Jewish Persecution: from Anti-Judaism to Antisemitism
By Milan Gregory Perera, Second Year English
The Holocaust was perhaps the culmination of thousands of years of Christian antisemitism seen throughout Europe. In this piece, The Bristorian seeks to uncover the history of antisemitism and trace the Holocaust’s roots to earlier expressions of anti-Judaism.
It seems inconceivable that one of the most socio-culturally advanced nations of Europe, one that produced the likes of Schiller, Goethe, and Beethoven, could perpetrate the barbarity seen under the Nazi regime. Six million Jews, nearly half of the entire Jewish population at the time, were murdered between 1939-45. 1.5 million of those were children.
Where could such prejudice, often dubbed the “longest hatred”, originate from? Why does its ugly head recur throughout the ages?
Modern antisemitism has its roots in an essay penned by the German journalist and political firebrand Wilhelm Marr in 1879. In his essay, titled Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums uber das Judenthum, Marr argues that Jews and Germans were locked in a perpetual conflict that could only end with the total victory of either ‘race’. Yet such arguments have been in the making for the last 2000 years. Historic anti-Judaism must be considered the antecedent to antisemitism.
The seeds of anti-Judaism can be traced back to Graeco-Roman antiquity. The monotheism of Judaism was held in contempt in a polytheistic society, while friction was exacerbated by economic, political, and cultural rivalries. Yet, it bears little comparison to the entrenched prejudice towards Jews found in Christian Europe. Christian theology and liturgy find their origins in Judaism. Jesus and his disciples were Jews who observed Mosaic Law, though the differences between the two religions became more pronounced due to the writings and preaching of a fellow Jew, Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul.) Paul’s missionary work severed the strands of kinship between Judaism and Christianity with the proclamation of salvation only in Christ. Consequently, Christian observance of Mosaic law and the Torah was made redundant because, according to Paul, Christ fulfilled the old Law and superseded it.
Christianity began to spread rapidly through the Roman Empire and the emperor Constantine proclaimed it as the religion of the Empire. In the Council of Nicea in 325, the first anti-Jewish laws were enshrined and enacted. In Christian theology, Christ is God in human form. The divinity of Christ was further expounded in the succeeding Councils of the Church. Although the Romans sentenced Jesus to death, Jewish people were considered responsible for the crucifixion and death of Jesus. By such rationale Jews were guilty of the ultimate crime: deicide – the killing of God. Passages in the New Testament such as “May his blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27: 25), have historically been used as justifications for anti-Judaism.
The collective distrust and hatred of Jews crystallised alarmingly during the Middle Ages. During the first Crusade the Pope summoned the Christian armies of Europe to ‘liberate’ Jerusalem from Islamic rule. The Crusaders slaughtered Jewish ‘non-believers’ in France and Germany en-route to the Holy Land, committing atrocities such as the Rhineland massacres to help fund their expedition.
The Pogrom of Strasbourg, by Emile Schweitzer (1894), portrays the 1349 Strasbourg massacre of Jews accused of causing the Black Death.
One significant allegation against Jews in Medieval Europe was what is known as the ‘Blood Libel’. It was reported that Jewish elders ritually tortured killed gentile children to draw blood for sacrifices. Such accounts were baseless, but the myths nevertheless prevailed. In 1144 the death of William of Norwich, a 12-year-old, was shrouded in mysterious circumstances and suspicions fell on the Jewish quarter of the city. The barons, seriously indebted to Jewish merchants, saw an opportunity to cancel their debts. Spurred on with inflammatory anti- Jewish rhetoric the mob burnt down Jewish houses and hence cancelled their debts. Blood Liber reached fever pitch in 1255 Lincoln, where ‘Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln’s’ death was linked with the city’s Jewish community. Blood Libel however did not die out with the advent of the Enlightenment. As recently as 1928, the disappearance of 4-year-old Barbara Griffiths in New York was falsely attributed to the city’s Jewish community.
Medieval art and literature certainly contributed to the prevalence of medieval anti-Judaism. Works such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (The Second Nun’s Tale), The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe and the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, perpetuated negative stereotypes of Jews across Europe.
The genocidal antisemitism perpetrated by the Nazi regime was not an isolated event, or an anomaly of history. Its roots can be found in the 2000+ years of anti-Judaism that preceded it. The famous historian Deborah Lipstadt likens antisemitism to syphilis, even if treated, it lies dormant until a suitable time to manifest arrives.