Another form of propaganda employed by Streicher concerned the “Ritual Murder.” Sometime in 1934 “Der Stuermer” began publishing accounts of Jewish ritual murder which horrified the whole world to such an extent that even the Archbishop of Canterbury, together with people from every country in the world, protested that any government should allow such matter to be published in their national newspapers.
Streicher based his ritual murder propaganda on a medieval belief that during their Eastertide celebrations the Jews were in the habit of murdering Christian children. Streicher misrepresented this medieval belief to make it appear that not only was this done in the Middle Ages, but that the Jews are still doing it and still want to do it. A few passages from “Der Stuermer” together with descriptions of photographs published therein will illustrate the type of propaganda that Streicher was putting out concerning “ritual murder”:
“This the French front-line soldier should take with him to France: The German people have taken a new lease of life. They want peace, but if anyone tries to attack them, if anyone tries to torture them again, if anyone tries to push them back into the past, then the world would see another heroic epic; then heaven will decide where righteousness lies—here, or where the Jew has the whiphand and where he instigates massacres, one could almost say the biggest ritual murders of all times. If the German people are to be slaughtered according to the Jewish rites, the whole world will be thus slaughtered at the same time.”
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“As you have drummed morning and evening prayers into your children’s heads, so now drum this into their heads, so that the German people may gain the spiritual power to convince the rest of the world which the Jews desire to lead against us.” (M-2).
A photograph published in “Der Stuermer” in April 1937 purports to show three Jews ritually murdering a girl by cutting her throat, with the blood pouring out into a bucket on the ground. The caption underneath that photograph is as follows:
“Ritual murder at Polna. Ritual murder of Agnes Hruza by the Jews Hilsner, Erdmann[[sic]], and Wassermann, taken from a contemporary postcard.”
Another article in “Der Stuermer”, in April 1937, describes what is alleged to happen when ritual murder takes place, and the blood is mixed with the bread and drunk by the Jews in their feast. During the feast the head of the family is supposed to explain:
“May all gentiles perish—as the child whose blood is contained in the bread and wine.” (2699-PS).
An article in “Der Stuermer” for July 1938 has these further remarks to make on “ritual murder”: