The Holocaust: The Truth about This Great Destruction of the Jewish People
Anti-Semitism in Medieval Europe
Like their European ancestors before them, the citizens of Nazi Germany blamed the Jews for their national and personal problems. Blaming the Jews for problems and then killing them later is nothing the Nazis invented. Nearly 550 years earlier, in 1389, hatred toward the Jews was also boiling over in the medieval city of Prague.
The Jews were not allowed to live with the rest of the people
of most European cities and instead lived in separate communities called
Ghettos. Due to a Catholic belief that Catholics should not be creditors or tax
collectors, those jobs were left for the Jews (c). This sadly gave the Europeans
an excuse to hate them more. Jews were blamed for sicknesses which were really
due to bad hygiene and other problems. In 1389, citizens of Prague massacred
thousands of Jews in the Prague Ghetto and looted and ransacked their homes (b).
“Kristallnacht”
Fast-forwarding to 1938, over five-hundred years later, Nazi Germany was also blaming the Jews for her problems. The propaganda was working and during the night of November 9–10 (later called “Kristallnacht”), thousands of Germans took out their anger on the Jews. Across Germany (which included Austria at the time) over 1,000 synagogues were set ablaze and approximately 7,500 Jewish businesses were looted and vandalized (d). During the chaos, over 90 Jews were murdered and 30,000 were arrested. While this horror was taking place, fire brigades and police were told to let Jewish properties burn and be vandalized. They could only intervene if “Aryan” properties were accidentally harmed (d).
Tragic Events Leading Up to the Holocaust
