AbstractsCommunication

In Nazi Germany, 1938, Der Stürmer publishing house, under the control of Julius Striecher, published Der Giftpilz or The Poisonous Mushroom; an anti-Semitic children's book. Disseminated in the thousands, Der Giftpilz became infamously known as a children's book so grotesque it could be, and in fact was, admitted as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials. This study explores the totalizing nature of the Jewish question and its usage as an explanatory backdrop towards the manipulation of children. Congruently, this study seeks to expose this artifact's rhetorical function through the use of Ernst Bormann's Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA). This study employs FTA as a means of exposing the symbols and narratives behind an ideology that Der Giftpilz aimed at children. Particularly this study illuminates a child version of Nazi ideology that is utterly delusory, but at the same time instructive, and corrective. In addition, this study also explores cultural identity specifically the formation of identity through alienation. Lastly, this study could have implications on similar rhetorical research as the world comes to understand child propaganda and its implications.