Gunzenhausen, where several Jews were killed in a pogrom recently, has given a big official reception to Julius Streicher, the Franconian Nazi leader, and editor of the notorious blood-libel organ, the Stuermer. Banners reading “Welcome Franconian Leader!” and “Heil Julius Streicher!” were stretched across the streets. The whole town turned out to show their love and respect for the Franconian leader, says the “Fraenkische Tageszeitung,” Streicher’s daily organ, splashing the story over several pages, with numerous photographs of scenes during the reception. Over 4,000 people took part, it says.
There was also a reception in the Convent, where Pastor Keupp, and the Sister Superior, Anne Kaloitz, received Streicher, who welcomed them as the representatives of the real Christianity of deeds.
“We have never called for the shooting of Jews,” Streicher said, “If we had wanted that, I, as the leader of this area, could have given the order in the days of the revolution.
NO POLITICAL MEETING
“Pastor Keupp has been reproached for receiving me in this consecrated peace,” he remarked. “I should have declined to speak here, had I not known that there is here the spirit of true Christianity which bridges all denominations. This is no political gathering. All who are in this place wish to be true Christians, putting their ideas into action. Those who now doubt our Christianity, where were they when the revolution committed by Jewry against the German nation created a Godless centre in Berlin? They failed at their posts. Many of them today still describe the Jews as the “People of God,” and Adolf Hitler has done more for Christianity than they have.
“Whoever links himself with the Jews links himself with the devil.”
Streicher made a similar speech at a meeting held in Nuremberg, attended by over 4,000 people. The walls were decorated with slogans reading: “Without the solution of the Jewish question—no solution for the German nation.” “Whoever buys from Jews is a traitor to the nation.”
The thousands of people present stood up and shouted “Heil Streicher!” as the Franconian leader entered the hall, the “Fraenkische Tageszeitung” reports.
REFERS TO ROEHM
“The Church dispute is no dispute at all, for the Party has never had anything to do with it,” Streicher said in his speech. He then spoke of the Roehm revolt, which he alleged had been engineered by enemies abroad, and of his own separate fight against Jewry, which, he said, has now become the fight of all Franconia. “Many a Jew and non-Jew is hoping today that the devil should get us,” he suggested, “but he won’t. I am not afraid. If anything is going to happen to me, it will be at the hands of a hired assassin. We have looked death in the face fearlessly till now, and we shall not flinch now.
“They have said that Streicher has had a nervous breakdown. I tell you that my nerves are good—otherwise I should have broken down during the past 14 years. I repeat, have no illusions—we are not going to break up.
“They have spread all sorts of stories, that Streicher has been deposed by the Leader. They have even said that Hitler has whipped me. Can you imagine it? Only the people can depose me. Even the Leader himself can be deposed only by the people. Without immodesty I may say that the people in this town will not depose me.
CHARGES WAR AIM
“The bullets that were fired in Marseilles against the King of Yugoslavia and the French Foreign Minister, Barthou,” he went on, “were fired for the same reason as the bullets that in 1914 killed the Austrian Grand Duke and his wife in the Balkans. In just the same way as their murder was ordered by those higher up, so the intention now was to use the assassinations in Marseilles to start a new war, in which the German nation would be embroiled. Don’t think that some ordinary little man said: I am going to shoot them down. No! The reasons for these murders are set out in the Jewish Protocols of Basle. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to speak as I really would like to,” he concluded. “Jewry abroad is hoping for a new world war, which would finally annihilate Germany. That is what the Jews outside are saying openly. The boycott is no longer any use.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.