Night of 28-29 December 1941

Streicher is reproached for his Stürmer. The truth is the opposite of what people say: he idealised the Jew. The Jew is baser, fiercer, more diabolical than Streicher depicted him.

It’s not a crime to speak publicly of affairs of State, for the State needs the people’s approval. Of course, there are cases in which it’s inopportune to speak of certain matters. Whoever is guilty of doing so is committing, as a rule, nothing worse than an offence against discipline.

Frick told me once that Streicher’s stock had completely stumped at Nuremberg. I went to Nuremberg to try to form an opinion. Streicher came into the room, and there was a hurricane of enthusiasm!

I once went to a women’s gathering. It took place at Nuremberg, and I’d been warned that Elsbeth Zander was a very serious competitor to Streicher. The meeting was held in the Hercules hall for bicycle races. Streicher was welcomed with an indescribable enthusiasm. The oldest adherents of the Party all spoke in favour of Streicher and against Elsbeth Zander. There was nothing for me to do except take my departure.

It goes without saying that the organisation of the Gau was very imperfect. If I take a functionary of the Civil Service as my criterion, the comparison is obviously not to Streicher’s advantage. But I must recall that it wasn’t a functionary who took Nuremberg for me in 1919.

When all’s said, it was Gauleiters themselves who asked me to be indulgent with Streicher. In all the circumstances, there was no comparison between the faults he committed and his recognised merits, which were brilliant.

As usual, one must look for the feminine angle!

Who escapes from criticism? I myself, if I disappear to-day, realise that a time will come, in a hundred years, perhaps, when I shall be violently attacked. History will make no exception in my favour. But what importance has that? It takes only another hundred years for these shadows to be effaced. I don’t concern myself with such things, I go my way.

The Streicher affair is a tragedy. At the origin of the conflict lies the hatred sworn between two women.

In any case, there’s just one statement I have to make, that Streicher is irreplaceable. His name is engraved in the memory of the people of Nuremberg. There’s no question of his coming back, but I must do him justice. If one day I write my memoirs, I shall have to recognise that this man fought like a buffalo in our cause. The conquest of Franconia was his work.

I have a bad conscience when I get the feeling that I’ve not been quite fair to somebody. When I go to Nuremberg, it’s always with a feeling of bitterness. I can’t help thinking that, in comparison with so many services, the reasons for Streicher’s dismissal are really very slender.

All that’s said about his alleged disease is false. Streicher had only one disease, and that was nympholepsy.