Propaganda is very powerful. It can be hidden within information and can change opinions and spread beliefs. There have been multiple cases of propaganda being used by governments through the years for different reasons. ‘The Poisonous Mushroom’ is a story that came from Der Giftpilz, an anti-Semitic children’s book published by Julius Streicher, who is also the author of Der Stürmer. Julius Streicher was executed as a war criminal in 1946.
The story starts with a boy and her boy gathering mushrooms in the woods, and the boy finds poisonous mushrooms. The mother explains that there are good and bad mushrooms and connects this example with how the Jews are bad mushrooms or poisonous mushrooms. She tells the child about them and when he says that the Jews are the poisonous mushrooms of mankind and says that his teacher has also told them about the Jews. The mother goes on to explain about Jews and even says that the German youth must be enlightened about the evils of Jewish people.
The story was published during the time of World War 2, and the government wanted to spread their beliefs to everyone, children included. Spreading news from trusted sources to people at a very young age is very powerful as it can stick with them forever. While reading this piece of propaganda, I was truly in awe by how blatantly the author was saying that the jews were evil, especially since it was a kid’s book. The child in the book says that poisonous mushrooms can even cause death, referring to the jews, which tells children, very obviously, how the jews are going to ‘kill them’. The mother of the child also talked about the ‘types’ of evil jews and says that not everyone knows that jews are evil and the world must be ‘enlightened’ to ‘warn’ them against jews. At the end of the story, the author writes “They show the Jew for what he really is: The Devil in human form.”
I personally think that this piece of propaganda was unsettling. The mother in the story teaches the child about race while he is at a young age, and it is all part of a child’s book. The author is able to teach hate to children at a very young age and is negatively impacting their entire future.
To conclude, this piece of propaganda was very interesting as it was in a children’s book while saying that Jewish people are devils in human form. By associating the Jews with negative personalities, the author is easily able to change the opinions of children which can have a lasting impact on them.
By Advaita Mehrotra