Bidspirit auction | ”The Poisonous Mushroom” - Illustrated

”The Poisonous Mushroom” - Illustrated Antisemitic Booklet for Children - Paris, Early 1940s - Champignons veneneux, danger de mort!! - The Poisonous Mushroom, Danger of Death!!”, an illustrated antisemitic booklet for children published by N. E. F. (Nouvelles Éditions Françaises), [Paris, early 1940s]. French version of the German antisemitic children's book Der Giftpilz (”The Poisonous Mushroom”). Extremely rare. An antisemitic publication based on the context of the famous German children's book Der Giftpilz by Ernst Hiemer (published by ”Der Stürmer”, Nuremberg, 1938), which likened the Jews to poisonous and dangerous mushrooms that infiltrate society and destroy it from within. At the beginning of the booklet appears a message likening the Jews to poisonous mushrooms: ”We present several types of particularly poisonous mushrooms. The harmful effects of such parasites have long been felt by everyone. Our laboratory, established for public health purposes, has for many years been studying these dangerous cryptogams. We show them to you so that, in the future, everyone who understands the problem will be able to apply the remedy. Namely: to uproot them completely from the soil in which they have taken root, and then carefully disinfect the area. Then everything will flourish wonderfully, once these parasites have disappeared.” The booklet, designed as a kind of botanical guide, was intended to inculcate racist ideology and hatred of Jews among elementary-school-age children. Each page is devoted to a different ”poisonous mushroom” - a vicious caricature of a famous Jewish figure (or a friend of the Jews), depicted in the form of a mushroom. The introduction to the book quoted above is reminiscent of the opening of ”The Poisonous Mushroom”, which features a scene in which a mother and her son gather mushrooms in the forest. The mother explains that just as it is difficult to distinguish between an edible mushroom and a poisonous one, and a poisonous mushroom can destroy an entire family, so too it is difficult to distinguish between an honest person and a Jew - and that ”one Jew can destroy an entire people.” Alongside the illustration appears the mushroom's 'scientific name', formed by distorting the Jew's name, together with an explanation of its harmful effect on its surroundings. Among the Jews depicted in the booklet: Alfred Dreyfus; Karl Marx - ”a mushroom with a starched collar that grows upon everything healthy in order to corrupt it.” - the illustration depicts a caricatured head shaped like the cap of a poisonous mushroom, wearing a shirt and collar. Also depicted as poisonous mushrooms are former French Prime Minister Léon Blum , politician Moïse Lévy, banker Lazare, and others. Among other images is a mushroom that uses Jewish names such as ”Lévy-Moïse” to convey an image of harm, contamination, or control over the press and public discourse, accompanied by imagery of filth and insects crawling at the bottom: ”a filthy mushroom that clings to everything it wishes to soil with its viscous pus.” The final mushroom in the booklet is depicted in the likeness of Joseph Stalin, and on the facing page appears the equation: ”14 Jews or friends of Jews = 14 poisons”, alongside an illustration of a hand holding a globe filled with poisonous mushrooms in the likeness of Jews, with the inscription: ”Danger of Death”. Extremely rare. Only one copy is listed in the WorldCat global library catalog, in a library in France. [16] pages. 13.5X21 cm. Minor stains. Good condition.