Trust No Fox on his Green Heath and No Jew on his Oath

Illustrator

Philipp Rupprecht, often working under the name ‘Fips’, was one of the best known German cartoonists during the Nazi era. He mainly did anti-Semitic works with many appearing in the Nazi Newspaper Der Stürmer. Many of Rupprecht’s works were placed on the front page of the newspaper and he always depicted Jews with faces that had exaggerated eyes and lips, hooked noses and scraggy beards atop hair torsos with short arms and long legs. Philipp Rupprecht also illustrated anti-Sematic children’s books, such as Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud auf seinem Eid ( Elvira Bauer, 1936) and Der Giftpilz (Ernst Hiemer, 1938).

Background

The Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler had taken complete control of the Reichstag in 1933. This allowed Hitler to implement laws restricting and limiting the rights of different races and religions, including anti-Semitic laws such as the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. After the formation of the ‘Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda’ in 1933, anti-Semitic publications, in the forms of books, newspapers, radio and speeches, were commissioned by the state. Goebbels, the propaganda minister, described the new ministry as a way of uniting the government and the people. Hitler says that “The chief function of propaganda is to convince the masses, who slowness of understanding needs to be given time in order that they may absorb information; and only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on their mind………the slogan must of course be illustrated in many ways and from several angles, but in the end one must always return to the assertion of the same formula. The one will be rewarded by the surprising and almost incredible results that such a personal policy secures.” This shows that the Nazi Party believed that they, by using propaganda, could unite the German nation behind them and their beliefs.

By 1935 the Jews in particular had become second class citizens within Germany. This was both down to laws passed by the Nazi Party and the attitude from ordinary citizens. The number of boycotts of Jewish business throughout the 1930s showed the anti-Semitic feeling within the German population. The fact that Jews were now second class citizens, anti-Semitic feeling was allowed to spread and citizens could discriminate against Jews without the fear of the judicial system, as racism had been made legal. Grunberger argues that many in Germany wanted to see social change and the idea of ‘folk community’ was popular at the time. Anti-Semitism and much of the stereotypes used for Jews was already present in much of Germany before the Nazis came to power. .

After the ‘editorial law’ in 1933 all forms of publication was censored by the Reichskulturkammer. This allowed more and more anti-Semitic publications to be made and thus caused even greater anti-Semitic behaviour throughout the 1930s. By the end of the 1930s Germany had created a racial apartheid system where some areas of public life were reserved for Aryans and some for Jews. By 1936 the Nazi Party controlled much of citizen’s lives and therefore had created a state that believed in Nazi policies.

Analysis

Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud auf seinem Eid is an anti-Semitic book targeted at children. It tells children what a Jew is and how to identify them. This is done both through the text and the illustrations that accompany the text. Throughout the book Jews are compared to Germans and a clear division is made. On the front cover there is a picture of a fox and a picture of a man depicted as a Jew as he has a big nose, big ears and a chubby hand with a Star of David next to him.

The book is divided into ten sections:

• The Father of the Jews is the Devil • The Eternal Jew • Jewish names • Once a Jew, always a Jew • The Cattle Jew • The Sabbath • The Jewish Lawyer • The Servant Girl • The Jewish Doctor • The Führer’s Youth

The Father of the Jews is the Devil

In this section Elvira Bauer says that the Jew works for the devil and that they can never be trusted. She says that ‘The Devil brought them to Germany’ and that ‘like thieves they stole our (Germany’s) land’. She describes the Jew to always be ‘cursing and swearing with bent backs and over-sized slippers.’ This shows that even at an early age children were being taught what to look out for to recognize a Jew. Elvira Bauer also describes a German in this section. A German ‘stands up’ and ‘is a proud young man able to work and fight’. This demonstrates the German to be strong and the Jew to be weak. This is further shown in the illustrations on the page. The German, who has blond hair, is standing tall with a spade in his hand and a muscular body. The Jew, on the other hand, is fat, smoking and has big feet and big hands. The first section of this book is also written in a rhyming story making it easier for children to understand it.

The Eternal Jew

In this section Elvira Bauer links Christianity to anti-Semitism. She blames Jews for the death of Jesus Christ and that since then they have ‘borne a curse’ and should be avoided. They are seen ‘everywhere as a pest’ like a fox and that ‘children to keep a look out’. This is saying that the children should be scared of the Jews and not under any circumstances to interact with them. This shows that children were being taught that if they meet a Jew that may catch the curse. The illustration on this page shows a man with scruffy hair a big nose and in a dark coat, he is also surrounded by flames which could link back to the Devil in the last section.

Jewish Names

In this section Elvira Bauer shows how to spot a Jew by their name. She describes how Jews can be cunning with their names, although some may sound German there are little differences. This represents another way in which children are being taught on how to spot a Jew.

Once a Jew, always a Jew

In this section a story is told of a Jew who converts to being a Christian but on a Friday he eats a goose. He claims that as he converted, a goose can converted into a fish. What she is arguing is that as a goose cannot be a fish, a Jew cannot be a Christian and will always be a Jew. This is reinforced by the illustration as a man with a big nose, big feet and big hands is eating meat on a Friday in front of a priest. This demonstrates that children were taught again that a Jew is sneaky and a liar.

The Cattle Jew

This section represents how a Jew is greedy and will only think about money and therefore that a Jew is disloyal towards Germans and will always try and cheat a German. The illustration is a colourful picture of a farmyard and the Jew taking animals off a German. The colour and the farmyard will also entice younger children into the book.

The Sabbath

In this section the author describes how Jews are lazy and that on Sabbath they expect Germans to do all the work. She is also saying again that Jews are dishonest and keep all their money hidden away. This is teaching children that Jews are untrustworthy and lazy. The illustrations in this section again show a Jew to be fat and thus reinforcing what a Jew looks like. One of the pictures also shows the Jew with a fox, this was a common link used by the Nazi propaganda to represent them as sly and stealthy. The shows that Jews were people who children should stay away from.

The Jewish Lawyer

This section tells how a Jewish lawyer took all a farmer’s produce away so he could be represented. In the end the Jew becomes fat and the farmer has nothing left. This is also illustrated in the picture which shows two scenes. The first scene is of a well-dressed farmer and a small thin Jew. The second scene however shows a fat Jew and a poor looking farmer. The story is trying to teach children that a Jew will take all your money and produce and leave you with nothing, but the Jew will not care as long as he has it.

The Servant Girl

This section shows that a Jew will try and force themselves onto German women but a German women must never have a relationship with a Jew as their body would become impure. This is reinforcing the idea that children should be scared of the Jew and that there should be no relationship of any kind with a Jew. This section seems to reinforce the policy shown in the Nuremberg Laws which were passed just under a year before this book was published.

The Jewish Doctor

A Jewish doctor is described as someone who will kill a German to save a Jew as he makes sure ‘that not one more Jew is saved from Hell’. Elvira Bauer is saying here that a Jew will always go to Hell when they die so the Jewish doctor is trying to stop that. This also implies that as they are going to Hell then they have gone against the teaching of God in this life. This is supposed to teach children that anything a Jew does is bad and if they do what a Jew does then they will go to Hell. This section goes on to praise Der Stürmer for its anti-Semitic stance. This section also teaches children why you should not buy from Jewish shops and why there are no Jews in school. The colourful illustrations reinforce these points as they depict Jews plotting in a huddle next to crows while Der Stürmer is on the wall behind them. This again can be seen to show that according to the Nazi’s Jews were sneaky. The final part of this section which both the colourful picture and text show how fantastic the ‘Fatherland’ is whiteout Jews.

The Führer’s Youth

The final section of this book says that the strong German youth join the Hitler youth to stand together as one nation. On the other hand, the Jews are told to go away. A picture of grumpy looking Jews walking under a sign that says ‘one-way road. Hurry. Hurry. The Jews are our misfortune’ and in the text the phrase ‘what a disgusting picture’ is used to show the anti-Semitic feeling. This shows that this book is teaching children that the quicker Germany gets rid of the Jews the better a country it will be. The Nazi Party and Hitler himself put great emphasis on training the Aryans for the Future. Hitler wanted the German youth to be taught the greatness of the Third Reich and how to be a citizen of Germany. This was shown in his speech at the Nuremberg rally in1935, to the Hitler youth, when he says that the Hitler Youth has made Germany more ‘sturdy and disciplined’.

Symbolism

Elvira Bauer uses a number of animals to symbolise Jews throughout the book. The two animals that are used again and again are the fox and the crow. The fox in Greek legend often represented the devil but in Nazi Germany other connotations were often given to the fox. Foxes were seen as sneaky and crafty and therefore fitted well into anti-Jewish propaganda. The fox was also seen to be a carrier of rabies. By linking the fox with a Jew it reinforces the idea that was promoted by the Nazi propaganda that Judaism is a disease like rabies. The fox was very popular within German propaganda and films such as Reynard the Fox and the Jew Animal were produced depicting the link between the fox and the Jew. The other animal used throughout the book is the crow. This was often seen alongside a Jew. A crow often depicts a devil’s worker and the fact that a crow is seen to be helping the Jew shows that the Jew is doing the devil’s work.