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Partly-printed DS, in German, one page, 8 x 12, December 16, 1945. Document headed (translated), "The International Military Tribunal, Defendant's Application for Summons for Witness," made while preparing his defense for the Nuremberg trials. Streicher and his defense lawyer request testimony from "Dr. Pohl," identified as a "teacher at the 'High School' of the N.S.D.A.P. at Frankfurt," citing his knowledge that Streicher "did not without exact foundation quote from the Talmud, but that these passages have been accurately translated by Dr. Pohl, who is an expert of the Hebrew language." Signed at the conclusion in pencil by Julius Streicher, and countersigned by his defense attorney. In fine condition, with professional cleaning to the paper. Accompanied by a contemporary English translation.
Streicher’s request cuts directly to the propaganda at the heart of his prosecution. As publisher of the virulently antisemitic Der Stürmer, he had for years printed supposed quotations from the Talmud as evidence of Jewish depravity and conspiracy. At Nuremberg, rather than disavowing that material, Streicher sought to defend it as legitimate scholarship, asking the tribunal to hear from Dr. Pohl, whom he presented as a Hebrew expert capable of confirming the accuracy of the translations. A related witness request similarly named Dr. Lelck, another purported translator, in an effort to show that Der Stürmer’s anti-Jewish material had been drawn from authentic texts rather than invented outright.
The distinction proved meaningless before the tribunal. Prosecutors argued, and the judges ultimately found, that Der Stürmer had served as a sustained instrument of persecution and incitement, helping normalize and encourage violence against Jews regardless of whether isolated quotations had been literally translated. Streicher was convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged on October 16, 1946. Filed only a month into the trial, this document captures his attempt to recast years of inflammatory propaganda as a question of textual accuracy rather than one of deliberate incitement.
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