"Der Giftpilz" – Illustrated Antisemitic Children’s Book, Nuremberg, 1938 – Copy gifted to War Criminal Helmut Rühl ...

"Der Giftpilz" – Illustrated Antisemitic Children’s Book, Nuremberg, 1938 – Copy gifted to War Criminal Helmut Rühl – "In recognition of your part in the founding of the Nazi Party"

"Der Giftpilz, ein Stürmerbuch für Jung u. Alt" ["The Poison Mushroom, A Book for Young and Old], by Ernst Hiemer. Nuremberg: "Der Stürmer", 1938. German.

"The Poison Mushroom", antisemitic children’s book published by the Nazi weekly magazine "Der Stürmer". Color illustrations by "Der Stürmer" cartoonist/caricaturist Philipp Rupprecht, who published his works under the pen name "Fips".

The first story tells of a mother teaching her son how to distinguish edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. The tale concludes with this statement: "The following stories tell the truth about the poisonous Jewish mushroom; they lay out the many different forms that the Jew assumes… The Jew the way he truly is: a devil in human form". This book was submitted as an exhibit at the Nuremberg trials, and was a factor in bringing about the convictions of the publisher and illustrator.

A handwritten dedication in German appears on the front flyleaf of the present copy: "To Party member Rühl, in recognition of your contribution to the establishment of the Nazi Party in the territory of Alsace – [author of dedication not indicated], Strasbourg, January 7, 1941". Apparently this copy was gifted to the German physician Helmut Rüh (1918-?), a medical doctor employed at the "Reich University of Strasbourg" who performed experiments on killing by means of gas at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in the Alsace region. In a trial held in France after the end of the war, he was sentenced to death in absentia.

64 pages. 26.5 cm. Good condition. Original binding (printed paper binding; cloth spine and board edges). Minor blemishes.