“Rats, Vermin, Parasites and Locusts, they hide among us, where it occurs, the host people die after a shorter or longer time” Nazi Quotes and Ideology.

Dehumanization of Jews is a topic that has been studied extensively. It was a process that began with the Nazis’ propaganda campaign against the Jews, which portrayed them as subhuman and inferior. The Germans committed their first act of dehumanization in by prohibiting the Jews from standard human rights. Day-to-day acts such as leaving the home whenever desired, owning gold or jewelry, worshipping in the synagogue, and dressing in preferable attires of choice were prohibited. The invasion allowed the Germans to bestow their acts of harassment upon the Jews, leading to the forceful assimilation of the Jewish citizens, making it difficult to differentiate between different parties. This is evident in the quote, “The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don’t die of it…” This quote portrays the thoughts of the author as a fellow villager himself who understood that the prohibition and assimilation dissolved their values and status amongst society (Elie Wiesel, night, 1960)

This process continued with the segregation of Jews into ghettos and concentration camps. The Jews were stripped of their possessions and basic human rights. They were forced to assimilate to one standard way of being identified. Elie and his family were separated after arriving in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Soon after, the Nazis removed each Jew from their birth name and were given a tattooed number. Therefore, separating Elie from his family damaged his identity, dehumanizing him and other Jews alike.

The dehumanization process was not limited to physical abuse but also psychological abuse. The Jews were subjected to public humiliation including trauma and physical abuse encountered in the camps.

Elie Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Jews were not to use their name but to use the number tattooed on them.

Jews at a camp striped of all their indviduality

The Nazis called Jews rats and vermin to dehumanize them. The Nazis used propaganda to dehumanize Jews and other groups they considered inferior. By portraying Jews as subhuman, the Nazis were able to justify their persecution and extermination. The Nazis used a variety of propaganda techniques to dehumanize Jews. They portrayed Jews as dirty, disease-ridden, and vermin-like. The Nazis also used cartoons and other images to portray Jews as rats. By portraying Jews as subhuman, the Nazis were able to justify the Genocide.

Der Stürmer was a weekly German tabloid-format newspaper published from 1923 to the end of World War II by Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter of Franconia, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of Nazi propaganda and was virulently anti-Semitic. The paper was not an official publication of the Nazi Party but was published privately by Streicher. For this reason, the paper did not display the Nazi Party swastika in its logo. The paper was a very lucrative business for Streicher and made him a multi-millionaire. Through the adaptation and amalgamation of almost every existing antisemitic stereotype, myth, and tradition, Streicher’s virulent attacks were aimed predominantly at the dehumanization and demonization of Jews.

Der Stürmer , literally, "The Stormer / Stormtrooper / Attacker") was a weekly German tabloid-format newspaper published from 1923 to the end of World War II. It was a significant part of Nazi propaganda, and was virulently anti-Semitic.

Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom) is a piece of antisemitic Nazi propaganda published as a children’s book by Julius Streicher in 1938. The title is German for “the poisonous mushroom/toadstool”. The work targeted German youth and claimed to “expose” Jewish people as a threat to Germany. The title captures the book’s central analogy, comparing German Jews to a poisonous mushroom hidden among other mushrooms that it may resemble, but the poisonous one carries great danger for those who come in contact with it. Der Giftpilz was one of the first and most well-known examples of popular children’s literature that transmitted Nazi racial ideology. The book appears to have been successful, appearing in four printed editions and numbering a total of 40,000 copies. To promote it, Nazi publishing houses arranged for Rupprecht to paint a set of large murals based on the book and present them at exhibitions at banks, community halls, and other small venues throughout the country. Those events were popular, drawing in crowds of German attendees, particularly women and children. Such exhibitions increased the popularity of Der Giftpilz and further expanded its reach to children and adults alike.

They hide among us!

The text is by Ernst Hiemer, with illustrations by Philipp Rupprecht (also known as Fips); the title alludes to how, just as it is difficult to tell a poisonous mushroom from an edible mushroom, it is difficult to tell a Jew apart from a Gentile. The book attempts to "warn" German children about the dangers allegedly posed by Jews to them personally, and to German society in general.

Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom) is a piece of antisemitic Nazi propaganda published as a children's book by Julius Streicher in 1938. The title is German for "the poisonous mushroom/toadstool"

Caricature from Der Stürmer, September 1944: A monstrous vermin, marked with a star of David, crawls over the earth. The text "Thou shalt eat the nations of the earth" was supposed to be a passage from the Old Testament

The book was sometimes used in German schools.

The Jews as Parasites

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) repeatedly picked up the stereotype in 1924–25 for his program manifesto Mein Kampf. For example, he polemicized against the widespread idea in antisemitic literature that the Jews were nomads, as he himself had described them in a speech on August 13, 1920. Now he denied that this designation would be correct:

"[The Jew] is and remains the eternal parasite, a parasite that spreads more and more like a harmful bacillus, as well as inviting only a favourable culture medium. The effect of its existence, however, is similar to that of parasites: where it occurs, the host people die after a shorter or longer time."

— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

In this argumentation any possibility of naturalization for Jews was excluded, because this would only allow the alleged parasite to penetrate deeper into the body of the people. The antisemitic weekly paper Der Stürmer used this stereotype in 1927 to deny Jews their right to life. The Jews were equated with locusts:

"The Jewish people are forced by their blood not to live from honest creative work, but from fraud and usury. It is known as a people of idiots and deceivers. The Jewish people are the largest parasite people in the world. It is not worth that it exists."

— Der Stürmer