Nazi propaganda poster advertising a special issue of "Der Stuermer" on "Rassenschande" [race pollution]. [LCID: 32615]

This image shows a 1935 poster by the antisemitic Der Stürmer (Attacker) newspaper. The poster justifies prohibiting “interracial” relationships between Jews and non-Jews under the Nuremberg Race Laws.

Many Germans reported suspicions of the “crime” of interracial relationships to the police. The police needed the public to be their “eyes and ears” in this and other matters. Informers were variously motivated by political beliefs, personal prejudices, the desire to settle petty quarrels, or the patriotic desire to be a “good citizen.”

“Everyone cringes with fear,” Jewish professor Victor Klemperer wrote in his diary in August 1933. “No letter, no telephone conversation, no word on the street is safe anymore. Everyone fears the next person may be an informer.”