What can a image from 1933 ever really tell us? In July 1933, Der Stürmer, the Nazi newspaper, published a cover image of a gaping Jewish mouth, the picture of avarice, swallowing kings, admirals, bankers, film stars, greedy for world-control. Hitler had come to power in January of that year and immediately stepped up repression of Jews – it was well reported in the UK. Jews outside Germany decided to hit back and organise a boycott of German goods – Edward VIII could have read about this under the Daily Express headline ‘Judea declares war on Germany’.
This allowed the Nazis to further intensify their anti-semitism. So, in that July edition of Der Stürmer, a long panegyric to the heroic Adolf Hitler ended with this passage:
World Jewry faces Adolf Hitler. World Jewry faces Germany. The Jews will fight without pity. We must also fight without pity against Pan-Jewry. The Jewish people is the people of the Devil. It is a people of criminals and murderers.
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