The history of anti - semitism
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Geschiedenis: De geschiedenis van het antisemitisme I use my own material and material from colleagues who have presented their work also on internet. I claim nothing. This is merely educational fair use. Educational fair use: "the fair use of a copyrighted work (...) for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright" But I claim nothing, All trademarks, works and images used are properties of their respective owners. If I violate any form of copyright please contact me and I will give credit.
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The history of anti - semitism
- 1. The History of Anti-Semitism
- 8. Picture of a Jew Poisoning A Well
- 25. Nazi Propaganda Posters after Hitler comes into Power
- 29. The Cultural war against the Jews After the Nazis came to power and during the Holocaust
Editor's Notes
- We will discuss this more when we discuss Deadly Medicine and Who was a Jew by Nazi standards.
- Hatred of Jews has existed since the earliest Jewish communities. In the pre-Christian era (Before the Common Era, B.C.E.) Jews were the only group to follow one Supreme being while other groups had a pantheon of gods. Non Jews in these centuries were suspicious of Jews for their monotheism and distinctive religious rituals. In the Roman Empire before Christianity Jews were criticized for their unwillingness to honor the official gods of the empire. Thus, unlike other peoples of the pre-Christian era, their monotheism set Jews apart, and non-Jews in the empire harbored suspicions and negative stereotypes about them.
- The crusade got underway in the summer of 1096, but before the crusaders left for the Holy Land, they set out to remove enemies from their homeland. During the centuries of the Crusades, myths about Jews circulated and helped to heighten popular hatred and fear of Jews. It became common for Christian groups to think of Jews as agents of Satan. Images of the satanic Jew adorned cathedral courtyards and town squares of Europe.
- A popular anti-Jewish myth that gained widespread acceptance was the notion that Jewsmurdered Christians because they need blood to perform satanic rites—the charge of ritual murder or blood libel . It was believed that Jews, usually led by rabbis, kidnapped Christian children on Jewish holidays in order to bleed them to death for occult rituals. According to medieval myth, Jews thought the Christian blood could purge the diseases caused by their own corrupt blood, or cure the wounds caused by circumcision. Christians believed that Jews mixed the blood in their ritual foods at Passover in order to sanctify them. Some thought that the captive Christians were crucified in order to reenact Christ’s murder. If a Christian child was murdered near Easter or Passover, there was a good chance that local Jews would be massacred. Into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at least two dozen ritual murder trials took place in Central and Eastern Europe. The Black Plague in the middle of the fourteenth century killed approximately one-third of the population of Europe. At the time, it was not known how the illness spread, but stories and rumors circulated that Jews had poisoned the wells. The accusation was totally unfounded. Nonetheless, many Christians believed the myth. This accusation led to severe consequences for Jews. More than sixty Jewish communities were burned to the ground with all their occupants killed. In cities in Switzerland and Germany—Basel, Cologne, Strasbourg, and Mainz—Jews were tortured and, in some cases, burned to death in bonfires. Christian writers rationalized the attacks on Jews, claiming that Jews deserved death for killing Jesus and for taking unfair economic advantage of Christians. By the end of the fourteenth century, Jews were seen to embody evil. There were no longer tales of Jews converting. Rather, it was believed that Jews stabbed the Host—literally stabbed Christ. Images of Jews as scorpions and pigs adorned Cathedral walls. The proliferation of anti-Jewish images in the Middle Ages presaged the Nazi propaganda that depicted Jews as satanic figures.
- Image: Jews mocking the Host at Pressburg, (Bratislava) in 1591, contemporary woodcut from the Kupferstichkabinet, Berlin. http://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/history_wing/antisemitism/crusades.cfm
- In the late Middle Ages, many of the guilds which regulated trades and crafts excluded Jews. One of the few professions open to Jews was lending money for interest, a practice considered a sin for Christians. Jews also served as middle men for landowners, collecting taxes from their serfs and carrying out administrative tasks. The association of Jews with these activities increased Christian antiapathy for, and suspicion of, Jews. These negative notions about Jews have persisted to the present even though Christians now engage in these activities, and Jews have gained access to many trades formerly restricted to the Jewish community. The first victims of the religious intolerance of the king were the Jews who were often the bankers of the kingdom. Since it was, in theory, prohibited to the Christians, the Church condemned any financial transaction comprising the payment of interest.
- The Reformation during the sixteenth century refers to the movement in Western Christianity to purge the Church of abuses that developed during the Middle Ages. The Reformation sought to restore the doctrines and practices of the Church to conform with the Bible and New Testament of early Christianity. The movement led to a split between the Roman Catholic Church opposed to the reforms of the sixteenth century and the Reformers that came to be known as Protestants. Protestantism took many forms: Anglicans in Great Britain, Huguenots in France, Lutherans in Germany and Calvinists in Switzerland. In 1517, Martin Luther attacked the Church for calling for a Reformation that would restore Christianity to its purist form. Luther’s act led to a schism in Christianity with the followers of Luther separating from Christians who continued to follow the Pope and the Papal States. At first, Luther thought Jews would convert to Lutheranism, but by 1543 he realized this would not happen and unleashed harsh vituperations against Jews. There has been a great deal of research on the transformation of Luther’s attitude toward the Jews. Part of the reason for the dramatic changes lies in his disappointment that Jews failed to convert to Lutheranism. It is also important to consider that in the 1520’s and 1530’s Luther witnessed peasant rebellions and realized that the power of secular authorities was the only way to suppress the violence and chaos. Hence, Luther’s idealism of 1517 was tempered by the political realities of the sixteenth century. Moreover, as Luther grew older, he became increasingly obsessed with the notion that the Devil threatened him constantly. His association of Jews with the Devil heightened his anti-Jewish attitudes.
- The history of Jews in Europe during the nineteenth century is complex. On the one hand, one nation-state after another granted citizenship to Jews and removed the economic, social and religious restraints that had oppressed Jews for centuries. On the other hand, conservative leaders and political parties in most European countries objected to Jewish emancipation—they clung to earlier views of Jews as pariahs and greedy moneylenders. When these conservative parties gained political control, they often imposed restrictions on Jews.
- Three main factors contributed to antisemitism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Jews were emancipated and enjoyed the opportunities of social mobility and education. Groups that opposed the progress Jews made in the capitalistic economy blamed Jews for their own economic troubles; Peasants, who were not directly affected by capitalism, blamed Jews for the ways in which capitalism had turned their world upside down; The traditional classes, landowners and peasants, blamed Jews for polluting the traditional order of German life. At this time, the notions of racial antisemitism gained prominence and Jews were blamed for infecting the German Volk.
- With the creation of a unified German state under Otto von Bismarck in 1870-71, Jews played a prominent role in parliamentary life With the creation of a unified German state under Otto von Bismarck in 1870-71, Jews played a prominent role in parliamentary life
- Wilhelm Marr coined the term “anti-Semitism” in 1879 in his The Victory of the Jews over the Germans, which appeared in 12 editions in one year. His publication blamed the Jews for threatening to dominate the German economy and destroy the greatness of Germany. Marr viewed Jews as inherently evil; he did not believe that the evil of Jews would ever change. According to Marr, the only solution was for Jews to be driven away from German society. Marr echoed views of another writer of his era who expressed racial antisemitism in 1876:
- Even the most honorable Jews is under the inescapable influence of his blood, carrier of a semitic morality, totally opposed to Germanic values. . . aimed at the destruction and burial of German values and traditions. . . . Before the vote for anyone, first ask about his blood and worry later about his political opinions. From Wilhelm Maar
- Nothing more graphically illustrates the complexity of the "Jewish Question" (the position of Jews in European society) in nineteenth century Europe than the Dreyfus Affair. Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army, was accused of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment. Even though evidence came forth that Dreyfus had been wrongly accused, and a man named Esterhazy had committed the crime, the military officials refused to release Dreyfus. Two sides developed. Military officials and conservative political leaders held strong antisemitic views and maintained that Dreyfus, a Jew, was guilty. On the other side, there was a range of liberal journalists and politicians who campaigned for Dreyfus’ release and pardon. The writer, Emil Zola, was firmly convinced of Dreyfus’ innocence. Zola wrote a series of articles during 1896 and 1897 in his newspaper Le Figaro , arguing on behalf of Dreyfus. In January 1898, Zola wrote in the liberal paper, L’Aurore, a letter to the President of France, Felix Faure. The letter opened with the words “ J’accuse ” (“I accuse”) , and Zola accused the government and military of lying about Dreyfus. A year later, 1899, the case was reopened, and it was discovered that a forgery had been used to implicate Dreyfus. Dreyfus’ sentence was reduced to ten years. It was not until 1906 that Dreyfus was rehabilitated. The Dreyfus Affair demonstrated that old hatreds and suspicions of Jews were still alive in the public imagination and could be easily brought to the surface.
- What was life like for a Jew in Germany prior to 1933? Most lived normal lives. They thought of themselves as Germans first and Jews second
- During World War I German Jews sought to demonstrate their patriotism by participation in the army. 100,000 Jews served in the army; 12,000 died in action.