Julius Streicher facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Julius Streicher
Streicher in 1935
Gauleiter of Franconia
In office 1 March 1929 – 16 February 1940
Leader	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Hans Zimmermann (acting, 1940) Karl Holz (acting from 1942, permanent from 1944)
Gauleiter of Nuremberg-Fürth
In office 1 October 1928 – 1 March 1929
Leader	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Himself
Gauleiter of Nordbayern
In office 2 April 1925 – 1 October 1928
Leader	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Himself
Publisher of Der Stürmer
In office 20 April 1923 – 1 February 1945
Personal details
Born	(1885-02-12)12 February 1885 Fleinhausen, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died	16 October 1946(1946-10-16) (aged 61) Nuremberg Prison, Nuremberg, Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Political party	Nazi Party (1921–1945)
Other political affiliations	DSP (1918–1921)
Spouses	Kunigunde Roth ​ ​ (m. 1913; died 1943)​ Adele Tappe ​ (m. 1945)​
Children	Lothar Elmar
Parents	Friedrich Streicher Anna Weiss
Known for	Publisher of propaganda
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Branch/service	Imperial German Army
Years of service	1914–1918
Rank	Leutnant
Unit	6th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Iron Cross
Criminal conviction
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction(s)	Crimes against humanity
Trial	Nuremberg trials
Criminal penalty	Death

Julius Streicher (born February 12, 1885 – died October 16, 1946) was an important member of the Nazi Party in Germany. He was a regional leader, known as a Gauleiter, for the area of Franconia. He also served in the Reichstag, which was the national law-making body.

Streicher was most famous for starting and publishing a newspaper called Der Stürmer. This newspaper was filled with very strong antisemitic (anti-Jewish) messages. It became a key part of the Nazi Party's propaganda efforts. The newspaper made Streicher very rich.

After World War II, Streicher was found guilty of crimes against humanity during the Nuremberg trials. He was found to have continued spreading hateful anti-Jewish messages, even when he knew that Jewish people were being killed. Because of this, he was executed by hanging. Streicher was the first Nazi leader to be held responsible for encouraging the killing of a group of people by the Nuremberg court.

Streicher's Early Life and Military Service

Julius Streicher was born in Fleinhausen, a town in Bavaria, Germany. He was one of nine children. His father was a teacher, and Julius also became an elementary school teacher.

In 1913, Streicher married Kunigunde Roth in Nuremberg. They had two sons, Lothar and Elmar.

When World War I began in 1914, Streicher joined the German Army. He fought well and earned the Iron Cross, a special military award. He even became an officer, a lieutenant, which was unusual for someone not from a rich family. After the war, Streicher returned to Nuremberg and worked as a teacher again. Around 1919, something happened that made him become very anti-Jewish.

Joining Politics and Spreading Hate

Streicher was greatly influenced by the anti-Jewish feelings common in Germany before the war. In 1919, he joined a group called the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund. This group was one of many that believed Jewish people were trying to bring down Germany with communism.

In 1920, Streicher joined the Deutschsozialistische Partei (German Socialist Party). This group had ideas similar to the Nazi Party. Streicher started a local branch of this party in Nuremberg. He wanted the German Socialists to be even more anti-Jewish. This caused problems, and in 1921, he left the group.

Streicher then joined another group, the Deutsche Werkgemeinschaft. He continued to speak out strongly against Jewish people. His hatred was so intense that even the leaders of this new group thought he was dangerous.

Streicher and the Nazi Party

In 1921, Streicher left his old party and joined the Nazi Party. He brought many members with him, almost doubling the size of the Nazi Party overnight. He later said that meeting Jewish people through his political work made him feel it was his "destiny" to write and speak about race.

Streicher went to Munich to hear Adolf Hitler speak. He said this experience changed him completely. He felt that Hitler was an extraordinary person who could save Germany. From that moment on, Streicher believed it was his purpose to serve Hitler.

In May 1923, Streicher started his famous newspaper, Der Stürmer (meaning The Stormer or The Attacker). The main goal of this paper was to spread anti-Jewish propaganda. The first issue said, "As long as the Jew is in the German household, we will be Jewish slaves. Therefore he must go."

In November 1923, Streicher took part in Hitler's attempt to take power, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Streicher marched with Hitler in the front row. Because of this, he lost his teaching job. His loyalty to Hitler earned him Hitler's trust and protection for life. Streicher was one of the few people Hitler truly trusted.

Hitler even mentioned Streicher in his book Mein Kampf. He praised Streicher for bringing his old party members into the Nazi Party. This was seen as very important for the Nazis' success. Even when Streicher got into trouble with other Nazi leaders, Hitler remained loyal to him.

Growing Power and Der Stürmer

In April 1924, Streicher was elected to the Bavarian Landtag (legislature). This position gave him some legal protection, which helped him continue spreading his hateful messages. In 1925, he also joined the Nuremberg City Council.

When Hitler restarted the Nazi Party in 1925, Streicher was there and promised his loyalty. As a reward, Streicher was made Gauleiter (regional leader) of Nordbayern in April 1925. His main office was in his hometown of Nuremberg. Over the years, his region changed names and sizes, eventually becoming Gau Franken.

In the early days, Gauleiters were just party workers. But as the Nazi Party grew, so did their power. Under the Nazi government, Gauleiters like Streicher had huge power and authority.

From 1924, Streicher used Der Stürmer to attack Jewish people. He also used it to spread false stories about specific Jewish individuals. For example, he accused a city official of stealing during World War I. The official sued Streicher and proved the claims were false. Streicher had to pay a fine.

The newspaper's slogan was Die Juden sind unser Unglück (The Jews are our misfortune). Streicher's enemies complained that Der Stürmer was offensive to religion. They pointed to his constant spreading of the "blood libel" – a false story from the Middle Ages that Jewish people killed Christian children for their blood. Streicher argued that his claims were about race, not religion, and were protected by the German constitution.

Streicher claimed in his newspaper that Jewish people caused the worldwide Great Depression. He also blamed them for the high unemployment and inflation in Germany during the 1920s.

Streicher's company also published three anti-Jewish books for children. One famous book was Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom) from 1938. It used the idea of a poisonous mushroom to warn children about the supposed dangers of Jewish people. Another book was Trust No Fox on his Green Heath and No Jew on his Oath (1936). In this book, Jewish people were called "children of the devil," and Streicher was shown as a hero.

Streicher also attacked anyone he thought was not anti-Jewish enough. For example, he criticized Mussolini for not being anti-Jewish. Between 1935 and the end of World War II, Der Stürmer named and shamed over 6,500 people for not being anti-Jewish enough.

Streicher's Role in Nazi Germany

In July 1932, Streicher was elected to the Reichstag for Franconia. He kept this position throughout the Nazi rule. In April 1933, after the Nazis gained full control, Streicher used his power as Gauleiter to organize a one-day boycott of Jewish businesses. This was a practice run for other anti-Jewish actions.

He became very powerful in Nuremberg and his region, Gau Franken. He claimed that all Jewish people had been removed from the town of Hersbruck. His enemies called him "King of Nuremberg" and the "Beast of Franconia." He was also known as Frankenführer (Leader of Franconia).

In 1935, Hitler named Streicher to the Academy for German Law. This showed how much Hitler valued him, even though Streicher was known for his extreme views.

Streicher later said he was only "indirectly responsible" for the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws of 1935. He felt left out because he wasn't directly asked for his opinion. Streicher once said that if all university professors' brains were on one side of a scale and Hitler's brain on the other, Hitler's would be heavier. This showed his strong anti-intellectual views.

In August 1938, Streicher ordered the destruction of the Grand Synagogue of Nuremberg. He claimed he didn't like its design, saying it "disfigured the beautiful German townscape." This happened as part of Kristallnacht, a night of widespread attacks against Jewish people and their property.

Streicher's Downfall and Capture

Even other Nazis criticized Streicher for his extreme behavior. His actions were seen as so irresponsible that they embarrassed the party leaders. Hermann Göring, a top Nazi official, disliked Streicher and even banned his staff from reading Der Stürmer.

Despite his special relationship with Hitler, Streicher's position began to weaken after 1938. He was accused of taking Jewish property seized after Kristallnacht. He was also accused of spreading false stories about Göring. He was brought before the Nazi Party's highest court and judged "unsuitable for leadership."

On February 16, 1940, Streicher lost his official party jobs and stopped appearing in public. However, he was allowed to keep his title of Gauleiter and continue publishing Der Stürmer. Hitler remained loyal to Streicher, seeing him as a faithful friend. Streicher's first wife, Kunigunde, died in 1943.

When Germany surrendered to the Allied armies in May 1945, Streicher married his former secretary, Adele Tappe. A few days later, on May 23, 1945, American officers captured Streicher in Austria.

Trial and Execution

During his trial, Streicher claimed he was treated badly by Allied soldiers after his capture. He took an IQ test and scored 106, which was average. This was the lowest score among the Nazi leaders on trial. Streicher was not a soldier and did not help plan the Holocaust or the invasion of other countries.

However, his actions during the war were considered important enough to include him in the trial of major war criminals. This trial took place in Nuremberg, where Streicher had once been very powerful. He often complained that all his judges were Jewish.

Most of the evidence against Streicher came from his many speeches and articles over the years. Prosecutors argued that Streicher's writings and speeches were so hateful that he was responsible for encouraging murder. They said he continued his anti-Jewish propaganda even after he knew Jewish people were being killed.

Streicher was found not guilty of crimes against peace. But he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death on October 1, 1946. The court's judgment said that for 25 years, Streicher had spread hatred of Jewish people. It stated that he "infected the German mind with the virus of anti-Semitism, and incited the German people to active persecution." The court concluded that Streicher's encouragement of murder and extermination, at a time when Jewish people were being killed in terrible ways, was a crime against humanity.

Streicher was one of the first people to be charged with what is now called incitement to genocide (encouraging the killing of a group of people).

During his trial, Streicher tried to put on a show, as he had done in the 1920s. He answered questions by ranting against Jewish people, the Allies, and the court itself. He was often silenced by the court officers. Most of the other Nazi defendants avoided him. He also used parts of Jewish texts in his testimony, which he had often used in Der Stürmer.

Julius Streicher was hanged at Nuremberg Prison in the early hours of October 16, 1946. He was executed along with nine other Nazi leaders. As he was led to the scaffold, he shouted "Heil Hitler!" When he stepped onto the platform, he made a final hateful remark about a Jewish holiday, saying "Purimfest!" His very last words before the hood covered his head were, "The Bolsheviks will hang you one day!" A journalist reported that he also said, "Adele, meine liebe Frau!" ("Adele, my dear wife!").

Eyewitnesses said that Streicher did not die quickly. The execution was not carried out perfectly.

Streicher's body was burned, and his ashes were scattered in the Isar River.

Images for kids

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  Public reading of Der Stürmer, Worms, 1933

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  The Grand Synagogue of Nuremberg was built in 1874. Julius Streicher ordered it destroyed in 1938, supposedly because he didn't like its architecture. This happened during Kristallnacht.

See also

In Spanish: Julius Streicher para niños