As for the books which have been mentioned here, it must be said that German youth scarcely knew of their existence—much less did they read them. No evidence has been produced in support of the Prosecution’s assumption to the contrary. The healthy common sense of German youth refused such stuff. German boys and girls preferred other reading material. It may be emphasized in this connection that neither the text nor the illustrations in these books could attract youth in any way. They were, on the contrary, bound to be shunned.
Of special importance in regard to this point is the fact that, Defendant Baldur von Schirach, the man responsible for educating the whole body of German youth, testified under oath that the afore-mentioned juvenile books published by this company were not circulated by the Hitler Youth Leadership and did not find a circle of readers among the Hitler Youth. The witness made the same assertions in regard to Der Stürmer. One of his closest co-workers, the witness Lauterbacher, stated in this connection that Der Stürmer was actually banned for the Hitler Youth by the Defendant Von Schirach. It is clear that the very style and illustrations of Der Stürmer were ill-adapted to attract the interest of young persons or to offer them ethical support. The step taken by the Reich Youth Leadership is therefore quite understandable.
Although some of Der Stürmer articles submitted by the Prosecution seem to indicate that Der Stürmer was read in youth circles and produced a certain effect there, it must be borne in mind that these were typical commissioned articles, that is, commissioned for propaganda purposes. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the Prosecution’s assertion that German youth harbored criminal hate toward Jews. Therefore, neither the German people nor its youth ...
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Marx, perhaps this would be a convenient time to break off.
[A recess was taken.]
DR. MARX: One might now be tempted to assume that Der Stürmer exercised a particularly strong influence upon the Party organizations, the SA and SS; but this was not the case either. The SA, the largest mass organization of the Party, rejected Der Stürmer just as did the mass of the people. Its publications were Der SA-Führer and Die SA. The mass of the SA took these as the foundation of their ideology. These publications do not contain even one article from the pen of the Defendant Streicher. If the latter had really been the man the Prosecution believes him to be, the most authoritative and influential propagandist of anti-Semitism, he would of necessity have been called upon to collaborate in these publications, which were issued to instruct the SA on the Jewish question. A publication intended to provide ideological instruction could never have dispensed with the collaboration of such a man.
The fact that not one word by Julius Streicher himself ever appeared in these papers demonstrates afresh that the picture drawn of him by the Prosecution does not correspond in any way with the actual facts. The Defendant Streicher could gain no influence over the SA through his paper and the columns of Der SA-Führer and Die SA were closed to him. Even the highest SA leaders refused to advocate his ideas. The SA Deputy Chief of Staff, SA Obergruppenführer Jüttner, testifying before the commission on 21 May 1946, made the following statement in this connection:
“At a leader conference, the former SA Chief of Staff, Lutze, stated that he did not want propaganda for Der Stürmer in the SA. In certain groups Der Stürmer was even prohibited. The contents of Der Stürmer disgusted and repelled most of the SA men. The policy of the SA with regard to the Jewish question was in no way directed at the extermination of the Jews; it aimed only at preventing a large-scale immigration of Jews from the East.”
The ideology of Der Stürmer was thus rejected on principle by the individual SA man as well as by the SA leaders, and there is therefore no question of Streicher’s having influenced the SA.
Not only was the Defendant Streicher not asked to collaborate in SA publications, but his articles did not appear in any other newspapers and publications. He was given no chance of contributing either to the Völkischer Beobachter or to other leading organs of the German press, although the Propaganda Ministry intended enlightenment on the Jewish question to form one of the noblest tasks of the German press.