Anti-Semitism:What is it and how did it begin?

Holocaust PowerPoint # 1

Prejudice against Jews

• Began way before the Holocaust• Lateran Councils (1179—

1215) put restrictions on all non-Catholics– Required to wear yellow

badges– Supposed to live a part

from Christians– Forced to listen to sermons– Books were censored

Pope Alexander III, who presided over the third Lateran Council in 1179

Prejudice Continued

• England– King Edward I seized the

possessions of 16,000 Jews and expelled them

• France– King Philip robbed his

Jewish subjects• Germany

– Jews sought help here, but not protected. They went to Poland or Italy

King Edward I

19th Century• France

– Napoleon’s armies marched across Europe– He asked for Jews to become part of French civilization

• Austria– Really bad for Jews here– Queen Maria Theresa (1760)

• Required all unbearded Jews to wear yellow badge• Not allowed to buy vegetables until 9 a.m., or cattle before

11 a.m.• Taxed 3 million florins each year for ten years to live in Austria

– Joseph II• Abolished the tax• Let Jews attend schools• Serve in the army

– Francis II• Put Maria Theresa’s restrictions back in place• 1867 all rules removed

Russia• 1790s

– had the largest Jewish population– Jews denied the right to attend universities and become officers in the

army

• 1791– Jews forced to live in lands called “The Pale of Settlement”– Pogroms were started to relieve public unrest

• A time when mobs attacked Jews or stole their property without punishment

• 1882- Czar Alexander III wanted Jews either exiled, converted, or killed

Germany• Jews became isolated

– Could not speak or write in German– Moses Mendelssohn

• Brilliant Jewish scholar• Translated Torah into German so Jews could learn the language

– Jewish restrictions lifted in 1870– Gentile (non-Jewish) community reacted

• Jew was only “slightly” different and mostly accepted• “Anti-Semites” saw Jews as a threat

– Used medieval accusations to support their theories– Jews were Christ-killers– Drew blood from Gentile children– Plotted against Gentiles– Looked to race theories to prove inferiority

Moses Mendelssohn

Anti-Semitism

• Was first used in 19th century by Walter Marr, a German

• Used to mean “hatred of Jews and Judaism”• Misused—

– Semitic actually refers to a group of languages (Arabic, Aramaic, Amharic, and Hebrew)

– Because Jews speak Hebrew, it somehow came to mean “anti-Jewish”

– Semite is any member of ancient and modern peoples speaking any of the Semitic languages

Race or Religion?

• In reaction to anti-Semitism based on race, many Jews insisted that Judaism was a religion.

• Stated they were as French, Russian, or German as any other citizen

• Jews were blamed for Germany’s defeat in WW I, even though they fought bravely for their country.

• Anti-Semitism later became the Nazi Party policy