Who was Julius Streicher?
Julius Streicher (1885-1946) was a German fascist politician and journalist, born in Fleinhausen, Bavaria. Soon after World War I he became the publisher of the newspaper Der Stürmer, which became notorious for its rabid and frequently pornographic anti-Semitism. Streicher was one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party; with Adolf Hitler, he participated in the "putsch", or insurrection, which the Nazis undertook in Munich in 1923 in a futile attempt to overthrow the German government. After the suppression of this uprising, Streicher was imprisoned for a brief period by the Bavarian authorities. Following the accession to power of the Nazis in 1933, Hitler appointed him Nazi leader (Gauleiter) of the region of Franconia. During World War II Streicher was commissioned a general in the German army. He was arrested by the Allied forces after the surrender of the German armies in 1945, and was tried as a major war criminal with the other Nazi leaders at Nuremberg. For his unceasing campaign for the total extermination of the Jews, Streicher was convicted of "crimes against humanity", and was executed.