the history of anti-semitism the roots of anti-semitism in germany go back a very long time. the...
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The History of Anti-Semitism
The roots of anti-Semitism in Germany go back a very long time.
The foundation of hate the Nazis built on was formed centuries earlier.
Jews rarely lived in peace for long as far back as the ancient Roman Empire (63 BC).
11th Century- Christian knights went on crusades to convert or kill the Muslims of the Middle East;
they found easier victims closer to home
Crusades continued… German Christian Crusaders
massacred thousands of Jews in German towns
Jews were called “Christ killers” in the early years of Christianity; a belief that persisted through the centuries
Middle Ages Jews were said to have poisoned wells causing
years of the plague (“Black Death”) that killed millions in Europe
In the years of the Plague over 200 Jewish communities were destroyed; thousands of Jews were killed
Painting: The Black Plague 1349
“Blood Libel”During the Middle Ages, Jews were charged with the ritual murder of Christian children, and said to use their blood during religious ceremonies
The Nazis later used this in their propaganda against the Jews
Jewish communities were raided and destroyed
Jewish children were taken from their parents and raised as Christians
Jews were burned at the stake because they refused to give up their religion
Middle Ages continued…
Jews were expelled from country after country
Jews were expelled from England, France, and Spain
Many settled in Eastern Europe, especially Poland
Massacres and pogroms directed at the Jews took place from the 5th to the 20th centuries
Jewish Laws – what they could and could not do
Jews were forbidden to be doctors, lawyers, or teachers of non-Jews
Jews were not allowed to sell food to Christians
Jews could not be cared for by Christian nurses
Jews were not allowed to live in the same houses as non-Jews
Jews were forced to wear a special article of clothing or a cloth badge
•Jews were forced to live in separate walled areas called ghettos
•In the 1800’s signs began to appear that were the building blocks of Nazism
•Anti-Semitic incidents grew in number and violence
Jewish Laws continued…
Anti-Semitic Programs Continue into Modern Times
In 1879 Wilhelm Marr used the word “anti-Semitism” for the first time
Marr, known as the father of modern anti-Semitism, based his ideas on what he called“racial” rather than religious characteristics of Jews
This was an important change in the history of Jewish persecution
Jews began to be thought of as a race for the first time
This belief said Jews were different by birth from everyone else
This idea was the cornerstone of Nazi anti-Semitism
Anti-Jewish books and pamphlets appeared:1903: “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ appeared in Russia. Inflammatory propaganda about secret plan of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world
It was translated into German and sold by thousands.
Anti-Semitic programs continued into
modern times
pogroms in Russia, Poland, and the Ukraine (pogrom-an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group)
1918-1920-about 100,000 Jews murdered in western Ukraine
1919-1921-60,000 Jews killed in pogroms in Poland and Ukraine
1934 100 Jews killed in pogrom in Algeria
1935 increased violence and discrimination against Jews in Poland
1936,1938 more pogroms in Poland
November 9-10, 1938 Kristallnacht - Germany and Austria
Laws and actions against the Jews increase
1927 Jewish cemeteries throughout Germany are desecrated by Nazis, synagogues in Romania destroyed
1933 first concentration camp is established: Dachau1933 boycott of Jewish lawyers, doctors, and merchants, economic and employment sanctions against Jews increasing
1933 book burning of “non German” books (mostly Jewish)
1933 Jews banned from fields of journalism, art, literature, music, broadcasting, and theater1935 Nuremberg Laws: deprived Jews of citizenship, took away voting and other rights
1933-1939 more than 1400 anti-Jewish laws are passed in Germany
The Final Solution Wannsee Conference
the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jewish people
the Nazis began the systematic deportation of Jews from all over Europe to six extermination camps established in former Polish territory
In its entirety, the "Final Solution" consisted of gassings, shootings, random acts of terror, disease, and starvation that accounted for the deaths of about six million Jews -- two-thirds of European Jewry