The History of Jewish Persecution

Every religious group has suffered but none has suffered as much as the Jewish Religion.They have been exiled in nearly every country that they have lived in, starting with Israel, Germany, France, Spain, England, and Russia. They have also suffered hundreds of years of torture, punishment and murder. Due to all this hate and resentment, they have become a very resilient people, carrying their faith throughout country to country without ever losing it. They have travelled from eastern Europe to the United States and have finally settled in north America. They have suffered tremendously through out the years and it hasn’t become any easier.

The Ancient Crimes.

• It started with King Nebuchadnezzar, who exiled them from Jerusalem and were forced into Babylon. They were not treated poorly, but were still bitter at having being taken away from their beloved Jerusalem. After 70 years of exile they were allowed to return to Jerusalem. Many gave up this option and stayed in Babylon. Due to the prospering trade routes in the region many started their professions and became merchants, traders, and bankers. This peace lasted for 300 years, then came the crusades…

The Crusades

Because of the conflict between Christianity and Islam they would suffer for another 200 years or so. The Christians were preached to regain the “holy land”

From here on in, gangs would attack the Jewish community destroying their cities and livelihoods. They did not believe Jesus Christ to be the sun of god and thus were treated as enemies to the Christians. Riots started to break out in England and grew and nearly every European nation banned Jewish practise and were cast out. They were forced into other countries, and of course, these countries didn’t want them.

• Within Spain, however, they were accepted to be productive members of society until they were thought of not doing what they were supposed too. They were accepted because they accepted and practised Christianity in the public eye but in secret they practised Judaism. In 1479 Isabella married Ferdinand in Spain, and this led to the Inquisition. 6 people were buried alive, 30,000 people were burned at the stake. Eventually all Jews left Spain. Some went to Portugal, the Ottoman empire and Sicily but finding they were banned from there as well. Eventually, they were kicked out of Portugal and their communities continued in the middle-east, having already been exiled from France and England. They were continuously prosecuted in this way throughout the 17th 18th and 19th centuries, even all the way up to the 2nd world war. The Enlightenment, which was revolutionary to the Jewish people because it gave them places with legal equality made them a very common site and up to the 19th century the Jews were a large part of economic and cultural success.

Here it comes….

Although the Jews were a cultural and economical resource the Europeans irrational fears were still there. Hitler of course knew this and when the 2nd world way started (yes that’s what I meant by here it comes) he used their fears to make Germany a united nation against an enemy. That enemy, of course, being the Jews. Although many Jews were sent to Death Camps. Many more were sent to Extermination Camps. The Nazis thought shooting them wasn’t good enough so they put them in gas chambers instead. Millions were killed.

Auschwitz Death Camp.

The Holocaust

• This was Hitlers ultimate plan to completely exterminate the Jews. It was not true that every victim was Jewish, but every Jew was a victim. Jews were deemed racially inferior and a threat to the Nazi regime and were therefore dealt with. Up to 6 million Jews were killed and many more were simply broken and their lived were shattered. They were sent to concentration camps, and were simply worked to death. Shooting was seen as too good for them, and gas chambers were brought into the extermination camps, to make the suffering worse. Many people after being worked and treated so harshly, would simply volunteer to be sent into the gas chambers. The Nazis were slowly but effectively wiping them out.

These pictures are just those which were able to be exposed to the public. There would be many more photos hidden or prohibited by the Nazi Regime.

Stories of the Holocaust

• There were many stories of survivors. One was of a group of Jews hiding in a cellar, but a very sick baby was coughing. To save the lives of the 30 people there, the man briefly put his hand over the baby's mouth and nose. The body limped lifeless to the ground. The Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg has said: "There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times.“ I was told a story that a list of Jewish names lost in the Holocaust was recorded and being said in Jerusalem Museum. The tape is still going. (Searched, but no

• info to prove.)

Alexander Kimel, What he Saw.

• On March 21,1942 the Ghetto* was raided by Einsatzgrouppen and 3700 Jews, men women and children were driven in to a ditch, about a mile from the Ghetto and shot. A few months later, about 2000 people were caught in a so called Action loaded into cattle cars and driven to the Belzec Death Camp, for gassing. Three months later, on the day of Atonement of 1942, the Germans raided the Ghetto, catching the people praying in makeshift synagogues. Again about 1500 people were packed into cattle trains, and without food, water taken for Gassing in Belzec. On June 8, 1943, the Ghetto was liquidated and all Jews caught were shot. The area was declared Judenrein, which meant that any Jews caught afterwards was executed on the spot. I personally escaped the Ghetto a month earlier and hid in the forest and surrounding villages. After the Liberation I went back to school and in 1959b I emigrated to the USA.

*, The Germans shoved the Jews into these camps and imposed harsh conditions.

Story Continued.

• “Life in the ghetto was dangerous and challenging. A day in the ghetto was like living a month under normal conditions. A month was like a year, and a year was a lifetime. Never a dull moment. Buying a quart of milk was wrought with danger. They catch you and you are dead. One day they caught a Jewish family outside the ghetto, and were shot on the spot. A couple with two beautiful cuddly daughters.

• Another amazing thing was the unbelievable level of adaptation of the human species. The will to live was so strong. In between the spurts of danger young people were falling in love, women getting pregnant, quarrels erupting between neighbours. Even parties were given in the ghetto. They used to call them "barbarki."

The Faith Today.• After the holocaust, many Jews

had escaped to the already booming Jewish population of the united states. In total there are more Jews in New York than any other country. The Jewish population still exists in Europe, though it is very dispersed. Ellie Wiesel, a survivor of the holocaust once said; “We remember Auschwitz and all that it symbolizes because we believe that, in spit of the past and its horrors, the world is worthy of salvation; and salvation, like redemption can be found only in memory. The Jewish faith has triumphed and still does today despite the huge problems in the past. Many religions would have fallen under this kind of treatment. They continue to prove their strength and probably will continue to do so.

Bibliography

• http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143

• The Holocaust: Survival and Resistance by Pat Levy Published 2000 by Hodder Wayland

• The Holocaust: Causes by Pat Levy. Published 2001 by Hodder Wayland

• http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/mcbride/ws200/moss-jewc.htmhttp://history1900s.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=history1900s&cdn=education&tm=4&gps=148_173_1003_619&f=11&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//kimel.net/autobio.html

• Kantor, Mattis The Jewish Time Line Encyclopedia,  Jason Aronson Inc New Jersey  1992