Julius Streicher was a German publisher of Nazi propaganda and a prominent member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) prior to World War II. He was the founder and publisher of the semi-pornographic and virulently anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine. His publishing firm also released three anti-Semitic books for children, including the 1938 Der Giftpilz (translated into English as The Toadstool or The Poisonous Mushroom), one of the most widespread pieces of propaganda, which warned about the supposed dangers Jews posed by using the metaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom. The publishing firm was financially very successful and made Streicher a multi-millionaire.
After falling out with Hermann Göring in 1939, Streicher was declared unfit for leadership by a Nazi Party Court and stripped of his party posts, although he continued to publish Der Stürmer, which was not an official Party publication. At the end of the war, Streicher was convicted of crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trials and was executed.
