Julius Streicher: Nazi Editor of the Notorious Anti-Semitic Newspaper Der Sturmer

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Summary: "The World's Number One Jew-Baiter"
Review: Many people are familiar with the fact that Julius Streicher was one of the Nazis executed as a result of the Nuremberg trials. Most aren't clear on what Streicher's crimes were, however. In this book Randall Bytwerk reveals what it was that Streicher did to deserve having his neck snapped like a twig on the gallows in 1946.

Julius Streicher was one of Hitler's earliest comrades during the Nazi rise to power in the 1920's and 1930's. Streicher helped Hitler gain a foothold in Nuremberg, which helped the Nazi regime consolidate its hold on Germany. Streicher's main role, however, was as a sort of common man's Joseph Goebbels. Streicher was a teacher by trade, and a fairly effective one at that. He had the rare ability to motivate his students by instilling his enthusiasm for any subject into the minds of his pupils. Streicher used this ability later in his duties for the Nazi party. Streicher published the notorious anti-Jewish newspaper Der Sturmer, which pumped out the most strident and hateful propaganda on the "Jewish Problem" for over twenty years. Bytwerk examines how effective Der Sturmer was on the common German, and how the newspaper went about reducing Jews to the status of non-humans. When this status was reached, the result led to the concentration camps and mass murder.

Included in the book are many reproductions from Der Sturmer, most of which are cartoons that present Jews as animals or as evil, deformed creatures bent on the destruction of Germany. Many cartoons attempt to show Jews as a threat to German women or girls, thereby appealing directly to German manhood and nobility. Bytwerk convincingly argues that these cartoons and articles were quite effective in conditioning the German people into a state in which they regarded the Jews as pure evil. As propaganda, Der Sturmer was a masterpiece. Bytwerk points out that while it convinced Germans that Jews were evil, its most important accomplishment was that it created an atmosphere of indifference. Most Germans didn't run out and attack Jews after reading this stuff. What they did do was not stand up when laws began to appear that stripped Jews of their rights. In other words, Der Sturmer convinced most Germans to do nothing to help Jews.

One of the best parts of the book is when Bytwerk examines the history of German anti-Semitic thought. The Nazis were building their particular programs on a foundation that had been created by other authors in the past. This foundation allowed Streicher's propaganda to work much faster and accomplish more in a shorter time. The dislike and distrust were already in place. All Streicher did was to bring it up to date and articulate it in a way that was easy for the common German to understand. Since Der Sturmer was so effective, I disagree with Bytwerk when he states that Streicher was not a bright man. Streicher may have not been a brilliant party organizer, but he certainly accomplished what he set out to do. With all that Streicher got accomplished, and the way he did it, I'd say he was a genius at propaganda, and one who rivaled Joseph Goebbels, who Bytwerk seems to think was Streicher's intellectual "better".

This book is a worthy read, although it is out of print and might be somewhat difficult to find on a local level. Try Amazon.com's search service. Wherever you look, try and pick up a copy. It will be well worth the time.