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.”
The poster text reads: “Defiling the Race. Since 1923, Julius Streicher has enlightened the public about defiling the race. In 1935, the Führer declared defiling the race a criminal act, punishable by imprisonment. Nevertheless, thousands of race crimes continue to be committed in Germany by Jews. What is Race Pollution? Why did the Führer decree the Nuremberg Laws? Why does the Jew instigate the German woman to race defilement, systematically and on a mass scale? What are the consequences of defiling the race for the German woman and the German girl? What are the consequences of race defilement for the German Nation? The new Stürmer special issue.”
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