Anti-Semitism in Europe

Anti-Semitism in Europe

Part I: Why the Jews? Four Stages Pagan Era ca. 2000 B.C. – ca. A.D. 50 Early Christianity ca. A.D. 100-500 Middle Ages ca. A.D. 500-1500 18th-19th Centuries A.D. 1700-1900

Part I: Why the Jews? Pagan Era ca. 2000 B.C. – ca. A.D. 50 Jews introduce monotheism into a polytheistic world Claim to be God’s Chosen People stirs resentment (others make the same claim) Jews become defined as the “Other,” a peculiar people

Part I: Why the Jews? Early Christianity ca. A.D. 100-500 • Jesus a “trouble maker” for Roman and Jewish leaders • Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27: 23-25) Jews as “Christ-killers) • Christians as God’s new Chosen People Replacement theology

Part I: Why the Jews? Early Christianity ca. A.D. 100-500 • “God’s plan” for history (St. Augustine, A.D. 410) • Jews’ conversion to Christianity a signal of Christ’s second coming • Augustine says history develops in 7 stages: Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Babylonian Captivity, Jesus. The 7th will be Christ’s return. • Christ’s return signaled by conversion of the Jews, so don’t persecute them: they are part of the plan • Jews assigned role of being obstacles to the final perfection

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Christianity defines and shapes new European world Three estates: Those who pray Those who fight Those who work A French bishop says God divided his people—explains inequalities • Jews excluded by law from mainstream society • Cannot own land or participate in “honorable professions” • Said to be in league with the devil and the powers of evil Jesus’ argument with Jewish leaders, John 8:44 “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “ This verse was used and wildly twisted.

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Church decrees that lending money at interest (usury) is a mortal sin (A.D. 1187) Church, as largest land owner, is the wealthiest entity. The church lends money at interest. Reformers like St. Francis of Assisi argue that this is not the function of the church. They win and usury is declared a sin: a Christian usurer cannot be saved. Problem: They still need moneylenders. So they look for a group that won’t be saved anyway (according to the Church), and they decide to let them be useful. Jews are allowed to lend money to Christians Jews become resented as money-lenders—but most banks are still in Christian hands. Further, “fake Jews” crop up.

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Persecution of Jews worsens after A.D. 1000 • Jews slaughtered in the First Crusade (A.D. 1096) • Religious fervor at fever pitch • On knight, Emico, decided in 1096 that the Holy Land is too far and targets “infidels” in Europe: the Jews. Kills about 12000 Jews in towns along the Rhine river • This is NOT official Church stance. Some Jews are hidden in bishops’ palaces and are saved

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Persecution of Jews worsens after A.D. 1000 • Charged with ritual murder of Christian boys • In 1144 in Norwich, a Christian boy is murdered. The killer is not found. A group of Jews on the edge of town are rumored to be guilty. • The rumor is that Jews “need” the blood of Christian children for their Passover bread • This is the beginning of the “blood libel” applied to Jews

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Persecution of Jews worsens after A.D. 1000 • Charged with host desecration, well poisoning, etc. • Jews killed Jesus, so now they are out to kill him again in the Eucharist • Art depicts Jews stabbing Communion wafers • Blamed for spread of bubonic plague (late 1300s) • 1/3 of population of Europe dies of the Black Death • Intense religious scapegoating • Jews practice better hygiene and rodent control, so they suffered less from the plague • Jews are accused of spreading the plague by poisoning wells

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Persecution of Jews worsens after A.D. 1000 • Jews are required to wear the Star of David, to stay inside during Lent, and to abide by other restrictions • A Christian who sees a Jew might be tempted to beat him up and sin during Lent, so Jews should stay in • Jews are slaughtered by the thousands across Europe in pogroms and mob attacks, and through public torture, burnings, and execution • Passion plays transmit hatred of Jews • Most people can’t read, so myths and prejudices are passed through passion plays. Pontius Pilate becomes a hero and Jews are the bad guys

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Expulsion of Jews From Western Europe 1290: England 1306: France 1300s – 1400s: German states 1492: Spain 1400s – 1500s: Italian states Jews move in waves to Eastern Europe (so when Hitler was in power much later, 1% of Germany’s population was Jewish—but 10% of Poland’s was Jewish)

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Creation of Jewish ghettoes in European cities • Ghettoes are surrounded by high walls with gates guarded by Christian sentries • Jews are allowed out by day for business dealings with Christian communities • Jews must be back in ghettoes by curfew • At night, and on Christian holidays, gates were locked • Jews are segregated and develop a life separate from the larger community

Part I: Why the Jews? Middle Ages A.D. 500-1500 • Protestant Reformation and the Jews • Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies (1543) • Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk • As a young man, he writes a pamphlet favorable to Jews: he can see why they don’t convert, as the Church is so corrupt • When he begins the Reformation, he invites Jews to convert, but they don’t. • As an older man, he writes a new pamphlet, reviling Jews. He wants synagogues burned, sacred texts burned, and rabbis silenced. He suggests putting Jews in labor camps to learn to work and learn to convert. Martin Luther

Part I: Why the Jews? 18th and 19th Centuries: Hope and Threat The Hope of the Enlightenment • Thomas Jefferson • Declaration of Independence (1776) • “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” • Jean Jacques Rousseau • On the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind (1755) • Intellectual Father of the French Revolution of 1789 • “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” = Liberty, Equality, Fraternity • God did not divide people. People can be equal. Man created inequality and man can undo it. Thomas Jefferson Jean Jacques Rousseau

Part I: Why the Jews? 18th and 19th Centuries: Hope and Threat • Emancipation movements of peasants, slaves, women, and Jews • A safe harbor for Jews in Germany? • They know the history and see what happens elsewhere, as with the pogroms in Russia, but Germany seems like a safe place. No one expected Jews to be harmed in Germany. • “If in 1900, an educated, politically sophisticated European had been told that in this new century one of these European countries was going to do something terrible to the Jews, that person would most likely have said, ‘Ah yes! These French will do anything.’ or “These Russians will do anything.” (George Mosse, Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism, 1978)

Part I: Why the Jews? 18th and 19th Centuries: Hope and Threat • Assimilation of Jews into 19th Century German society • Entry into business world (Industrial Revolution) • Entry into German cultural world (art, literature, music, etc.) • Entry into medicine and law (not prestigious professions at this time), and into new field: journalism • Already there is a high rate of intermarriage between Jewish and Gentile Germans. • Jews assimilate so well that rabbis have a new fear: the disappearance of Jews as a people (the Jewish people will be completely absorbed into Gentile culture).

Part I: Why the Jews? 18th and 19th Centuries: Hope and Threat • The threat of the 19th Century: The Birth of Modern Racism • Arthur de Gobineau: “Father of Modern Racism” • Essay on the Origin of Inequality in the Human Races (1854) • Superior and inferior races: Jews as an inferior and destructive people • Race as a biological concept Arthur de Gobineau

Part I: Why the Jews? 18th and 19th Centuries: Hope and Threat • The Threat of the 19th Century: The Birth of Social Darwinism • Darwin’s concepts in On the Origin of Species (1859) of “survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” applied to nations and races • Social Darwinism especially popular in Germany, England, and the U.S. • 1879: term “anti-Semitism” introduced (term is coined by Marr, a journalist, who talks about a race of Semites plotting against Germany) Charles Darwin

Goals: • Breed a superior race • Root out “inferior stock” • Solve social problems (crime, poverty, disease) Part I: Why the Jews? 18th and 19th Centuries: Hope and Threat The threat of the 19th Century: Social Darwinism + Modern Racism = a scientific basis for hatred } Birth of a new science: EUGENICS (“good breeding”)

Part I: Why the Jews? 18th and 19th Centuries: Hope and Threat • 1869: Darwin’s cousin writes that the superior race needs to promote breeding among themselves and impede the inferior race from breeding. He suggests sterilization. • The U.S. takes the lead on this • Indiana was the first state to pass a compulsory sterilization law, with the law coming into effect in 1907 (Stern 2007, p. 7). After this law was struck down in 1921 by the Indiana Supreme Court, there was an attempt to pass a new sterilization law in 1925 which sought to reinstitute eugenic sterilization in Indiana through the creation of a state eugenicist, but this effort was defeated in the Indiana Legislature (Lantzer and Stern 2007, pp. 9-10). Shortly thereafter, the legislature succeeded in passing a second law in 1927. This law was expanded in 1931, and eventually repealed in 1974 (Baldanzi et al). • The first law, in 1907, targeted: “’confirmed criminals’, ‘idiots’, ‘imbeciles’, and ‘rapists’” (Stern 2007, p. 9). The second law, in 1927, was somewhat more limited, confined to the “’Insane’, ‘feeble minded’ or ‘epileptic’” (Stern 2007, p.29). There was thus a shift in emphasis, from the mentally ill and serious criminals to only the mentally ill. Both laws were specifically designed to target those housed within state institutions, not those in the general population (Stern 2007, pp. 9, 29). http://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/IN/IN.html • When Germany sterilizes in 1933, they point to the U.S. as a model

Part II Why Germany? Why Hitler? Why the Holocaust?

Why Germany? 1900: Germany had become the world’s leading power. What went wrong? 1914-1918 World War I is where it all went wrong.

Why Germany? • Germany believes it has been attacked unfairly • Neighbors are jealous of their power and cultural reputation (they believe this because the government says so—God is on their side!). • 26 nations declare war on Germany • Drive to defend the Fatherland • Millions of young men volunteer • War to be short, over by Christmas • Not over by Christmas of 1914…1915…1916…1917… • Tremendous sacrifices demanded • On the battlefield (Verdun/Somme) • On the home front (Turnip Winter) Trench warfare in WWI Children starved during the Turnip Winter

Why Germany? • German leaders insist Germany is winning the war. • They lie to the public about the war. • They insist that people double their sacrifice. • Suddenly, in October 1918, Germany must admit defeat. • Shock to the German public: “How could we be winning for four years and then surrender?”

Why Germany? • November 1918: Revolution • German soldiers/sailors disband, disobey orders • Empire collapses • 1919: Treaty of Versailles • War Guilt Clause • Blames Germany entirely for the start of World War I • “Among its numerous provisions, it required Germany and its allies to accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231–248, to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to the Entente powers.”http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/history/treaty_of_versailles_7.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.marxist.com/treaty-of-versailles-to-end-all-peace.htm&usg=__0SBnv9EyFDJINRiiRUxbT8WK8oE=&h=378&w=300&sz=70&hl=en&start=13&zoom=1&tbnid=xJSu1HzPHckKRM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=97&ei=4LyaT7yZCKXe0QHd1qH3Dg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dversailles%2Btreaty%26hl%3D en%26safe%3Dactive%26g bv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1 Germans revolt Preparing the Versailles Treaty

Why Germany? 1919-1933: The Shock Continues • “The Versailles Treaty was one of the most outrageous and predatory treaties in history. It was a blatant act of plunder perpetrated by a gang of robbers against a helpless, prostrate and bleeding Germany.” • The Treaty left Germany unarmed and struggling to pay reparations to the rest of Europe. • Germans don’t get it. They “know” they didn’t start the war. How can they be blamed and forced to pay reparations? • German politics become brutal • 400 political assassinations • Roving political armies across Germany

Children stack piles of worthless money Why Germany? 1919-1933: The Shock Continues • Hyperinflation: 1919-1923 • $1.00 = 4,200,000,000,000 Reichmarks • Men are paid twice per day • Gives wives a chance to spend the money quickly on something of value they can trade later • Example: Dietrich Bonhoeffer • His father bought a 20 year life insurance policy, which matures in 1923. It is his life savings, but he can’t buy a toothpick with it. • Bonhoeffer was a theologian who has shaped modern Christian thought. • He was later involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. Germans ask: Who is to blame for all of this?

Why Germany? • In November 1923, Hitler and his Brown Shirts go into a beer hall in Munich, shoot the ceiling and declare the government overthrown. This fails and he goes to jail for treason from 1924-1928. • German system stabilizes. • 1928 election: Nazis get 2.7% of the vote • 1929: The Great Depression Begins • 25% official unemployment rate (unofficial is higher) • 1930s: Failure of Democratic Politics in Germany Bombing of Beer Hall Putsch

Why Hitler? • Germans want an explanation. All parties have one. • Hitler’s explanation: the Jews betrayed Germany. • Hitler tests his theory of propaganda—and it works. • He presents his Big Lie Theory in • Mein Kampf: • He theorizes that politicians • have to lie, but little lies are • bad—you get caught. • A politician needs a BIG • lie—repeat it and keep it simple. People will believe it.

Anti-Jewish propaganda Why Hitler? Hitler’s Big Lie • Germany was winning and the Jews at home stabbed the army in the back. • In other countries, Jews blamed the war on Germany. • Jews’ financial schemes caused the Depression • Jews run all the capitals (Washington, Paris, etc.). • They run all the financial institutions. • Jews are responsible for the Versailles Treaty and the War Guilt Clause. • Jews are responsible for racial decline. They are inferior. Intermarriage is an example of the Jewish plot to ruin the purity of the race. • Germany believes Hitler’s Big Lie about the Jews. • Where there’s smoke there’s fire, right? • People might “know” some items are untrue, but they “know” other bad things, so might not some other bad things be true?

Why Hitler? Hitler tells Germans they are a superior race—it’s nice to hear. Hitler’s Promises • Restore Germany to world leadership • Restore the economy • They do actually help unemployment. By 1936, there’s a labor shortage—this is smoke and mirrors. • Purify the Aryan race (eugenics) • Solve the “Jewish problem” Propaganda: the perfect Aryan family (A people helps itself!)

Why the Holocaust? By January 1933, Hitler is chancellor of Germany. He soon establishes a total dictatorship. Hitler’s Racial Policies: Purifying the German Race • 1933: Sterilization Law (the U.S. is the model) • 1937: Sterilization of the “Rhineland bastards” • These are teenagers (children of liasions between African troops and German women, born around 1920). • Race mixing is the new original sin. Hitler sterilizes them to avoid further racial impurities. • 1939: euthanasia of the physically and mentally handicapped • Master Race: Himmler and the SS racial ideal Propaganda: the cost of supporting the “Rhineland bastards”

Why the Holocaust? Hitler’s Racial Policies • Segregation of Jews • Aryan Paragraph (April 1933) • a clause in membership statutes, deeds, etc., which reserves rights of residence or membership to Aryans only • Nuremberg Laws (1935) • Jews are stripped of citizenship, forbidden to marry Aryans • Pogrom-like measures • Concentration camps: Dachau (March 1933) and others • How to prove who’s a Jew and who’s not? • Produce the baptismal certificates of all your grandparents • 1936: Nazis are sent to tear down statue of Jewish composer Mendelssohn. It’s next to Wagner’s. They don’t know which is which and tear down the one with the biggest nose—it’s Wagner (btw, a huge anti-Semite). Wagner Mendelssohn

Why the Holocaust? Hitler’s Racial Policies • Emigration: Where can they go? • Difficult due to Depression • Restrictive immigration laws in U.S. and elsewhere • World is divided in 2 parts: places Jews can’t go, and places they can’t stay • Nazis don’t let emigrants take their assets • Kindertransport begins in 1939, partly in response to Kristallnacht • Great Britain takes in 10,000 Jewish children • U.S. refuses to take any children (opposition led by Sen. Robert Reynolds) • Reynolds says removing children from families is against God’s law • Gen. Mosely says Jewish kids will pollute the U.S.—let them in if they are sterilized First 200 in Kindertransport

Why the Holocaust? Hitler’s Racial Policies • Teachers, to keep jobs, had to join Nazi party and instill Nazi ideology in kids. They must swear an oath to Hitler, not Germany. 97% do join. 1/3 become actual members. • Teachers had to prove non-Jewishness • Function of all education is to produce a Nazi. Hitler Youth propaganda

Why the Holocaust? Hitler’s Racial Policies • Aryanization: • Jews are robbed of property and assets. • Jewish businesses are boycotted or taken from them. • Jews are forced into humiliating menial tasks, like scrubbing the streets. “Help liberate Germany from Jewish capital. Don’t buy in Jewish stores.” Jews scrub the streets while onlookers jeer.

Why the Holocaust? With World War II (1939-1945) comes the Holocaust. • Ghettoes for Jews created by the Nazis Children in the Warsaw ghetto Building the wall at the Warsaw ghetto Bodies after the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto

Why the Holocaust? With World War II (1939-1945) comes the Holocaust. • The Final Solution On July 17, 1941, four weeks after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler tasked SS chief Heinrich Himmler with responsibility for all security matters in the occupied Soviet Union. Hitler gave Himmler broad authority to physically eliminate any perceived threats to permanent German rule. Two weeks later, on July 31, 1941, Nazi leader Hermann Goering authorized SS General ReinhardHeydrich to make preparations for the implementation of a "complete solution of the Jewish question." http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007704

Why the Holocaust? With World War II (1939-1945) comes the Holocaust. • Roving murder squads • SS and Reserve Police Battalions After the June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, SS and police units (acting as mobile killing units) began massive killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities. By autumn 1941, the SS and police introduced mobile gas vans. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005151 Einsatzgruppe at work

Why the Holocaust? With World War II (1939-1945) comes the Holocaust. • Death camps erected in Poland (1941-1942) Arrival ramp at Auschwitz Arial view: Birkenau at Auschwitz Majdanek

Why the Holocaust? With World War II (1939-1945) comes the Holocaust. • Death camps erected in Poland (1941-1942) Majdanek Crematorium at Majdanek Personal items of Auschwitz inmates Children at Auschwitz Auschwitz: women’s bunks Zyklon B canisters

Why the Holocaust? With World War II (1939-1945) came the Holocaust. • Concentration camps (hundreds) created across Europe

Why the Holocaust? Why didn’t the Jews and other groups resist more? • They were physically ruined—starving, etc. • They had no access to guns. • Nazis practiced collective responsibility: • Example: A child ran away from the ghetto and was caught. He was beaten and tortured. His parents, siblings, and neighbors were brought to a public square, where—in front of the child—they were shot in every limb before they were killed.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me. Rev. Martin Niemöller

Judgment at Nuremberg Clips • Aryan-Jewish relations • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IyvjPzYZTk • Sterilization • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=948276TKF74 • For Love of Country • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGfHkdR3tXs • Judgment • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2asOWGkYQb4

Anti-Semitism in Europe