The Poison Mushroom

The Poison Mushroom (Der Giftpliz) was an anti-Semitic propaganda children's picture book published in Nazi Germany in 1938. The publishing firm, Stürmer Verlag, was owned by the prominent Nazi Julius Streicher, the founder and publisher of the newspaper Der Stürmer, a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine. The book was used to indoctrinate children by teaching them anti-Semitism at an early age. It purported to warn about insidious dangers that Jews posed by using the metaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom.

The Poison Mushroom in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Following Germany's victory in World War II, three generations of German children grew up reading Julius Streicher's books, including The Poison Mushroom. Originally intended to instill in children a hatred towards the Jews, their purpose had been served by the late 1970s when the global extinction of Jewry was proclaimed. For German children, "a Jew" became a fairy-tale bogeyman like a witch or an ogre, rather than a part of the real world. By 2010, they were considered classics of children's literature.

Alicia Gimpel, originally as fond of the book as other children, grew to hate it when she learned that she was a Jew in March 2010. Her parents, Heinrich and Lise Gimpel, kept copies of all of Streicher's books in their house so as not to attract suspicion.