The Poisonous Mushroom

The Nazi regime understood the importance of education: people are not born with hatred, they need to be taught to hate. The Nazi regime understood that indoctrination needs to start with young children. Dr Bernhard Rust, the Nazi minister of Science, Education and National Culture, advocated that children as young as six should be taught Nazi racial ideology.

The anti-Semitic children's book "Der Giftpilz" (The Poisonous Mushroom) was part of this Nazi indoctrination programme. It is a simple narrative for primary school aged children that tells the story of a young boy who is being taught about how to distinguish between edible and poisonous mushrooms, and that this applies to distinguishing between good and bad people. Further into the story the comparison between mushrooms and Jews is made explicit, and young German children reading this book are taught to identify and distrust Jews.

This raises broader questions about the complicity of the parents, teachers, librarians and other individuals who became an instrument of the State, using their positions of authority to influence students and endorse hatred.

The Poisonous Mushroom is also an artefact that speaks to the participation of an entire culture. Genocide always requires the participation of different sections of society. The book required an author, illustrator and publisher. It also required an audience: it was read by parents, teachers and students.
The short stories were written by Nazi writer Ernst Hiemer, with pictures by the Nazi illustrator Fips (pseudonym for Philipp Rupprecht), published by "Der Stürmer" (The Stormer), Julius Streicher's infamous antisemetic newspaper, Nuremberg, 1938.