Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
Individual Responsibility Of Defendants

Julius Streicher

(Part 5 of 9)

[Page 699]

Streicher took active part in the November demonstrations of that year, particularly in his Gau of Franconia. The Nurnberg demonstrations were reported as follows in the "Fraenksche Tageszeitung, which was Streicher's paper, on 11 November:

" *** In Nurnberg and Furth it resulted in demonstrations by the crowd against the Jewish murders. These lasted until the early hours of the morning. Far too long had one watched the activities of the Jews in Germany."

*******

[Page 700]

"After midnight the excitement of the populace reached its peak and a large crowd marched to the synagogues in Nurnberg and Furth and burned these two Jewish buildings where the murder of Germans had been preached.

"The fire-brigades, which had been notified immediately, saw to it that the fire was continued to the original outbreak The windows of the Jewish shopkeepers, who still had not given up hope of selling their junk to the stupid Goims, were smashed. Thanks to the disciplined behavior of the SA men and the police, who had rushed to the scene, there was no plundering." (M-42).

On 10 November, the day of the demonstrations, Streicher made a speech stating in part as follows:

"From the cradle, the Jew is not being taught, like we are, such texts as, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' or 'If you are smitten on the left cheek, offer then your right one.' No, he is told: 'With the non-Jew you can do whatever you like.' He is even taught that the slaughtering of a non-Jew is an act pleasing to God. For 20 years we have been writing about this in 'Der Stuermer'; for 20 years we have been preaching it throughout the world and we have made millions recognize the truth."

"The Jew slaughtered in one night 75,000 people; when he emigrated to Egypt he killed all the first-born, i.e. a whole future generation of Egyptians. What would have happened if the Jew had succeeded in driving the nations into war against us, and if we had lost the war? The Jew protected by foreign bayonets, would have fallen on us and would have slaughtered and murdered us. Never forget what history has taught us." (M-41)

After the November 1938 demonstrations, irregularities occurred in the Gau of Franconia in connection with the organized Aryanization of Jewish property. Aryanization of Jewish property was regulated by the Nazi State, which had decreed that the proceeds of the transfer of Jewish properties to Aryans were to go to the State. In Streicher's Gau of Franconia, however, a good deal of the proceeds never found their way as far as the State. -As a result Goering set up a commission to investigate what had taken place. The report of that commission (1757-PS) describes what had been taking place in Streicher's Gau:

"*** Following upon the November demonstrations the Deputy Gauleiter, Holz, took up the Jewish questions. His

[Page 701]

reasons can be given here in detail on the basis of his statement of 25 March 1939:

"The 9th and 10th of November 1938.

"In the night of the 9 November 1938 and 10 November 1938 and on 10 November 1938, events took place throughout Germany which I [Holz] considered to be the signal for a completely different treatment of the Jewish question in Germany. Synagogues and Jewish schools were burnt down and Jewish property was smashed both in shops and in private houses. Besides this, a large number of particular Jews were taken to concentration camps by the police. Toward midday we discussed these events in the Gauleiter's house. All of- us were of the opinion that we now faced a completely new state of affairs on the Jewish question. By the great action against the Jews, carried out in the night and morning of the 10th of November, all guiding principles and all laws on the subject had been made illusory. We were of the opinion (particularly myself) that we should now act on our own initiative in this respect. I proposed to the Gauleiter that in view -of the great existing lack of housing, the best thing would be to put the Jews into a kind of internment camp. Then the houses would become free in a twinkling, and the housing shortage would be relieved, at least in part. Besides that, we would have the Jews under control and supervision. I added 'The same thing happened to our prisoners of war and war internees.' The Gauleiter said that this suggestion was for the time being impossible to carry out. Thereupon I made a new proposal to him. I said that I considered it unthinkable that, after the Jews had had their property smashed, they -should continue to be able to own houses and land. I proposed that these houses and this land ought to be taken away from them, and declared myself ready to carry through such an action. I declared that by the Aryanization of Jewish land and houses a large sum could accrue to the Gau out of the proceeds. I named some million of marks. I stated that, in my opinion, this Aryanization could be carried out as legally as the Aryanization of shops. The Gauleiter's answer was something to this effect: 'If you think you can carry this out, do so. The sum gained will then be used to build a Gau school.' "

*******

"The Aryanization was accomplished by the alienation

[Page 702]

of properties, the surrender of claims, especially mortgage claims, and reductions in buying price.

"The payment allowed the Jews was basically 10% of the nominal value or nominal sum of the claim. As a justification for these low prices, Holz claimed at the Berlin meeting of 6 February 1939, that the Jews had mostly bought their property during the inflation period for a tenth of its value. As has been shown by investigating a large number of individual cases selected at random, this claim is not true." (1757-PS)

The second part of this report, which contains the findings of the commission, reads in part as follows:

"*** Gauleiter Streicher likes to beat people with a riding whip but only if he is in the company of several persons assisting him. Usually the beatings are carried out with sadistic brutality.

"The best known case is that of Steinruck, whom he beat bloodily in the prison cell, together with Deputy Gauleiter Holz and SA Brigadier General Koenig. After returning from this scene to the Deutscher Hof he said: 'Now I am relieved. I needed that again!' Later he also stated several times that he needed another Steinruck case in order to 'relieve' himself.

"In August 1938, he beat Editor Burker at the District House together with District Office Leader Schoeller and his Adjutant Koenig.

"On 2 December 1938 he asked to have three youthful criminals (15 to 17 years old) who had been arrested for robbery brought to the room of the director of the Criminal Police Office in Nurnberg-Furth. Streicher who was accompanied by his son, Lothar, had the youths brought in singly and question them about their sex life and in particular, through clear and detailed questioning, he laid stress on determining whether and since when they masturbated. ***

"*** The last one of these three boys he beat with his riding whip, with blows on the head and on the rest of the body." (1757-PS)

A later passage shows the authority and power which Streicher held in his Gau:

"According to reports of reliable witnesses Gauleiter Streicher is in the habit of pointing out on the most varied occasions that he alone gives orders in the district of Franconia. For instance, at a meeting in the Colosseum in Nurn-

[Page 703]

berg in 1935 he said that nobody could remove him from office. In a meeting at Herkules Hall, where he described how he had beaten Professor Steinruck, he emphasized that he would not let himself be beaten by anybody, not even by an Adolf Hitler.

"For, this also must be stated here, in Franconia the Gau acts first and then orders the absolutely powerless authorities to approve." (1757-PS)

That report shows the kind of treatment and persecution which the Jews were receiving in the Gau over which Streicher ruled. It further shows the absolute authority with which Streicher acted in his district.

As a result either of that investigation or of some other matter, Streicher was relieved of his position as Gauleiter in February 1940, but he did not cease from propaganda or from control of his newspaper. In an article written in "Der Stuermer," on 4 November 1943, Streicher declared:

"It is really the truth that the Jews, so to speak, have disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish reservoir of the East, from which the Jewish plague has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe, has ceased to exist. However, the Fuehrer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass." (1965-PS).

That article, signed by Streicher, shows that he had knowledge of the Jewish exterminations which were going on in the East. Streicher's article was written in November 1943. In April 1943 the Warsaw ghetto was destroyed. Between April 1942 and April 1944 more than 1,700,000 Jews were killed in Auschwitz and Dachau. It seems clear from this article that Streicher knew what was happening, perhaps not the details, but the fact that Jews were being exterminated.

The original plaintext version of this file is available via ftp.

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