15. Crimes Against the Jews, Latin Europe 1348-1349
The Old Synagogue in Erfurt, which is one of the best preserved medieval synagogues in Europe, was damaged during the massacre of 1349; after the Jewish citizens were exiled, the city used the building as a storehouse. Later, when the Nazis destroyed the Great Synagogue then in use, during Kristallnacht, 1938, the Old Synagogue, which had over the centuries had many uses, and was both surrounded by other buildings and unrecognizable, survived. It is now a museum of Jewish history in the area. Photo by Michael Sander
Over the course of the Black Death, Christians across Europe carried out massacres, imposed exiles, and confiscated the goods of their Jewish neighbors, though the Pope tried to stop them. It was the worst wave of massacres of the Jews in Europe before those of WWII. But the context of the massacres is the hundreds of years before and after, of crimes just as horrific though not as concentrated. We discuss that background, and focus on two examples: Erfurt and Strasbourg, both in 1349.
2 thoughts on “15. Crimes Against the Jews, Latin Europe 1348-1349”
This made me think also of the 1506 massacre of the Jews in Lisbon, which happened during a plague, and resulted from a disagreement about whether a light on the wall was a miraculous appearance of the face of Jesus, or merely candlelight reflecting off a crucifix. Nearly 2000 Jews were massacred in the next couple of days, and what is notable about this massacre is the retaliation by the Portuguese monarch Manuel I against the leaders of this massacre, who suffered the same exact punishment they had inflicted upon the Jews. He’d had a fairly positive relationship with the Jews in the early part of his reign until he decided he wanted to marry the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, and had to agree to persecute the Jews and institute a Portuguese Inquisition beginning in 1496, so it’s interesting that ten years later he steps in and defends them like this from the persecution that he basically started. This was a really fascinating episode, and you handled it with grace and sensitivity. Thank you!!
I did not know this story at all; thank you. The humans are truly confusing sometimes.
This made me think also of the 1506 massacre of the Jews in Lisbon, which happened during a plague, and resulted from a disagreement about whether a light on the wall was a miraculous appearance of the face of Jesus, or merely candlelight reflecting off a crucifix. Nearly 2000 Jews were massacred in the next couple of days, and what is notable about this massacre is the retaliation by the Portuguese monarch Manuel I against the leaders of this massacre, who suffered the same exact punishment they had inflicted upon the Jews. He’d had a fairly positive relationship with the Jews in the early part of his reign until he decided he wanted to marry the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, and had to agree to persecute the Jews and institute a Portuguese Inquisition beginning in 1496, so it’s interesting that ten years later he steps in and defends them like this from the persecution that he basically started. This was a really fascinating episode, and you handled it with grace and sensitivity. Thank you!!
I did not know this story at all; thank you. The humans are truly confusing sometimes.