On this date, April 20, 1923, the
Tabloid Format Nazi Newspaper, Der Stürmer
was founded. I
will post information about this Nazi Propaganda from Wikipedia and other
links.
REMINDER: Keep in mind, I am
not antisemitic and I have Jewish friends too. I do it for educational
purposes. The pictures of Der Stürmer
are very disturbing but I post them to remind people not to repeat history
again.
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Photo of front page of Der Stürmer, dated May
1934, which is on permanent display at the Jewish Museum, Berlin. Subject matter is the Blood libel against Jews. Accompanying
text reads:
"Der Stürmer, a weekly magazine
published by Julius Streicher, was the most vile anti-Semitic publication of
the National Socialist period. This special edition was dedicated to the
practice of ritual murder ascribed to the Jews. The authors presented their
prejudices as fact in order to intensify anti-Semitic hatred towards the
'murderers of Christ.' This accusation, which emerged in the Middle Ages,
maligned Jews as 'murderers' of Christian children for ritualistic purposes.
Der Stürmer attempted to keep this old prejudice alive by citing alleged
current examples"
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Type
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Weekly newspaper
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Format
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Tabloid
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Publisher
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Founded
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April 20, 1923
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Political alignment
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Language
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German
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Ceased publication
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1945
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Headquarters
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Nazi Germany
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Circulation
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480,000 (1938)
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Der Stürmer
(pronounced [deːɐ̯ ˈʃtʏʁmɐ],
lit. "the Attacker") was a weekly tabloid-format Nazi newspaper
published by Julius Streicher (a prominent
official in the Nazi Party) from 1923 to the end of World War II, with brief
suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part
of Nazi propaganda and was vehemently antisemitic.
Unlike the Völkischer Beobachter (translatable as The
People's Observer), the official party paper which gave itself an outwardly
serious appearance, Der Stürmer often ran obscene material such as
antisemitic caricatures of Jews and accusations of blood libel, plus sexually
explicit, anti-Catholic, anti-Communist, anti-capitalist and anti-monarchist
propaganda also too.
The
newspaper originated at Nuremberg during Hitler's attempt to establish power
and control. During the struggle to achieve power, Streicher was accused by the
opposition of the Nazi party as being "a liar, a coward, of having
unsavory friends, mistreating his wife and of flirting with women".
Despite the accusations, the first copy of Der Stürmer was published
April 20, 1923. Der Stürmer’s circulation grew over time, distributing
to a large percentage of the German population as well as Argentina, Brazil,
Canada and the United States.
Between
August 1941 and September 1944, Streicher authorized articles demanding the
annihilation and extermination of the Jewish race. After the war, he was
convicted of crimes against humanity and executed.
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Boys in front of a Stürmerkasten, the
public stands in cities featuring Der Stürmer during Nazi Germany
German boys read an issue of the Stuermer newspaper
that is posted in a display box at the entrance to a Nazi party headquarters
(Ortsgruppe Mitte der NSDAP) in the Dresden region.
The German slogan at the bottom of the
display box reads, "The Jews are our misfortune."
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Racist
caricatures
Der Stürmer
was best known for its effective antisemitic caricatures, which depicted Jews
as ugly characters with exaggerated facial features and misshapen bodies. In
his propaganda work, Streicher furthered old myths from the Middle Ages, e.g.,
that Jews killed children, sacrificed them and drank their blood. The large
majority of these drawings were the work of Philipp
Rupprecht, known as Fips, who was one of the best-known anti-Semitic
cartoonists of the "Third Reich". Through the adaptation and
amalgamation of almost every existing anti-Semitic stereotype, myth and
tradition, Rupprecht's virulent attacks aimed predominantly at the
dehumanization and demonization of Jews.
At
the bottom of the title page there was always the motto "Die Juden sind
unser Unglück!" ("The Jews are our misfortune!"), coined by Heinrich von Treitschke in the 1880s. In
the nameplate was the motto "Deutsches Wochenblatt zum Kampfe um die
Wahrheit" ("German Weekly Newspaper in the Fight for
Truth").
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Circulation
Most
of its readers were young people and people from the lowest strata of German
society. Copies of Der Stürmer were displayed in prominent display cases
throughout the Reich; as well as advertising the publication, these
cases also allowed its articles to reach those readers who either did not have
time to buy and read a daily newspaper in depth, or could not afford the
expense. In 1927, it sold about 27,000 copies every week; by 1935, its
circulation had increased to around 480,000.
Hermann Göring forbade Der Stürmer in all of
his departments, and Baldur von Schirach banned it as a means of
education in the Hitler Youth hostels and other education facilities by a "Reichsbefehl"
("Reich command"). However, other senior Nazi officials, including Heinrich Himmler (head of the SS), Robert Ley (leader of the German Labour Front),
and Max Amann (proprietor of the Zentral
Verlag (Central Press), comprising 80% of the German press in 1942),
endorsed the publication, and their statements were often published in the
paper. Albert Forster,
Gauleiter of Danzig (now Gdańsk), wrote in 1937:
"With pleasure I say that the Stürmer, more than any other daily or weekly newspaper, has made clear to the people in simple ways the danger of Jewry. Without Julius Streicher and his Stürmer, the importance of a solution to the Jewish question would not be seen to be as critical as it actually is by many citizens. It is therefore to be hoped that those who want to learn [the] unvarnished truth about the Jewish question will read the Stürmer."
Hitler
considered Streicher's "primitive methods" to be effective in
influencing "the man in the street." In December 1941 he stated:
"Streicher is reproached for his Stürmer. The truth is the opposite
of what people say: he idealised the Jew. The Jew is baser, fiercer, more
diabolical than Streicher depicted him." In February 1942, he praised the
newspaper: "One must never forget the services rendered by the Stürmer
... Now that Jews are known for what they are, nobody any longer thinks that
Streicher libelled them."
Hermann Rauschning, who claimed to be Hitler's confidant,
said in the mid-1930s:
"Anti-Semitism ... was beyond question the most important weapon in [Hitler's] propagandist arsenal, and almost everywhere it was of deadly efficiency. That was why he had allowed Streicher, for example, a free hand. The man's stuff, too, was amusing, and very cleverly done. Wherever, he wondered, did Streicher get his constant supply of new material? He, Hitler, was simply on thorns to see each new issue of the Stürmer. It was the one periodical that he always read with pleasure, from the first page to the last".
During
the war, the paper's circulation dropped because of paper shortages, as well as
Streicher's exile from Nuremberg for corruption. More ominously, because of the
Holocaust, the people it targeted had begun to disappear from everyday
life, which diminished the paper's relevance. Hitler, however, insisted that
Streicher receive sufficient support to continue publishing Der Stürmer.
After
the war, Streicher was tried at the Nuremberg
trials. His publishing and speaking activities were a major part of the
evidence presented against him. In essence, the prosecutors took the line that
Streicher's role in inciting Germans to exterminate Jews, made him an accessory
to murder, and thus as culpable as those who actually carried out the killing.
Prosecutors also introduced evidence that Streicher continued his incendiary
articles and speeches when he was well aware that Jews were being slaughtered.
Streicher was found guilty of crimes against humanity and hanged.
Antisemitic
content
According
to Dennis Showalter, "a major challenge of political anti-Semitism
involves overcoming the images of the 'Jew next door' — the living, breathing
acquaintance or associate whose simple existence appears to deny the validity
of that negative stereotype." Der Stürmer's lurid content appealed
to a large spectrum of readers who were lower class and less-sophisticated. Der
Stürmer was known for its use of simple themes that took little thought.
Streicher attacks the Jews in three categories:
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Poster showing Rassenschande
("racial shame") ca. 1935.
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Sexual
crimes
Stories
of Jewish
men and German women having sex were staples of Der Stürmer but many
were creations of Streicher's imagination, derived from little fact, or random
occurrences. Streicher described Jews as sex offenders who were "violators
of the innocent", "perpetrators of bizarre sex crimes", and
"ritual murderers" performed in religious ceremonies using blood of
other humans, usually Christians. Streicher also frequently reported attempts
of child molestation by Jews. Der Stürmer never lacked details about
sex, names, and crimes in order to keep readers aroused and entertained. These
accusations, articles and crimes printed in Der Stürmer were often
inaccurate and rarely investigated by staff members.
In
the newspaper's opinion, if a German girl became pregnant by a Jew, the Jew
would deny paternity, offer to pay for an abortion, fail to pay child support,
or simply leave for the U.S. Within Der Stürmer it was not uncommon to
hear reports of German women killing their children because they did not want
to bring a "Jewish bastard into the world".
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1934 Stürmer issue: "Storm above
Judah" - criticizing institutional churches as "Judaized"
organizations. Caption: I called the Jews a cursed people, but you have made
out of them the Elect Nation.
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Business
life
"For
Julius Streicher the Jews hatred for Christianity was concealed only for one
reason: Business." Jewish businessmen were often portrayed as doing almost
anything to obtain financial wealth which included, in his words, "become
a usurer, a traitor, a murderer". In the summer of 1931, Streicher focused
much of the paper's attention on a Jewish owned butchery. One philanthropic
merchant operated a soup kitchen; Der Stürmer ran articles accusing the
business of poisoning the food served. Der Stürmer criticized and
twisted every single price increase and decrease in Jewish shops, as well as
their charitable donations as a further form of financial greed. This attack on
Jewish benevolence received the most public criticism out of all of Der
Stürmer's antisemitic propaganda.
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“This is how he came to Germany! They all
looked like this when they came to Germany from the East. But things soon
changed. They stuck their crooked noses into everything; they took over
everything and before long they were in charge. Their goal is to establish
Jewish world domination.
It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that
each German leans the true face of Pan-Jewry so that he can understand how
great the danger is that threatens our people from this race.
People’s comrade! The Stürmer educates you about
Jewish racial laws. Read it regularly and thoroughly and you will soon be
persuaded that the Jews are our misfortune.”
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/sturmer.htm]
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Jewish
neighbors
Der Stürmer
often gave descriptions of how to know a Jew when one sees one. The paper often
included racist political cartoons, including caricatures. Besides the graphic
depictions, articles often focused on imaginary fears, exaggerations and
behavioral differences between Jews and other German citizens.
Letter
box
Its
"Letter Box" encouraged the reporting of Jewish acts; the unofficial
style helped prevent suspicion of propaganda, and lent it an air of
authenticity.
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