Cover of John Michalczyk's book

The story of a purveyor of hate and fear

Prof. John Michalczyk's book looks at notorious Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher

Almost every week, from 1923 to 1945, a four-page tabloid—sometimes larger for special editions—would circulate throughout Germany, offering inflammatory, virulently antisemitic articles and lurid, vulgar, often pornographic illustrations. Fourteen years after its launch, Der StĂŒrmer would achieve a peak circulation of 486,000, its readership stretching well beyond Germany to Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States.  

Der StĂŒrmer—its English translation is “the stormer,” meaning someone who attacks or storms forward—was the brainchild of Julius Streicher, a longtime devotee of Adolf Hitler and the subject of a recent book by Professor of Art, Art History, and Film John Michalczyk. His publications and films have frequently dealt with subjects related to social justice and conflict, World War II, and the Holocaust, including antisemitism.

In , Michalczyk studies the life and career of the man considered the Nazi Party’s second most established propagandist after the notorious Joseph Goebbels, the party’s minister of propaganda and public enlightenment. Michalczyk also places Streicher, and the cause he served, in a larger historical perspective on antisemitism through the ages, notably 19th- and early 20th-century Germany. He concludes by studying the rise of antisemitism in current social media.

Professor John Michalczyk (Photo by Peter Julian)

Since World War II, Hitler and the Third Reich have become an oft-used standard by which to evaluate, and criticize, the actions and policies of contemporary governments—and leaders—regarded as authoritarian. This tendency has generated backlash: Critics say the Holocaust was such an unprecedented historical phenomenon that present-day comparisons are inadequate and thus serve to diminish social and political discourse.

Michalczyk believes it is possible to draw Third Reich parallels, if on a limited basis—using Hitler to illustrate how autocratic leaders seek to control the minds of their people, for example. The context in which to view Streicher, he said, is how coordinated, broad-based strategies are developed to demonize a select group of persons based on such characteristics as race, ethnicity, and faith. Streicher also sought to make Der StĂŒrmer and his other publications accessible to what he and the Nazi leadership believed would be a receptive audience: the German working class.

“The bigger picture here is how we exclude one part of our society on a grand scale, because we believe they are ruining our lives, and therefore, they are an enemy that needs to be eliminated. Streicher was capturing the spirit of the times, but he pushed it to ever greater dimensions, notably via his appearance in Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film ‘Triumph of the Will,’ when he declares: ‘A people which does not hold with the purity of its race will perish!’”

What makes Streicher an especially compelling—and chilling—subject, according to Michalczyk, is that he disseminated his propaganda beyond adults, publishing three antisemitic books for children. Streicher’s publications employed numerous historical, religious, and cultural elements in the text and illustrations to reinforce stereotypes and stoke anxiety, hatred, and fear of “the other” among readers. Jews were portrayed as greedy and wealthy, living off Germans, a depiction that drew on animus against the Rothschild banking dynasty of the 19th century; as ridden with disease and lusting after impressionable young German women; and as less than human, comparable with hyenas, snakes, insects, bacteria, and other organisms.

Michalczyk gives examples of suggestive symbols and references in the first children’s reader produced by Streicher, its title translated in English as “Trust no fox on his green heath and no Jew on his oath.” The fox is widely perceived as sly, intelligent, and adaptable, Michalczyk notes, and early Greeks considered it devious. In addition, the title echoes ideas expressed by 16th-century German theologian Martin Luther in his antisemitic writings late in his life.

“We must utilize history to learn how negative influences that encourage such hatred of a specific group, religion, caste, or gender arise and take hold—and how to dispel them.”
JOHN MICHALCZYK

A decorated World War I veteran, Streicher had been in Hitler’s inner circle as far back as the notorious 1923 “Beer Hall Putsch.” Ironically, Michalczyk notes, Streicher’s Third Reich associates were so appalled by his work, and by him personally, that they wanted nothing to do with him. As time went on, the FĂŒhrer, who read Der StĂŒrmer religiously, sought to insulate his former acolyte from disputes. But in 1940, following clashes with other high-ranking Third Reich officials as well as numerous episodes of excessive personal behavior, Streicher was stripped of his party offices, though he was allowed to continue publishing Der StĂŒrmer until February 1945, shortly before his capture by the Allies.  

The ultimate judgment on Streicher’s work came from the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, which found him guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death. This is no small matter, according to Michalczyk.

“Streicher didn’t take part in any military actions, nor in the direct administration of operations to exterminate Jews. But the tribunal believed that his attempts to shape Germans’ views and treatment of Jews was instrumental to the Holocaust, because he was aware that Jews were being murdered. Essentially, they found that Streicher aided and abetted in the tragedy of the Holocaust.”

At the end, there was no remorse on Streicher’s part. He cried out “Heil Hitler!” as he mounted the gallows, mocked Jewish scripture, and declared that his punishers would be killed by Bolsheviks one day.

While his name may be less familiar than others of the Third Reich, Streicher’s legacy lives on, as Michalczyk notes: In 2013, Neo-Nazi and white supremacist Andrew Anglin resurrected Streicher’s tabloid’s mission and founded the controversial website The Daily Stormer.

“It’s stating the obvious to say that the deaths of Streicher and his fellow war criminals did not end efforts to incite hatred against Jews, or other peoples deemed to be less than human,” said Michalczyk, who plans to retire as a full-time faculty member following this academic year but continue teaching on part-time basis while writing and filming with his wife Susan, an associate professor of the practice at BC.

“I’ve devoted a lot of my career, through books and filmmaking, to examining how and why this has happened—and continues to happen. The purpose of this book is to use reasoned analysis, rather than polemics, to challenge Streicher’s grotesque use of lies, myths, and historical stereotypes about Jews.

“We must utilize history to learn how negative influences that encourage such hatred of a specific group, religion, caste, or gender arise and take hold—and how to dispel them.”

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