1431 +:The Council of Basel “forbade Jews to go to universities, prohibited them from actingas agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians, and required that they attendchurch sermons.”
1434:
“Jewish men in Augsburg had to sew yellow buttons to their clothes. Across Europe,
Jews were forced to wear a long undergarment, an overcoat with a yellow patch, bells and tall
pointed yellow hats with a large button on them.”
1453 :
The Franciscan monk, Capistrano, persuaded the King of Poland to terminate all
Jewish civil rights.
1478:
Spanish Jews had been heavily persecuted from the 14th century. Many had converted
to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition was set up by the Church in order to detect insincere
conversions. Laws were passed that prohibited the descendants of Jews or Muslims from
attending university, joining religious orders, holding public office, or entering any of a long
list of professions.
1492 :
Jews were given the choice of being baptized as Christians or be banished from Spain.
300,000 left Spain penniless. Many migrated to Turkey, where they found tolerance among
the Muslims. Others converted to Christianity but often continued to practice Judaism in
secret.
1497:
Jews were banished from Portugal. 20 thousand left the country rather than be
baptized as Christians.
1516:
The Governor of the Republic of Venice decided that Jews would be permitted to live
only in one area of the city. It was located in the South Girolamo parish and was called the
“Ghetto Novo.” This was the first ghetto in Europe. Hitler made use of the concept in the
1930’s.
1523:
Martin Luther distributed his essay “That Jesus Was Born a Jew. ” He hoped that large
numbers of Jews would convert to Christianity. They didn’t, and he began to write and preach
hatred against them. Luther has been condemned in recent years for being extremely
antisemitic. The charge has some merit; however he was probably typical of most Christians
during his era.
1539:
A passion play was forbidden in Rome because it prompted violent attacks against the
city’s Jewish residents.
1540:
Jews were exiled from Naples.
1543:
In his 20’s, Martin Luther, had expected Jews to convert to Christianity in large
numbers. Distressed by their reluctance, he developed a hatred for Jews, as expressed in his
letters to Rev. Spalatin in 1514, when he was 31 years of age. He wrote:
“I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God and his
King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted….For they are thus given over by the wrath of
God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as Ecclesiastes says, for every one
who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction.”
In 1543, he wrote “On the Jews and their lies, On Shem Hamphoras” :
“…eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God’s anger with them is so
intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy
will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!…What then shall we
Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?
First, their synagogues or churches should be set on fire,…
Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed… They ought to be put
under one roof or in a stable, like Gypsies.
Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies,
cursing and blasphemy are taught.
Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more…
Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews…
Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usury. All their cash and valuables of silver and gold
ought to be taken from them and put aside for safe keeping…
Seventhly, let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe,
the spade, the distaff, and spindle and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses as
in enjoined upon Adam’s children…
To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine
does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this
insufferable devilish burden – the Jews.” 7
1550:
Jews were exiled from Genoa and Venice.
1555-JUL-12:
A Roman Catholic Papal bull, “Cum nimis absurdum,” required Jews to wear
badges, and live in ghettos. They were not allowed to own property outside the ghetto. Living
conditions were dreadful: over 3,000 people were forced to live in about 8 acres of land.
Women had to wear a yellow veil or scarf; men had to wear a piece of yellow cloth on their
hat.
1582:
Jews were expelled from Holland.
1648-9:
Chmielnicki Bogdan led an uprising against Polish rule in the Ukraine. The secondary
goal of Bogdan and his followers was to exterminate all Jews in the country. The massacre
began with the slaughter of about 6,000 Jews in Nemirov. Other major mass murders
occurred in Tulchin, Polonnoye, Volhynia, Bar, Lvov, etc. Jewish records estimate that a total
of 100,000 Jews were murdered and 300 communities destroyed.
1806:
A French Jesuit Priest, Abbe Barruel, had written a treatise blaming the Masonic Order
for the French Revolution. He later issued a letter alleging that Jews, not the Masons were the
guilty party. This triggered a belief in an international Jewish conspiracy in Germany, Poland
and some other European countries later in the 19th century.
1819:
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many European Jews lobbied their
governments for emancipation. They sought citizenship as well as the same rights and
treatment as were enjoyed by non-Jews. This appears to have provoked sporadic antisemites
to engage in anti-Jewish violence. The rioters cried “Hep! Hep!.” The origin(s) of this
cry are not clear. Jews and their property were attacked first in Wuerzburg, Germany during
1819-AUG.
The rioting spread across Germany and eventually reached as far as Denmark and
Poland.
1840:
A rumor spread in Syria that some Jews were responsible for the ritual killing of a
Roman Catholic monk and his servant. As a result of horrendous treatment, some local Jews
confessed to a crime that they did not commit. This “Damascus Affair” spurred early Zionist
writers like Hess to promote the Zionist cause.
1846 – 1878:
Pope Pius IX restored all of the previous restrictions against the Jews within the
Vatican state. All Jews under Papal control were confined to Rome’s ghetto – the last one in
Europe until the Nazi era restored the church’s practice. On 2000-SEP-3, Pope John Paul II
beatified Pius IX; this is the last step before sainthood. He explained: “Beatifying a son of the
church does not celebrate particular historic choices that he has made, but rather points him out for imitation and for veneration for his virtue.”
1858:
Edgardo Mortara was kidnapped, at the age of six, from his Jewish family by Roman
Catholic officials after they found out that a maid had secretly baptized him. He was not
returned to his family but was raised a Catholic. He eventually became a priest.
1873:
The term “antisemitism” is first used in a pamphlet by Wilhelm Marr called “Jewry’s
Victory over Teutonism.”
1881:
Alexander II of Russia was assassinated by radicals. The Jews were blamed. About 200
individual pogroms against the Jews followed. (“Pogrom” is a Russian word meaning
“devastation” or “riot.” In Russia, a pogrom was typically a mob riot against Jewish individuals,
shops, homes or businesses. They were often supported and even organized by the
government.) Thousands of Jews became homeless and impoverished. The few who were
charged with offenses generally received very light sentences.
1893:
“…anti-Semitic parties won sixteen seats in the German Reichstag.”
1894:
Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an officer on the French general staff, was convicted of
treason. The evidence against him consisted of a piece of paper from his wastebasket with
another person’s handwriting, and papers forged by antisemitic officers. He received a life
sentence on Devil’s Island, off the coast of South America. The French government was
aware that a Major Esterhazy was actually guilty. 3 The church, government and army united
to suppress the truth. Writer Emile Zola and politician Jean Jaur? fought for justice and
human rights. After 10 years, the French government fell and Drefus was declared totally
innocent. The Dreyfus Affair was world-wide news for years. It motivated Journalist Theodor
Herzl to write a book in 1896: “The Jewish State: A Modern Solution to the Jewish Question.”
The book led to the founding of the Zionist movement which fought for a Jewish Homeland. A
half century later, the state of Israel was born.
1903:
At Easter, government agents organized an anti-Jewish pogrom in Kishinev, Moldova,
Russia. The local newspaper published a series of inflammatory articles. A Christian child
was discovered murdered and a young Christian woman at the Jewish Hospital committed
suicide. Jews were blamed for the deaths. Violence ensured. The 5,000 soldiers in the town
did nothing. When the smoke cleared, 49 Jews had been killed, 500 were injured; 700 homes
looted and destroyed, 600 businesses and shops looted, 2,000 families left homeless. Later, it
was discovered that the child had been murdered by its relatives and the suicide was
unrelated to the Jews.
1905:
The Okhrana, the Russian secret police in the reign of Czar Nicholas II, converted an
earlier antisemitic novel into a document called the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.”
16 It was published privately in 1897. A Russian Orthodox priest, Sergius Nilus, published
them publicly in 1905. It was promoted as the record of “secret rabbinical conferences
whose aim was to subjugate and exterminate the Christians.” 5 The Protocols were used by
the Okhrana in a propaganda campaign that was associated with massacres of the Jews.
These were the Czarist Pogroms of 1905.
1915:
600,000 Jews were forcibly moved from the western borders of Russia towards the
interior. About 100,000 died of exposure or starvation.
1917:
“In the civil war following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the reactionary White
Armies made extensive use of the Protocols to incite widespread slaughters of Jews.” 5 Two
hundred thousand Jews were murdered in the Ukraine alone.
1920:
The Protocols reach England and the United States. They are exposed as a forgery, but
are widely circulated. Henry Ford sponsored a study of international activities of Jews. This
led to a series of antisemitic articles in the Dearborn Independent, which were published in a
book, “The International Jew.” The Protocols were sold on Wal-Mart’s online bookstore until
they were removed on 2004-SEP-21.
1920:
The defeat of Germany in World War I and the continuing economic difficulties were
blamed in that country on the “Jewish influence.” One antisemitic poster has been preserved
from that era. 6 It shows a German, presumably Christian woman, a male Jew with distorted
facial features, a coffin and the word “Deutschland” (Germany).
1920’S, 1930’S:
Hitler had published in Mein Kampf in 1925, writing: “Today I believe that I am
acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the
Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” The Protocols are used by the Nazis to whip up
public hatred of the Jews in the 1930’s. Widespread pogroms occur in Greece, Hungary,
Mexico, Poland, Rumania, and the USSR. Radio programs by many conservative American
clergy, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, frequently attacked Jews. Reverend Fr. Charles E
Coughlin was one of the best known. “In the 1930’s, radio audiences heard him rail against the
threat of Jews to America’s economy and defend Hitler’s treatment of Jews as justified in the
fight against communism.” (12) Other conservative Christian leaders, such as Frank Norris
and John Straton supported the Jews.
Discrimination against Jews in North America is widespread. Many universities set limits on
the maximum number of Jewish students that they would accept. Harvard accepted all
students on the basis of merit until after World War I when the percentage of Jewish students
approached 15%. At that time they installed an informal quota system. In 1941, Princeton had
fewer than 2% Jews in their student body. Jews were routinely barred from country clubs,
prestigious neighborhoods, etc.
1933:
Hitler took power in Germany. On APR-1, Julius Streicher organized a one-day boycott
of all Jewish owned businesses in the country. This was the start of continuous oppression
by the Nazis culminating in the Holocaust (a.k.a. Shoah). Jews “were barred from civil
service, legal professions and universities, were not allowed to teach in schools and could not
be editors of newspapers.” 2 Two years later, Jews were no longer considered citizens.
1934:
Various laws were enacted in Germany to force Jews out of schools and professions.
1935:
The Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws restricting citizenship to those of “German or
related blood.” Jews became stateless.
1936:
Cardinal Hloud of Poland urged Catholics to boycott Jewish businesses.
1938:
On NOV-9, the Nazi government in Germany sent storm troopers, the SS and the Hitler
Youth on a pogrom that killed 91 Jews, injured hundreds, burned 177 synagogues and looted
7,500 Jewish stores. Broken glass could be seen everywhere; the glass gave this event its
name of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
1938:
Hitler brought back century-old church law, ordering all Jews to wear a yellow Star of
David as identification. A few hundred thousand Jews are allowed to leave Germany after
they give all of their assets to the government.
1939:
The Holocaust, the Shoah — the systematic extermination of Jews in Germany — began.
The process only ended in 1945 with the conclusion of World War II and the liberation of the
death camps. Approximately 6 million Jews (1.5 million of them children), 400 thousand
Roma (Gypsies) and others were slaughtered. Some were killed by death squads; others were
slowly killed in trucks with carbon monoxide; others were gassed in large groups in
Auschwitz, Dacau, Sobibor, Treblinka and other extermination camps. Officially, the holocaust
was described by the Nazis as subjecting Jews “to special treatment” or as a “solution of the
Jewish question.” Gold taken from the teeth of the victims was recycled; hair was used in the
manufacture of mattresses. In the Buchenwald extermination camp, lampshades were made
out of human skin; however, this appears to be an isolated incident. A rumor spread that
Jewish corpses were routinely converted into soap. However, the story appears to be false.
1940:
The Vichy government of France collaborated with Nazi Germany by freezing about
80,000 Jewish bank accounts. During the next four years, they deported about 76,000 Jews to
Nazi death camps; only about 2,500 survived. It was only in 1995 that a French president,
Jacques Chirac, “was able to admit that the state bore a heavy share of responsibility in the
mass round-ups and deportations of Jews, as well as in the property and asset seizures that
were carried out with the active help of the Vichy regime.” 11
1941:
The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC estimates that 13,000 Jews died on 1941-
JUN-19 during a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania. It was ordered by the pro-Nazi Romanian
regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu. The current government has admitted that this atrocity
happened, but most Romanians continue to deny that the Jews were killed on orders from
their own government.
1941:
Polish citizens in Jedwabne in northeastern Poland killed hundreds of Jews, by either
beating them to death or burning them alive in a barn. According to the Associated Press:
“The role played by Polish citizens was suppressed for nearly six decades until publication of
a book by a Polish emigre historian, Jan Tomasz Gross. After release of the book in 2000, the
Polish government launched an investigation. ‘The role of the Poles was decisive in
conducting the criminal act,’ [prosecutor Radoslaw] Ignatiew, said. The book, ‘Neighbours,’
sparked national soul-searching among Poles, many of whom could not believe that anybody
but the Nazis would have committed the atrocity.”
1942:
The Nazi leaders of Germany, at the Wannsee conference, decided on”the final solution
of the Jewish question” which was the attempt to exterminate every Jew in Europe. From
JUL-28 to 31, almost 18,000 Russian inhabitants of the Minsk ghetto in what is now Belarus
were exterminated. This was in addition to 5,000 to 15,000 who had been massacred in
earlier pogroms in that city. This was just one of many such pogroms during World War II.
1945:
The Shoah (Holocaust) ended as the Allied Forces over-ran the Nazi death camps.
1946:
Even though World War II ended the year before, antisemitic pogroms continued,
particularly in Poland, with the deaths of many Jews.
References 1:
“Kitos War,” Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
Randy Felton, “Anti-Semitism and the Church,” at: http://www.haydid.org/
Fritz B. Voll, “A Short Review of a Troubled History,” at: http://www.jcrelations.com/
“Classical and Christian Anti-Semitism,” at http://www.virtualjerusalem.co.il/
Max Solbrekken, “The Jews & Jesus: Mistreatment of Jews: Christian shame,” at: http://www.mswm.org/
Fritz B. Voll, “A Short Review of a Troubled History,” at: http://www.jcrelations.com/
Bob Michael, “Jews as Serfs,” at: http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/
References 2:
Max Solbrekken, “The Jews & Jesus: Mistreatment of Jews: Christian shame,” at: http://www.mswm.org/jews.htm
Edward Vanhoutte, “Importance and unimportance of the Jews of Belgium from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment,” at: http://pcger17.uia.ac.be/JEWS.html
“A Calendar of Jewish Persecution,” at “HearNow,” a Messianic Judaism web site. See: http://www.hearnow.org/caljp.htm
A.D. White, “A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom,” Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, (Reprinted: 1993), Volume II, Pages 137-140.
“Classical and Christian Anti-Semitism,” at: http://www.virtualjerusalem.co.il/
“Modern History Sourcebook: Luther Before 1517: Letters to Spalatin,” http://www.fordham.edu/
“Medieval Sourcebook: Martin Luther (1483-1546): The Jews and Their Lies, excerpts (1543),” at: http://www.fordham.edu/
“Curious and unusual: Rome’s ghetto: The old Jewish quarter,” at: http://www.geocities.com/
A. James Rudin, “A Jewish View of Gibson’s ‘Passion.’ The film may transmit negative attitudes, stereotypes and caricatures about Jews.” Beliefnet, 2004, at: http://www.beliefnet.com
Mark Wheelis, “Historical Review: Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa,” CDC, at: http://www.cdc.gov/
“The Black Death: Scourge of Medieval Europe,” Awake! magazine, 2000-FEB-08, at: http://www.watchtower.org/
References 3:
“The Pale of Settlement and the pogroms of 1881 in Russia,” at: http://204.165.132.2/crucible/whunts/frames_pogromrussia.htm
Fritz B. Voll, “A Short Review of a Troubled History,” at: http://www.jcrelations.com/res/incidents.htm#protokols1
“The Dreyfus Affair,” http://holocaust.miningco.com/msub15.htm
“The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903,” at: http://www.netwiz.net/~mchavez/familytales/pogrom.htm
“Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” article. See: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/anti-semitism/protocols.html
Antisemitic poster from 1920 Germany at: http://holocaust.miningco.com/msub15.htm
G.M. Marsden, “Fundamentalism and American Culture,” Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK (1980)
G.M. Marsden, “Religion and American Culture,” Harcourt, San Diego, CA, (1990), Page 220.
Robert Fulford, “Historian recalls life as a Jew among the Nazis”, Article, Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1998-OCT-31.
“A Picture Tells a Thousand Words,” http://www.primenet.com/~rvolk/english/antiprop/jewish_soap/
Jon Henley, “France faces up to wartime role,” The Guardian, reprinted in the Toronto Star, 2001-JAN-11, Page A28
“Survivors mark Romania pogrom: First memorial to 1941 victims,” Associated Press, 2000-DEC-6.
“Poles close probe into Jewish wartime massacre,” Associated Press. Published in the Toronto Star, Toronto ON, 2002-JUL-9. at: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/
“Pogrom,” Vecherny Minsk newspaper, Minsk, Belarus, 1967-NOV. See: http://204.165.132.2/crucible/whunts/frames_belarus.htm
J. Telushkin, “Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History; Item 241: Antisemitism” William Morrow, (1991). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
Victor Marsden, translator, “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” Liberty Bell Publications, (2004). Read reviews or order this hate propaganda safely from Amazon.com online book store
Jonathan Frankel, “The Damascus Affair : ‘Ritual Murder’, Politics, and the Jews in 1840,” Cambridge University Press, (1997). Read reviews or order this book
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