LECTURE WEEK 1 The history of anti-Semitism before National Socialism

1. LECTURE WEEK 1The history of anti-Semitism before National Socialism

2. Roman Empire early 2nd century

3. Jewish Diaspora before 500

4. Destruction of Jerusalem 70 CE David Roberts, The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem (1850)

5. Synagogue in Toledo Sephardic Jews in the Iberian Peninsula: ‘Golden age’ under Arab rule, 8th-12th century

6. Sarajevo Haggadah (Barcelona 14th c)

7. The history of anti-SemitismMedieval / early modern anti-Judaism • Religious motivation and legitimation of hatred and discrimination (Jews as murderers of Christ, as stubborn deniers of the truth of the Christian faith etc.). • Popular superstition (Jews as sorcerers, in league with the devil, sacrificing Christian children, poisoning the wells and spreading the plague etc.) (slides 3,4).

8. Burning of Jews during the time of the ‘black death’ (14th century) Source: Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in der Neuzeit, vol. 1, p. 52 Holocaust Lecture 2 Achinger

9. Antisemitic woodcut, late 15th ct.

10. “Judensau” Einblattdruck mit Darstellung der Wittenberger Judensau (Wittenberg: Wolfgang Meissner 1546) - Quelle: Schöner, Judenbilder, 2002, 200 Abb. 58 – http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judensau

11. The history of anti-SemitismMedieval / early modern anti-Judaism Social situation: • Exclusion of Jews from owning land and from membership in the guilds – which means: they could not become farmers or craftsmen. • Therefore: many Jews had to survive on money lending, pawn broking or peddling (slide 6). • Jews had hardly any rights (e.g. to stay in a particular place) and therefore were dependent on protection by the prince or local ruler. • Jews were forced to largely lived a life apart from the gentile population (often in ghettos) and were made clearly visible as ‘different’ (e.g. through imposed special clothing).

12. Jüdischer Geldverleiher Source: Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in der Neuzeit, vol. 1, p. 52

13. The ‘Judenfleck’

15. Luther and the Jews

16. ‘Von den Juden und ihren Lügen (1543) “Jawohl, sie halten uns [Christen] in unserem eigenen Land gefangen, sie lassen uns arbeiten in Nasenschweiß, Geld und Gut gewinnen, sitzen sie dieweil hinter dem Ofen, faulenzen, pompen und braten Birnen, fressen, sauffen, leben sanft und wohl von unserm erarbeiteten Gut, haben uns und unsere Güter gefangen durch ihren verfluchten Wucher, spotten dazu und speien uns an, das wir arbeiten und sie faule Juncker lassen sein … sind also unsere Herren, wir ihre Knechte.“

17. “Ich will meinen treuen Rat geben: Erstlich, das man jre Synagoga oder Schule mit feur anstecke und, was nicht verbrennen will, mit erden überheufe und beschütte, das kein Mensch ein stein oder schlacke davon sehe ewiglich Und solches sol man thun, unserm Herrn und der Christenheit zu ehren damit Gott sehe, das wir Christen seien.“

18. Baruch de Spinoza, 1632-1677

19. Moses Mendelssohn1729-1786

20. The history of anti-SemitismModern antisemitism Social situation: • Gradual process of emancipation (granting of equal rights for Jews) and assimilation (Jews taking over Gentile culture, clothing etc.). • Jews moved into the rapidly expanding, typically ‘modern’ professions, such as lawyers, journalists, doctors, academics etc., which increased their visibility. • Jews gradually ceased being visible as Jews. Holocaust Lecture 2 Achinger

21. Page of the Talmud Holocaust Lecture 2 Achinger

22. Heinrich Heine 1797-1856

23. The history of anti-SemitismModern anti-Semitism (gradually developing from early 19th century onwards) Ideology: • Secular legitimation of hatred and discrimination: Jews no longer defined via religion, but as a ‘people’, a ‘nation’ or a ‘race’, in any case characterised by a constant Jewish ‘essence’ which is alien to the German nation and cannot be changed by conversion. Holocaust Lecture 2 Achinger

24. German nationas ‘Kulturnation’and community of descent Obstacles: Nationalism Germany 1789

25. Burning of ‘un-German’ books – including by Jewish authors, such as Saul Ascher’s Germanomanie - at the Wartburgfest, 1817

26. Hermannsdenkmal near Detmold begun 1838, completed 1875 “DeutschlandsEinigkeit meine Stärke – meine Stärke Deutschlands Macht” [Germany’s unity My strength – My strength Germany’s power]

27. Jews were associated with the negative sides of modern society (urbanisation, the dissolution of traditional communities, the central role of money, the increasing influence of economic developments on everyday life and other factors which are perceived as abstract and hard to understand). - The long called-for Jewish assimilation, the fact that Jews were now entering all spheres of social and cultural life, was perceived as threatening. Fear and hatred were no longer attached to Jewish visible difference, but paradoxically rather provoked by the increasing invisibility of Jewish difference.

28. Bank run aftet crash of Vienna Stock Exchange, May 9th, 1873

29. “Freitag-Abend” Source: Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in der Neuzeit, vol. 3, p. 303

30. Theodor Herzl(1860-1904) at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, 1897 Zionism as a reaction from late 19th century onwards