Anti-Semitism

nti-Semitism is the common name for anti-Jewish sentiments.

During Hitlers rule, anti-Semitism was implemented in its most grotesque form.
The Nazis used anti-Semitism to carry out the Endlsung the Final Solution of
the Jewish Question. Through persecution and later extermination of the
European Jews, the Nazis hoped to solve the Jewish problem once and for all
strongly backed by anti-Semites in the Balkans, the Soviet Union and other
eastern European countries.
But anti-Semitism is neither invented in Germany or a specifically German
phenomenon. Through centuries, Jews were a persecuted people. During the
Middle Ages, such actions often took the form of pure mass murder. At the end of
the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Jews fell victim to
frequent pogroms in Eastern Europe. But with the Nazi persecution in the 1930s
and 1940s, Jews all over German-controlled Europe were systematically killed.
More than 6 million were murdered.

Jews persecuted since the Middle Ages

Ever since the Middle Ages, persecutions of Jews took place all over Europe. This
was mainly due to the Christian Churchs persecution of Jews and Jewry, which
was frequently followed by public pogroms. Jews were seen as strangers who
represented a different religion in Christian medieval Europe. According to the
Christians, the Jews were brash enough to deny that Jesus Christ was the Son of
God.
Accordingly, the Church and the people frequently accused the Jews of all sorts of
misfortunes: The Jews were accused of being responsible for the death of Christ,
they were accused of killing Christian children, and they were accused of causing
natural catastrophes. When the Plague (The Black Death) broke out in Europe in
1348, the Jews were also accused of having caused that to happen.
Often the anti-Semitic waves were rooted in economic problems. In the early
Middle Ages, Christians were not allowed to work in the money lending business,
and the Jews consequently took over this dirty business. But this meant that
Christians came to owe money to the Jews, and this led to the Jews being viewed

as loan sharks. Such sentiments were widespread even in Hitlers days.

Towards the middle and end of the medieval period, due to economic
development and internationalisation, the Jews monopoly in the money business
and their economic importance diminished.

Xenophobia

nti-Semitism was also caused by xenophobia. The European populations

turned their frustrations with their social and economic problems towards the
strangers

situation

not

that

different

from

today.

At the end of the 13th century, anti-Semitic sentiments increased around Europe.
In England, Jews were expelled in 1290, while in many other places Jews were
massacred.
Following the Reformation (15-16th century), anti-Jewish sentiments continued
to abound in Northern Europe. The man behind the reformation, Martin Luther,
expressed strong anti-Semitic ideas, for instance in 1453, when he wrote that the
Jewish synagogues should be burned, their houses destroyed and the Jews driven
out

of

Germany

forever.

In the following centuries, European Jews were in reality isolated from their
surroundings in the European cities, in so-called ghettos. In 1648, a great
massacre of Jews took place in Poland.

The 19th century

uring the 19th century the conditions for Jews in Europe were greatly

improved. Among the reasons for this were the Enlightenment philosophers plea
for liberty and equality. The Jews were liberated under the impression of the
ideals of the Age of the Enlightenment, and a process of assimilation
commenced.
Simultaneously, however, the 19th century marked the rise of nationalism, which
in turn aggravated the hatred of the Jews. The number of pogroms increased all
over Europe. In the name of nationalism, ethnic and religious minorities were

looked down upon. Also, the word anti-Semitism was coined for the first time in
1879.
In Russia the Jews were strongly persecuted, often in the form of statesponsored pogroms, following the murder of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. The result
was that many Jews were murdered and a large number of Jews fled to Western
Europe. Around 2 million Jews went to the United States, while Argentina,
Canada and Great Britain received around 300,000 Jews. The persecution of the
Jews lay the ground for the emergence of the Zionist movement, which reflected
the

Jews

desire

to

establish

homeland

for

themselves.

The idea of a Jewish world conspiracy later used in Nazi propaganda was
based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This forged document, fabricated
by the Russian Tsars secret police, listed Jewish plans to take over the world.
The falsification turned up in Germany in 1919 and was seen by anti-Semites as
proof of the dark forces that had caused Germany to lose World War I.

Timeline persecution of Jews in Europe

922

B.C.

The

Jewish

kingdom

is

established

70 A.D. The Romans conquer the Jewish kingdom the Temple of Solomon is
destroyed.
11-12th Cent. Massacres on Jews in the Rhineland and by the Crusaders.
1215 Jews in Europe are forced to dress in a certain way or carry the Jewish
mark.
1290

The

14th

Cent.

Jews
The

are
Jews

expelled
are

from

expelled

England.

from

France.

1492 The Jews are expelled from Spain, unless they are willing to be baptised.
Many

of

1648

Jews

them

find

massacred

refuge
in

in
Poland

the

Ottoman

and

Empire.

the

Ukraine.

19th Cent. The Jews are gradually emancipated in Germany and in other Western
European
1881

Pogroms

countries.
in

Russia

following

the

murder

of

the

1919 Pogroms in Eastern Europe 60,000 Jews are killed in the Ukraine.

Tsar.

Germany and anti-Semitism: the 19th

century

nti-Semitism gained ground in Germany during the 19th century. Anti-

Semitic libels were published everywhere, and the economic crisis of the early
19th

century

was

blamed

on

the

Jews.

Thousands of Jews fled to Germany from the pogroms in Eastern Europe at the
end of the 19th century thus keeping up the level of German xenophobia.
In a climate of economic crisis in Germany towards the end of the 19th century,
Jewish bankers were blamed. The Jews were seen as evil and exploiting
capitalists,

and

several

anti-Semitic

parties

were

founded.

University teachers and other learned people also pleaded for anti-Semitism. In
connection with the growth of modern nationalism and the motto of one state,
one nation, the German author and philosopher Paul de Lagarde wrote, "I have
long been convinced that Jewry constitutes the cancer in all of our life; as Jews,
they are strangers in any European state and as such they are northing but
spreaders

of

decay."

Friedrich Nietzsches theory of the superman bermensch as a race

biologically and intellectually better shaped than others, was misused by antiSemites, and later by the Nazis. Some Germans felt like a part of this race of
superior

human

beings

at

the

end

of

the

19th

century.

Scientific race theories also surfaced as a new current in Europe and Germany
in the 19th century. The Aryan myth came to play an important and terrible role
during the Nazi era including the idea of a special Germanic spirit and race that
was

superior

to

all

else.

In spite of the anti-Semitism, Jews were awarded legal equality in Prussia in

1859, and later in the rest of Germany. This, however, did not significantly alter
the

popularity

of

anti-Semitism.

A fundamental myth about the Jews was the idea of them being in collusion with
both capitalism and socialism. An abundance of Anti-Semitic writings tried to
explain this alleged conspiracy, which was to bring the Jews world supremacy.
Hitler later used this myth as an argument for punishing the Jews.

Germany during the Weimar Republic

fter Germanys defeat in World War I (1914-1918), anti-Semitism reached

new heights in that country. Defeated German soldiers returning from the front
among them Adolf Hitler accused those on the home front of being responsible
for the defeat. They accused social democratic politicians, revolutionaries and
especially

the

Jews

of

having

stabbed

the

army

in

the

back.

In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler spoke of the existence of a Jewish conspiracy to
take over the world. In this conspiracy, Jewish capitalists had joined forces with
the

Judeo-Bolshevist

socialism.

Europe was in a state of economic crisis in the 1930s. The crisis hit the debtridden German nation particularly hard, causing economic impoverishment, high
inflation, serious unemployment and poverty. The crisis was adding fuel to the
flames of the anti-Semitic bonfire. A scapegoat had to be found: the Jews were
chosen.

The Jews in Germany

t the time of the Nazi takeover in 1933, Jews made up about 0.8% of the

German population, 500,000 out of a total population of approximately 62 million

(according to a public census in 1933). The Jewish population was largely
concentrated in urban areas.
Most of Europes between 9 and 11 million Jews lived in Eastern Europe. But
Germany had the largest number of Western European Jews.
In general, the German Jews were better educated and assimilated than was the
case with the Jews in the Eastern European countries. Many felt more German
than Jewish. But in spite of the high degree of assimilation of the German Jews,
they fell victim to the Nazi regimes policies of persecution and extermination.