Trust No Fox

Accession Number: NEKHC:2009.9

Object: Children's Book

Category: Indoctrination; Propaganda; Anti-Semitism ; Stürmer-Verlag Publishing House

Physical Description: Hardback material bound book with colour cover.

Information on Item: This book is called Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid (Trust No Fox in the Green Meadow and No Jew on His Oath). The author was an 18 year old student called Elvira Bauer, an ardent supporter of Nazi ideology. It went into print in 1936, seven editions and around 100,000 copies were published by Stürmer-Verlag; a publishing house owned by Julius Streicher, who also published ‘Der Stürmer’ an anti-Semitic newspaper. The book was part of Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda and used as an educational tool with the intention of indoctrinating children into Nazi ideology.

Image Use: Use of images owned by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum is governed by our Terms and Conditions.

Information: The National Holocaust Centre and Museum takes all reasonable measures to ensure we are not infringing on the rights of others. If you are the owner of the copyright or related rights in any of the material from our collections on this website, or you believe that the material may be subject to a third party ownership or another legal claim, and you believe its use infringes your intellectual property or any other rights, please contact us on [email protected]

 We endeavour to resolve objections in a timely manner, and will withdraw affected materials from the website until the matter is resolved. The information you provide will be treated as confidential and will be used only in connection with this enquiry.

Further Information

Children were exposed to the book from around 6 years of age, it became widely used in schools, and was purchased by parents. The book is strongly anti-Semitic, Bauer contrasts the ideal Nazi Aryan who is portrayed as a creation of God, honest, handsome, and hard-working, with racist Nazi stereotypes of Jewish people. Jewish people are associated with the sly fox, and the Devil, they are portrayed as ugly, money hoarding and untrustworthy. The illustrations include images of Jewish people as an angry doctor, a loan shark, and as sexual predators who pose a danger to Aryan girls. Illustrations also show non-Jewish children reading the Der Stürmer newspaper, and jeering at Jewish children who have been expelled from school. The Hitler Youth is glorified and seen marching through the countryside. The book ends with the illustration of Jewish people walking underneath a sign which says 'One way road. Hurry, hurry. The Jews are our misfortune.'
The book was presented as evidence during the Nuremberg Trials. It demonstrates the use of picture books and children’s literature to indoctrinate children into Nazi ideology, especially anti-Semitism, prior to the Wannsee Conference of 1942.