The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

The Trial of German Major War Criminals

Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany
7th January to 19th January, 1946

Thirty-First Day: Thursday, January 10th, 1946
(Part 6 of 10)


[Page 158]

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: May it please the Tribunal, if I might just refer to further copies of "Der Sturmer" on the subject of "ritual murder," the first of which appears on Page 32 of the document book, 2700-PS. It is the copy in Exhibit USA 260. It is an article in "Der Sturmer" of July, 1938:
"Whoever had the occasion to be an eye-witness during the slaughtering of animals, or to see at least a truthful film on the slaughtering, will never forget this horrible experience. It is atrocious, and, unwillingly, he is reminded of the crimes which the Jews have committed for centuries on men. He will be reminded of the ritual murder. History points out hundreds of cases in which non-Jewish children were tortured to death. They also were given the same incision through the throat as is found on slaughtered animals. They also were slowly bled to death while fully conscious."
My Lord, on special occasions, or when he had some particular subject matter to put before the world, he was in the habit of issuing special editions of his newspaper "Der Sturmer." Ritual murder was such a special subject that he issued one of these special editions dealing solely with it. The Tribunal will have a photostatic copy of the complete issue for May, 1939.

[Page 159]

Now, I have not attempted to have translated all or indeed any of the articles which appear in that edition. It is perhaps sufficient to look at the pictures, the illustrations, and for me to read the captions which appear underneath the photographs; and I regret that the translations of the captions have not been attached to the Tribunal's copy, but perhaps I may be permitted to refer to the pictures and read the captions for the Tribunal.

The pages are marked in red pencil on the right-hand comer. On Page 1 I see a picture of a child having knives stuck into its side, blood spurting from it, and below the pedestal on which it stands, are five presumably dead children lying on the ground. The caption to that picture is as follows:

"In the year 1476 the Jews in Regensburg murdered six boys. They drew their blood and tortured them to death in an underground vault which belongs to the Jew Josfol. The judges found the bodies of murdered boys. A bloodstained earthen bowl stood on an altar."
On the next page there are two pictures and the captions explain them. The one at the top left-hand corner:
"For the Jewish New Year celebrations in 1913, World Jewry published this picture. On the Jewish New Year and on the Day of Atonement the Jews slaughtered a so-called 'kapores' cock; that is to say, dead cock, whose blood and death is intended to purify the Jews. In 1913 the 'kapores' cock had the head of the Russian Czar Nicholas II. By publishing this postcard the Jews intended to say that Nicholas II would be their next purifying sacrifice. On the 16th of July, 1918, the Czar was murdered by the Jews Jurowsky and Goloschtschekin."
The picture at the bottom of the page, again, shows Jews holding a similar bird, "the 'kapores' cock which has the head of the Fuehrer. The Hebrew script says that one day Jews will kill all Hitlerites. Then they, the Jews, will be delivered from all misfortunes. In due course the Jews will realise that they have reckoned without an Adolf Hitler."

The next page of the newspaper contains reproductions of a lot of previous articles on ritual murder, with a picture of the defendant Julius Streicher at the top.

On the fourth page, a picture at the bottom of the right- hand corner has the caption:

"Jew at the Passover Meal. The wine and Matzeh, unleavened bread, contains non-Jewish blood. The Jew prays before the meal. He prays for death to all non- Jews."
On the fifth page are reproductions from some of the European and American newspaper articles and letters which had been received by those newspapers during the course of the last years, in protest to this propaganda on the subject of ritual murder; and in the centre of it you will see the letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, written to the editor of "The Times" in protest.

On the next page, Page 6, is another ghastly picture of a man having his throat cut; again the usual spurt of blood falling into a basin on the floor, and the caption to that is as follows:

"The ritual murder of the boy Heinrich, in the year 1345; the Jews in Munich slaughtered a non-Jewish boy. The martyr was declared holy by the Church."
On Page 7 appears a picture representing three ritual murders. On Page 8 there is another photo-picture, "The Holy Gabriel. This boy was crucified and tortured to death by the Jews in the year 1690. The blood was drawn off him."

I think we can pass Pages 9 and 10.

On Page 11 there is shown a piece of sculpture which appears on the wall of the Wallfahrts Chapel in Wesel and it represents the ritual murder of a boy

[Page 160]

Werner. It is a somewhat disgusting picture of the boy strung up by his feet and being murdered by two Jews.

Page 12 reproduces another picture taken from the same place. The caption is:

"The embalmed body of 'Simon of Trient' who was tortured to death by the Jews."
Page 13 has another picture; somebody else having a knife stuck into him, more blood coming out into a basin.

On Page 14 are two pictures. The one at the top is said to be the ritual murder of the boy Andreas and the one at the bottom is the picture of a tombstone, the caption of which reads as follows:

"The tombstone of Hilsner."
This is the memorial to a Jewish ritual murderer Leopold Hilsner. He was found guilty of two ritual murders and was condemned to death, by hanging, in two trials. The Emperor was bribed and pardoned him. Masaryk, the friend of the Jews, liberated him from penal servitude in 1918. Even on his tombstone lying Jewry calls this twofold murderer an "innocent victim."

The next page again produces the picture of a woman being murdered by having her throat cut in the same way; and perhaps I might refer to Page 17, which produces a picture of the Archbishop of Canterbury and a picture of an old Jewish man, and the caption says:

"Dr. Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest dignitary of the English Church. His ally, a typical example of the Jewish Race."
The last page, Page 18, produces a picture called "Holy Simon who was tortured to death."

My Lord, it is my submission that that document is nothing but an incitement to the people of Germany who read it, an incitement to murder. It is filled with pictures of murder, murder alleged to be against the German people and is an encouragement to all who read it, to revenge themselves, and to revenge themselves in the same way. That document, M-20, becomes Exhibit GB 173.

DR. MARX (Counsel for defendant Streicher): The defendant, Julius Streicher, called my attention this very moment to the fact that he has not been given the opportunity to prove from where these pictures, which have been referred to just now, have been taken. It is, in the opinion of the defence, necessary that the origin of these pictures should be clarified before the Tribunal, otherwise one could think that these pictures had been especially prepared for "Der Sturmer" without any source. Streicher, however, points out that these pictures originate from recognised sources of history. I would therefore like to suggest that the prosecution should submit all its material. I think that the articles of "Der Sturmer" which have been referred to should prove the sources from which Streicher got these pictures.

THE PRESIDENT: Do the articles show the sources? Do the articles themselves indicate the sources?

DR. MARX: Yes. According to Streicher, yes.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GRIFFIN-JONES: I should have said so. There was not any intention to misrepresent the matter, that these pictures are taken from original pictures. These were not invented by the newspaper, and in some cases the sources are shown in the caption. This is a collection of medieval pictures and frescoes dealing with this matter. In actual fact the papers show in almost all cases where they come from.

DR. MARX: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: You have already given us the dates of them which stated they were medieval.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: That is so, my Lord. In January, 1938 - and it will be remembered that in 1938 the persecution of the Jews became

[Page 161]

more and more severe-in January, 1938, for some reason or other, another special issue of "Der Sturmer" was published. If the Tribunal would look at Page 54 of their document book I will quote a short passage from the leading article in that paper, an article written by the defendant.
"The supreme aim and highest task of the State is therefore to conserve people, blood and race. But if this is the supreme task, any crime against this law must be punished with the supreme penalty. 'Der Sturmer' takes, therefore, the view that there are only two punishments for the crime of polluting the race:

1.Penal servitude for life for attempted race pollution.
2. Death for committing race pollution."

And again, indeed, if it is now still necessary to show the type of paper this was, if the Tribunal will turn over to the next page it will see the headlines set out for some of the articles that are contained in that edition:
"Jewish race polluters at work."
The next one:
"Fifteen years old non-Jewess ravaged."
The next one:
"A dangerous race polluter. He regards German women as fair game for himself."
The next one:
"The Jewish sanatorium. A Jewish institution for the cultivation of race pollution."
The next one:
"Rape of a feeble-minded girl."
And lastly:
"The Jewish butler. He steals from his Jewish masters and commits race pollution."
The copy of that paper is already in as Exhibit USA 260.

On the next page of the document book - I will quote only the last two lines - is an article appearing in "Der Sturmer," and it is true that it is not an article actually written by the defendant Streicher but by his then editor, Karl Holz:

"Revenge will break loose one day and will exterminate Jewry from the face of the earth."
And again on Page 37, in September, 1938, "Der Sturmer" has an article in which the last two lines read as follows:
"A parasite, an enemy, an evil-doer, a disseminator of diseases who must be destroyed in the interest of mankind."
It is my submission to the Tribunal that this is no longer propaganda for the persecution of the Jews, this is propaganda for the extermination of Jews, for the murder not of one man but of millions.

The next document in the document book, on Page 38, has already been put in evidence and read to the Tribunal. It is Exhibit USA 260. It appears in the document book and was read into the transcript (Page 381, Part 2). This is a short article appearing in December, 1938, No. 50 of "Der Sturmer."

I would draw the Tribunal's attention to the next document which is a picture taken from that same copy. It shows the upper part of a girl's body being strangled by the arms of a man with his hands around her neck, and the shadow of the man's face is shown against the background, quite obviously with Jewish features. The caption under that picture is as follows:

"Castration for Race Polluters.

Only heavy penalties will preserve our womenfolk from a tighter grip of the ghastly Jewish claws.

The Jews are our misfortune."

I pass for the moment from "Der Sturmer" to a particular incident that occurred, in which the defendant Streicher took a leading part. It will be

[Page 162]

remembered that the organised demonstrations against the Jews took place on the 9th and 10th November, 1938. All this propaganda, as I say, was becoming fiercer and more ferocious. In the autumn of that year the defendant Streicher organised the breaking up of the Nuremberg synagogues on the occasion of a meeting of Press representatives in Nuremberg. That incident has in fact been referred to previously in this case and the documents in connection with it are 1724-PS, which were put in as Exhibit USA 266 and were referred to and read in the transcript (Page 384, Part 2).

Gauleiter Julius Streicher was personally to set the crane in motion with which the Jewish symbols were to be torn down from the synagogue. From another document which was also put in, 2711-PS, which became Exhibit USA 267, and was read in the transcript (Page 384, Part 2) also, I quote two lines:

"...the Synagogue is being demolished! Julius Streicher himself inaugurates the work by a speech lasting an hour and a half. By his order then - so to speak as a prelude of the demolition - the tremendous Star of David came off the cupola."
The defendant, of course, took an active part in the November demonstrations of that year. I do not suggest that be was responsible for the idea of them. The evidence against him is confined only to the part that he took in his Gau, in Franconia.

On Page 43 of the document book is an account of the Nuremberg demonstrations as they were reported in the "Frankische Tageszeitung" which, of course, was his paper, on the llth November. I quote:

"In Nuremberg and Furth it resulted in demonstrations by the crowd against the Jewish murderers. These lasted until the early hours of the morning. Far too long had one watched the activities of the Jews in Germany."
And then I go to the last three lines of that paragraph:
"After midnight the excitement of the populace reached its peak and a large crowd marched to the synagogues in Nuremberg 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 confined 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 behaviour of the S.A. men and the police, who rushed to the scene, there was no plundering."

That becomes Exhibit GB 174.


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