1. Anti-Semitism: What is it and how did it begin?
Holocaust PowerPoint # 1

2. 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

3. 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

4. 19th Century France Austria 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

5. Russia 1790s had the largest Jewish population 1791 1882
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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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