Why did so many pre- WWII Europeans hate the Jews?

Great Debates
1

I was reading the Holocaust denial thread and the related Pit thread pitting the Holocaust denial thread OP, and it stuck me the there must have been a huge reservoir of simmering hate for the Jews in Europe among the general population to have enabled and allowed the massive scapegoating and subsequent horrors that occurred. Even going back to Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice” Jews were being dissed.

Other than being Jews my impression was that the Jews were generally no richer or poorer on average than the general population and occupied postions up and down the social strata. What was the main impetus of the raw hate directed toward the Jews?

2

your OP is a bit unclear as to what you’re looking for. First it’s a ‘reservoir of simmering hate’, then it’s ‘raw hate’ - which to me sounds like a much more out in the open and less under the veneer. At different times before WW II and in different places in Europe (which as you are doubtlessly aware is and has always been a hugely varied place, much more so than the US), both raw hate of Jews and a more subliminal but equally tenacious antisemitism existed. There’s a variety of causes that can be named for both - and I’m sure others more knowledgeable than me will be along to discuss them. Just as a first cut, though, let me just react to what you said in your OP:

Facts don’t usually discourage people from hating those who are different from them.

3

You are really asking about the history of European anti-semitism, which is a huge topic. At root it’s a fear of difference, of The Other. The usual ostensible triggers are

1/ “the Jews killed Jesus”. Well yes, some people who were Jewish did, “The Jews” as a whole didn’t do anything. In any case Jesus had to die for his own purposes, and Jews (or Romans) were pretty much all he had to work with. But a convenient stick to beat them with.

2/ Usury. Christians were prevented by anti-usury laws from lending money at interest, yet needed to borrow it. So they frequently owed money to Jews and consequently resented them, especially when asked to, you know, pay it back. It was kinda convenient that you could instead start a pogrom against your creditor and kill them or run them out of town.

3/ Beliefs. There is no hatred so fierce as that between similar but not identical belief sets; the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as the Messiah made them essentially heretics to Christians - look at the way they dealt with Albigensians, Cathars, and other not-quite-the-same Christians.

4

I’m reading that even before Hitler, a larger number of Germans thought of Jews as outsiders and considered the best solution would be to remove them from society (though not necessarily in the way Hitler tried to do it).

The hatred was deep seated. It was like any other group of outsiders – people mistrusted them. They weren’t like us. They took jobs away from us. It was stronger toward Jews because of the historical background. But you can see similar things against other outsider ethnic groups. (Antisemitism was even a factor in US politics in the 1930s, though never as widespread as it was in Europe.)

5

Society needs scapegoats; they were handy and mostly defenseless.

6

It is hard for a modern American to understand. Americans believe at a deep-down level that you are what you choose to be. I’m a teacher (and so sort of an intellectual). My Dad was a telephone man (and so a manual laborer). I see no connection between my father’s lot in life and mine.

Europeans, to generalize, feel a person is what he is. This one is a German, that one a member of the proletariat. You cannot change what you are.

Consider the case of Madeline Albright as considered by my friend Stefan. Stefan was a Brit, but of Polish roots. Asked his nationality, he always answered Polish, although he had never been there. . So this friend of mine pointed out Albright was a “dirty Jew.” I reminded him she was raised in a Catholic family and “had accepted the Salvation that comes with His Blood.” Not to be turned aside by an appeal to his own faith, Stefan observed “A Jew is a Jew is a Jew.”

How charming.

So the Jews have always been a people apart in European thought. Nothing they can do to change it. If they assimilate, they are “sticking there noses where they don’t belong.” If they maintain their own culture, they are “clannish.” If they improve themselves, they are “push” If they work the land they are “primitive.”

For Americans, being Jewish is sort of a weekend activity. They are as different from the mainstream and an Italian family or an Iraqi cab driver.

Further Americans do not grasp the faux-science behind European anti-Sematism. Jews were not/are not hated for what they did. They were hated for what they were. No Jew could be innocent. No Jew could be different, since in Europe you are what you are.

Their very existence was a threat, they were a germ or chemical destroying the German (French, British, whatever) state.

Also keep in mind European states are ethnically-based. We have a France so people can wear berets and eat stinky cheese. There is a Britain for people who like warm beer and deep-fried Mars bars. Jews were different and so an affront to the state and the community.

In America, our state is dedicated to the pursuit of happiness. As long as Jews are having a good time, who cares? Americans like diversity, mostly we always have. Look at our acceptance of ethnic cookery as compared to (say) Italy 30 years ago.

So Europeans saw and to a startlingly wide extent still see people are archetypes. Americans tend to see people as people.

How’s that for a broad brush?

7

It was so broad it only painted ignorance.

8

Hatred is such a strong word. Though it exists/existed in Europe, I expect that the most relevant word is mistrust.

It wasn’t just the Jews. It was the Roma as well. Two people who maintained their own cultural identity and mores distinct from the general population they found themselves in. Their interaction with the general population was generally confined to economic pursuits, and for every job they took and every business they developed, someone else got their nose out of joint.

Couple that with the perception of self perceived superiority on the part of these two groups, Jew and Roma, who refused to assimulate culturally yet financially participate, you have a recipe for mistrust and resentment.

Today, in North America you have such a diversity of cultures, that no single culture can dominate to the extent that it did back then in Europe, particularly eastern Europe.

9

It goes much farther back than Shakespeare (and, to tell the truth, Shakespeare’s treatment of Shylock in Merchant is actually much more sympathetic than the treatment of Barabbas in the play that inspired it, Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta).

Martin Luther was virulently antisemitic and wrote a polemic against them, On The Jews and Their Lies.

The Crusades generally touched off antisemitic persecutions throughout Europe.

10

The Jews and Roma didn’t exactly choose to be culturally separate, did they? That just seems to push the question back one step.

11

Look to the perceptions of Muslims in today’s USA. If you are different and identifiable you become a convenient scapegoat for people to blame their troubles on.

12

New here? Please enlighten us.

13

One factor: Jews were an economically dominant minority, having disproportionate influence in a number of trades/professions historically. I’m guessing that this bred resentment among “native” Europeans. …for more info see:

see, World on Fire (book) - Wikipedia

14

From what you wrote, I fear that the task of enlightening you would take more energy and time than I can spare. In my life, that is, not just this evening.

15

The same hate as in WW2 is still very much alive today.
Let me make a suggestion that may be considered bad form but consider going to David Duke’s website and read his stuff along with free audio downloads of his radio program and books. To see a real life modern example of pure hatred masquerading as concern for whites and Christians I encourage to see for yourself. Many times when Duke speaks the opposition usually attacks him personally which is not helpful, his arguments and misuse of history should be seriously addressed.

16

When I did the holocaust in school, one thing my teacher mentioned was that, because they were in small groups, Jews tended to stick together and help each other financially, so they appeared better off in times of crisis (your mustachioed leader starting a war with everyone…for example) which made them more resented.

17

And to elaborate on the “mistrust” angle, there was a sense that Jews had divided loyalties, that they give their support only to their own kind rather than the nation or community at large, and may even “stab us in the back” during wartime.

18

The correct question would be: Why did the widespread antisemitism dwindle so much after WWII? Because of the Holocaust and biology, the weaird unscientific theories around at the turn of the century are now relegated to the fringe lunatics.

But before that, the history of hating Jews goes back to the Roman Empire becoming Christian.

Some points have already been mentioned: the Christ-killer thing that was propagated by the Catholic Church (Hitler got the idea for the yellow stars from the yellow hats and similar jews had been forced to wear in the Middle Ages; the name “ghetto” comes from the iron pourers quarter in Rome where Jews had to live because they shouldn’t live elsewhere…)
The money-lending things meant that people were angry at owing so much money, and killing them during a Progrom was a convenient way of getting rid of your debts.
And the whole stranger thing making them convenient scapegoats.

A lot of prejudice and hate fed on itself: in the Middle Ages, Jews could neither own land (and farm it) nor join a trade union and learn a proper craft. So the only jobs left for them was lending money and becoming traders. Both jobs were they couldn’t blend into the normal population, thus keeping them outsiders.

The 19th century just added a scientifc layer to the whole thing, when science was starting and a lot of quack theories were around. I have leaved through scores of booklets about the “Judenfrage” (Jewish question) from the turn of the century at work, and the big question (both from German and Jewish writers) was whether Jews could assimilate into society, whether they should be allowed to, if they should start their own state (see Herzls zionism).
Many educated Jews were only nominally practisising reform Jews or atheists and considered themselves as integrated being doctors and lawyers and similar. They understood the concern about the “backwards” Eastern Europe Orthodox Jews with their weird clothing and hairstyle, and if those people could integrate into normal society or be a drain. The weird race beliefs were on top.

And in many places like Tsarist Russia, anti-semitism was fuelled from the state because scapegoats were helpful. If the common farmer was angry at the Tsar for taking too much taxes, then a leaflet about the money-hoarding Jews was distributed, a Progrom took place, and the Tsar could sleep safely again.

This mechanism is still at work today, only with other groups as scapegoats.

Psychologial tests have shown that in order to unite a group, the best mechanism is not averting a danger to everybody or building a common project, but hating a common enemy. Sadly, this is what the tests show. Therefore, it’s so often exploited by populists.

Oh, and Paul, Americans for a long time didn’t believe that

At the end of the 19th century, Irish and Italians were hated and shunned in the US. Anti-black laws were also based on spurious scientific evidence, yet they endured till the 60s. Native Americans only got citizens right in the 1970s with the AIM.
And in the 1930s and 40s, there were signs in swimming pools on the East Coast that “Jews, Negroes and dogs” weren’t allowed. Certain clubs wouldn’t permit people of the wrong descent to join.
Even during the Holocaust, the US still blocked Jews from taking refugee there, because they didn’t want to become flooded with them.

19

Give it a shot. I am intrigued by your comments, and wish to wrap up some fish with your newsletter. :slight_smile:

20

Crucification was not an approved method of implementing the death penalty under Jewish religious law. The Romans (as in some low-ranking legionaire under the order of Pontius Pilate) killed him. One thing I have always been curious about is if Jesus Christ’s death was so necessary to Christianity, why would the Christians be so angry over him being put to death as that was the fulfilment of his destiny?