Schutz- und Trutz-Bund, an anti-Semitic organization. In 1920, he turned to the newly formed German Socialist Party (Deutschsozialistische Partei). This political party had nearly the same ideas as the Nazi Party. Streicher wanted to make it more anti-Semitic. Most members of the German Socialist Party did not want this, so Streicher and his followers moved to the "German Working Community" () in 1921. 

The German Working Community wanted to bring together all the different anti-Semitic groups in Germany. In 1922, Streicher joined his followers with Adolf Hitler's.  This almost doubled the number of people in the Nazi Party.  It also made Hitler grateful to Streicher for the rest of his life. 

Streicher took part in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.  That same year, he started the racist newspaper Der Stürmer.  He was also the paper's editor. Streicher used the newspaper to stir up a deep hatred of everything and everyone Jewish. At its most popular, in 1935, about 480,000 people read Der Stürmer.

In the newspaper, Streicher argued that the Jews had helped cause the money problems Germany had during the 1920s.  These problems included unemployment, inflation, and economic depression (not having enough money going through the economy).  He claimed that Jews made white people into slaves, and were responsible for over 90 percent of the prostitutes in Germany.

After the Nazi Party was re-founded, Streicher became Gauleiter (district leader) of Franconia. After 1933, he practically ruled the city of Nuremberg. He was nicknamed "King of Nuremberg" and the "Beast of Franconia." 

In 1940, Nazi leaders took away all of Streicher's jobs and power in the Nazi Party.  They did this because:
 He caused scandals by stealing Jewish property after Kristallnacht
 He spread untrue stories about Hermann Göring
 He led several attacks on other district leaders
 He had sex with women who were not his wife, without trying to hide it

However, Streicher stayed on good terms with Adolf Hitler until Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945. 

On May 7, Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe.  Two weeks later, on May 23, Streicher was captured by the Americans.  Just days before he was arrested, he married his former secretary, Adele Tappe.  His first wife, Kunigunde Streicher, had died in 1943 after 30 years of marriage.

Trial and execution
Julius Streicher was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial.  He was sentenced to death on October 1, 1946.

Streicher was not a member of the military during World War II.  He also was not part of planning the Holocaust, the invasion of Poland, or the Soviet invasion. But because he encouraged so much support for the hatred and extermination of Jews, the prosecutors decided to try him for crimes against humanity.

Streicher's last words 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!" He thought that Jews would start a new holiday on the date that he and his fellow Nazis were hanged, just as they had started Purim to mark the execution of Haman.

Streicher's execution did not go as planned. Most eyewitnesses say that he died by slow strangulation rather than by a quick broken neck. This happened to other Nazis too. It happened because of the type of hanging used at Nuremberg. The executioner may have eventually had to kill Streicher, who was still groaning and swinging on the rope some time after he was hanged.

Related pages
 The Holocaust
 Anti-Semitism
 Propaganda

References

Other websites

 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

1885 births
1946 deaths
Executed German people
Executed Nazis
Former Roman Catholics
Gauleiters
German journalists
German war criminals
Holocaust perpetrators
Members of the Reichstag (Nazi Germany)
Members of the Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
Nazi leaders
People executed by hanging
Politicians from Bavaria
Politicians of the Nazi Party
Publishers