Julius Streicher

 (1885-1946)

Julius Streicher was born on February 12, 1885, in Fleinhausen, Germany, Julius Streicher was the ninth child of a Roman Catholic school teacher .. He worshiped his mother, who he later called, "the fortress of my childhood." At the age of 13, he entered a training institute to become a teacher. After a five- year course, Streicher began teaching elementary school children in January, 1904. By 1912, he joined the Democratic Party and addressed their meetings in Nuremberg. He was a gifted orator and quickly became very popular, receiving warm applause wherever he spoke.In 1913, Streicher married Kunigunde Roth. Lothar, their first son, was born in 1915. He would later write for Der Sturmer. A second son, Elmar followed in 1918.

World War One broke out in 1914 and Streicher enlisted in the infantry. He saw heavy front- line fighting in France. Streicher sought out dangerous missions and carried a crucial message though heavy enemy fire which prevented an encirclement. For this, he became the first man in his company to win the Iron Cross. He then was selected as a member of the elite Mountain Machine Gun Detachment and was later accepted as an officer candidate. As a First Lieutenant, he fought bravely on the Romanian and Italian fronts.At the time of the Armistice in November, 1918, Streicher was back serving again on the French front, winning the coveted Iron Cross First Class.After the war Streicher returned to his old teaching position.

After his return to treaching , Streicher was given his first copy of the  Protocols of The Learned Elders of Zion.Streicher began speaking on these new revelations .In 1919 Streicher  helped to establish the  Nuremberg German Socialist Party, an anti-Semitic organization.In 1921Streicher launched the Deutscher Volkswille, it became the voice of the party. In 1922 Streicher joined the NSDAP and shortly thereafter handed his own party over to Hitler.

On April 20, 1923, the first copy of Der Stürmer ("The Attacker") was published. The first few editions of the Nazi weekly lacked many of the central elements that were to make Der Stürmer so popular and so notorious; they consisted of four small pages, focused on Julius Streicher's (the paper's founder and editor) political enemies (rather than against Jews), offered few if any cartoons, and carried only a few ads. But Der Stürmer already had a circulation of several thousand when it was forced to take a four month hiatus, beginning in November 1923.

Streicher was a player in Hitler's abortive attempt to seize power from the Bavarian government during the Munich Putsch of November 9, 1923. Streicher was made "Director of Propaganda" and drove around Munich, speaking to street corner crowds, announcing the revolution. Streicher marched with Hitler, Himmler and General Erich Ludendorff through Munich to the Feldherrnhalle monument, when police opened fire. Sixteen marchers were killed, dozens, including Hermann Goering, were seriously wounded and the rest scattered. The "Beer Hall Putsch" had been quashed.Hitler was imprisoned at Landsberg for 14 months. Streicher was luckier, receiving one month in jail. Streicher lost his teaching job but due to his good record, was granted a pension at the age of 39.

        Upon Streicher's release, the paper was again published, beginning in March 1924. Only a month later, Der Stürmer published its first cartoon directed against Jews. Streicher began an incessant, running battle with the Establishment, extending through the Third Reich era. Editions of his paper were banned or seized thirty times between 1923 and 1933 and in one eleven-day period, he was hit with five lawsuits. He served a total of eight months in prison for defying court orders to cease distribution of banned issues of Der Sturmer. He was elected to parliament on April 6, 1924 and in the fall of 1924, he ran for the Nuremberg City Council and won. He held two elected positions simultaneously.That drawings all come up for newspaper, they take up to December 19 1925 small parts. In this day first cartoon  Philippe Rupprecht, pen name "Fips" is published in newspaper. The Rupprecht's Cartoons contain the satyr to anti-semitic themes.It drew the jews with enormous hooked noses, releaseded eyes, unshaven, short and thick. It often express them in the manner of parasites, snake and spiders. Rupprecht's Well drew the feminine forms denuded or half-naked. The Aryan women  on such cartoons emerge as victims of jews.

In 1927 circulation was only 14,000 copies. By 1933 it rose to 25,000 in 1934, 113,800 and jumped to two million by 1940. By then, some 300 people worked for Der Sturmer including one Jew named Jonas Wolk. The Goring report noted that Wolk was paid a "good salary" and wrote some of the paper's most anti-Jewish articles. It was now a publication of international prominence and one most feared by the Jews. By 1941 Der Sturmer had opened branch offices in Vienna, Prague and Strasbourg and in Denmark an edition was launched.

 Goering, Himmler, Hess and others sought to have Der Sturmer banned as being "too anti-Semitic and an embarrassment. Despite the efforts of these influcencial Nazis, Hitler usually sided with his old party comrade Streicher. He once defended Streicher saying, "If I let Streicher fall and banned the Sturmer, world Jewry would howl with glee. I will not give them the pleasure."Goring, Hess and the others demanded that Hitler take  action to silence Streicher. Hitler did take firmer action to silence Streicher. Hitler ordered him to "retire" to his country estate outside Nuremberg. He also forbade him from speaking at party meetings.

Streicher's wife died in 1943.

 Several weeks before the war's end, he married his life-long secretary Adele. They then fled their home to the alps before the advancing U.S. Army . He tried to hide his identity and pretended to be a house painter. On May 23, 1945, a Jewish U.S. Army Major Plitt recognized Streicher and took him into custody. Some sources talking about he was caught on 25 May.  Julius Streicher was tried and convicted of crimes against humanity.  The judge sentenced Streicher to death on October 1, 1946.  Before Streicher was supposed to be hung he saluted Hitler by yelling, "Heil Hitler!"  For no reason, the rope snapped, and Streicher fell to the ground.Fifteen days later, Streicher was supposed to be hung again.  Julius Streicher spat on the hangman's face and yelled," The Bolsheviks will hang YOU one day!"  Streicher was executed shortly thereafter.

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