ANTI-SEMITISM

Chronological Overview

I. Jews persecuted for centuries (Anti-Semitism)

II. Late 18th c./19th c. – Jews gained more rights and better treatment (Anti-Semitism ↓)

III. 1873 – worldwide financial crisis reignited anti-Semitism (Anti-Semitism ↑)

I. Jews persecuted for centuries (Anti-Semitism)

438 – Roman Empire est. Christianity as only legal religion

Jews blamed for killing Christ

13th-15th c. – Jews expelled from England, France, Spain

II. Late 18th c./19th c. – More rights and better treatment (Anti-Semitism ↓)

France, 1791 – civil rights

Germany/Austria, 1848 – Frankfurt Assembly endorsed full rights

Germany, 1871 – new constitution granted full rights

III. 1873 – worldwide financial crisis reignited anti-Sem. (Anti-Semitism ↑)

Jews targeted for $$$

Examples: pogroms (Russia) Karl Lueger / Christian Socialists (Vienna,

1890s-1910) Dreyfus Affair (France, 1898-1899)

Jewish response: Theodor Herzl & Zionism (1896)

“The God of Jews is money. To earn money, he commits the greatest crimes. He will not rest until he can sit on a huge money sack, until he

has become the king of money.”

From Der Gifpliz (The Toadstool), a children’s book published by Julius Streicher in 1938

Outrages Upon Jews, 1881: In Russia

St. Petersburg, April 20Serious disturbances having their origin in the superstition of the peasantry regarding the Jewish Passover rites, have occurred at Elizabethgrad in the province of Khersan.   The popular excitement against the Jews led to an attack upon the synagogue which was destroyed by the mob.  The aid of the military was called in to repress the disturbance, and a large number of the rioters were killed by the troops.

St. Petersburg, May 2Official intelligence from Odessa of yesterday's date announces that 400 persons have been arrested for taking part in the excesses against the Jews at Elizavetgrad last week.   One hundred houses were pillaged, a quantity of furniture being thrown into the streets.  Two hundred people were injured during the riots.  Order has been restored, but the town is still patrolled by detachments of Ublanc and infantry.  At the request of the Town Council the fair which was to be held shortly at Elizabethgrad has been indefinitely postponed.

Outrages Upon Jews, 1881: In Prussia

Berlin, April 29A popular outbreak against the Jews is reported to have taken place yesterday at Argenau, a small town in West Prussia, but the accounts of the affair received up to the present are somewhat conflicting.  According to one version a mob led by a school teacher named Baecker, broke into and wrecked the houses of some Jews and maltreated the inmates, the police force being altogether insufficient to afford them protection.   Other reports represent the matter in a much less serious light, and declare that there was no need of calling in the military, as the strength of the police was adequate to cope with the disturbance.  All accounts however, agree in speaking of the animosity prevailing against the Jewish inhabitants.

How can we connect increasing anti-Semitism to the theme of nationalism?

Extremist, racist nationalism (setting the stage for Hitler’s “we are

good Germans, the Jews are not – they are a different race altogether and they pose a threat to the German people” … note this is not an actual quotation)