Julius Streicher (12 February 1885 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent Nazi prior to and during World War II. He was the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer newspaper, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine. His publishing firm also released three anti-Semitic books for German children, including Trust No Fox in the Green Meadow and No Jew on His Oath in 1936 and Der Giftpilz (The Poison Mushroom) in 1938, one of the most widespread pieces of propaganda, which purported to warn about insidious dangers Jews posed by using the metaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom.
At the Nuremberg Trials, Streicher was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging for inciting the Holocaust, despite not directly taking part in the killings.
Julius Streicher was one of nearly two dozen German officials who was captured by the Allies at the end of World War II. The Allies sought to try Streicher and the other men for war crimes. These plans were stopped twice by the German Freedom Front, first in November, 1945 when the GFF destroyed the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg[1] and second in 1946, when the GFF destroyed the American residency zone in Frankfurt with a radium bomb.[2]
In 1947, the Soviets decided to try the officials in their zone. The GFF prevented this by crashing a plane into the courthouse, killing all the lawyers and judges, but leaving the accused unharmed.[3]
Lou Weissberg named Streicher as the Nazi he wanted dead more than any of the others.[4]