HISTORY OF ANTI- SEMITISM STARTING FROM THE 1 ST CENTURY AD

1 ST -3 RD CENTURY AD  Anti-Semitism can be traced to the time of Christ.  Many Christians at the time held them responsible for crucifying Christ.

4 TH CENTURY AD  Constantine the Great made Christianity the state religion.  Jews were ordered to convert.  If they did not, they were ostracized or cast out and denied citizenship.

MIDDLE AGES 500 – 1400 AD  During this period both the Church and State took legislative steps to ensure the misery of the Jews.  Laws were put in place that forbid Jews to farm land and engage in the crafts.  The Crusades that began in 1096 put forth an oppression on the Jews that went unrivaled until Hitler’s time. They were offered baptism or death.  In 1215 they were required to wear a distinctive badge to shame them. (This of course was copied by Hitler.)  One of the few things that kept them in existence during these times was their usefulness in ability and money. When their usefulness waned, they were kicked out.  The only country to welcome the Jews was Poland which accounted for its large population of Jews during WWII.

RENAISSANCE – REFORMATION 1400 – 1600  Martin Luther was a champion of the Jew until he found that he could not convert them to Protestantism.  Luther then renewed old charges and called for:  The burning of their synagogues,  The seizure of their books,  And their expulsion from Germany.  Hitler would find it helpful to quote from and to circulate Luther’s anti-Semitic writings.

AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT 1600 – 1800  This was a time period in which civil rights were becoming popular.  Many Jews seized the opportunity and founded new industries and built up commerce.

ERA OF NATIONALISM 1800 – 1900’S  Nationalism is the idea that one must support the nation and the people that come from that nation.  It also promotes that any ethnicity, race or religion that does not align itself with that nation must be dealt with.  In this era, the Jews were yet again the target of persecution.  Wilhelm Marr presented a “scientific theory” that Jews were the “slave” race and that Germans or Aryans were the “master” race.  The 1870s also presented a problem when Otto von Bismarck released great volumes of militant anti- Semitism.