Timeline of Antisemitism Before the Holocaust

<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF><script type="text/javascript" src="/banner/banner.js"></script></script><script>tql_drawTop();</script> <BR> <ALIGN=RIGHT><A HREF="antisem.html" TARGET="MainFrame"><IMG SRC="media/back.gif" ALT="[BACK]" HEIGHT=50 WIDTH=140 BORDER=0 ALIGN=LEFT TOP></A></ALIGN> <ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF="docquote.html" TARGET="MainFrame"><IMG SRC="media/next.gif" ALT="[NEXT]" HEIGHT=50 WIDTH=140 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT></A></ALIGN> <BR><HR> <H1><B><P ALIGN="CENTER">Timeline of Antisemitism Before the Holocaust</P></B></H1> <B><P>1220 B.C.E.</B> - Earliest known reference to the Jews from non-Jewish sources, the Egyptian Mernephta stele, states "Israel is no more."</P> <B><P>1200 B.C.E.</B> - Lower Egypt’s remaining Jews are expelled at the end of the 19th Dynasty.</P> <B><P>586 B.C.E.</B>. - First Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Babylonians.</P> <B><P>168 B.C.E.</B> - The Romans defile the Holy Temple, erecting a statue of Zeus and sacrificing swine. Observance of the Sabbath and circumcision are banned.</P> <B><P>135 B.C.E.</B> - A Jewish <I>diaspora</I> begins as Hadrian bars Jews from Jerusalem and has survivors of the massacre dispersed across the empire. Those who escape are sold into slavery.</P> <B><P>70</B> - The Second Temple is destroyed by the Romans.</P> <B><P>73</B> - Roman troops storm Masada after a 3 year siege. The Jewish inhabitants kill themselves rather than submit to Roman slavery.</P> <B><P>627 - </B>Enemies of the prophet Mohammed move on Medina from Mecca and slaughter 700 Jews.</P> <B><P>1099</B> - Crusaders break into Jerusalem, and set fire to a synagogue where Jews are taking refuge, burning them to death. Those who survived are sold as slaves or ransomed.</P> <B><P>1290</B> - England’s Edward I exiles the country’s Jews.</P> <B><P>1306</B> - Jews are expelled from France. <BR>&nbsp England whips and expels some 100,000 Jews who have remained since Edward I’s expulsion order of 1290.</P> <B><P>1348</B> - Jews are blamed for spreading the Black Death by deliberately contaminating wells and by "anointing" people and houses with poison. The Jews are herded into wooden buildings and burned alive. At Strasbourg more than 2,000 Jewish scapegoats are hanged on a scaffold erected at the Jewish burying ground. </P></DIR> <B><P>1349</B></FONT> - Jews are expelled from Hungary.</P> <B><P>1391</B></FONT> - Seville has a pogrom in June that spreads throughout Andalusia as Spaniards seek scapegoats for the Black Death. Castilian sailors set fire to the Barcelona ghetto, and for 4 days a mob rages out of control, killing hundreds. Many Spanish Jews will accept conversion in the next few years.</P></DIR> <B><P>1400 - 1772</B> - Jews are restricted from Russia.</P> <B><P>1414</B> - Cologne, a town in western Germany, expels its Jews.</P> <B><P>1421</B> - Jews are expelled from Austria.</P> <B><P>1478</B> - Isabella of Castile launches an Inquisition against converted Jews who secretly practice their original faith, persecuting the so-called Marranos (the word originally meant pigs).</P> <B><P>1492</B> - A decree issued March 31 by Ferdinand and Isabella orders Granada’s 150,000 Jews to sell up and leave the country by July 31 "for the honor and glory of God." Ferdinand decrees November 23 that all property and assets left by the Jews belong to the Crown, even those now in Christian hands. </P> <B><P>1497 </B>- Jews are expelled from Portugal.</P> <B><P>1555</B> - Pope Paul IV orders that Rome’s Jewish quarter be surrounded by a wall, creating the ghetto of Rome, claiming "God has imposed servitude until they should have recognized their errors." </P> <B><P>1648</B> - A Ukrainian pogrom by Greek Orthodox peasants destroys hundreds of Jewish communities, killing all who will not accept the cross. The general populace joined this genocide, which degrades and tortures Jews before murdering them.</P> <B><P>1657</B>- Oliver Cromwell tacitly permits Jews to return to England.</P> <B><P>1744</B> - Maria Theresa launches a pogrom to drive the Jews out of Bohemia and Moravia. Even where tolerated, Europe’s Jews often live under degrading conditions with regulations designed to limit their expansion and keep their status at a low level.</P> <B><P>1772</B> - Jews are admitted into Russia, but are confined to the Pale of Settlement, a narrow strip of land.</P> <B><P>1788</B> - Josef II orders Austrian Jews to adopt "proper recognizable surnames." They have been known until now largely by biblical patronyms and when some object to changing their names, the emperor’s officials give them such surnames as "Fresser," "Pferd," and "Weinglas." </P> <B><P>1789</B> - French Revolution: French National Association denounce equal rights for French Jews.</P> <B><P>1807</B> - Napoleon forces leading rabbis and leaders to disavow Jewish commitments and pledge allegiance to France alone.</P> <B><P>1881</B> - Russia’s new czar Aleksandr III makes Jews the scapegoats for the assassination of his father. He vows to kill one-third of the country’s Jews, drive out another third, and convert the rest, beginning a series of pogroms that will spur the emigration of millions of Jews in the next 30 years. </P> <B><P>1893</B> - Antisemitism mounts in France as Jews are blamed for the collapse in 1889 of the Panama Canal Co., whose bankruptcy has cost many French investors their savings.</P> <B><P>1894</B> - A French court martial convicts Army captain Alfred Dreyfus, 35, of having passed military information to German agents. Dreyfus will later be proved innocent, but the Dreyfus case adds to the growing Antisemitism in France. Viennese journalist Theodore Herzl, 34, covers the trial and hears the Paris mob cry, "Death to the Jews!"</P> <B><P>1898</B> -"J’Accuse!" headlines the Paris newspaper <I>L’Aurore</I> January 18 over an open letter by novelist Emile Zola. His attack forces a new trial of Capt. Dreyfus. It is revealed that Dreyfus was the victim of an Antisemitic plot.</P> <B><P>1913</B> - The Anti-Defamation League is founded by B’Nai B’rith (Sons of the Covenant) to fight anti-Semitism in America.</P> <B><P>1915</B> - A new Ku Klux Klan is legally chartered in Georgia. It employs terrorist tactics against blacks, Jews, and Roman Catholics. The new leader calls his KKK a "high-class, mystic, social, patriotic, benevolent association" dedicated to "white supremacy," the protection of Southern womanhood, and "Americanism," and claims it will promote his "invisible empire." It will attract a membership of nearly 100,000 throughout the country within 6 years, concentrating political power to elect sympathetic U.S. senators, congressmen, and state officials.</P> <BR> <ALIGN=RIGHT><A HREF="antisem.html" TARGET="MainFrame"><IMG SRC="media/back.gif" ALT="[BACK]" HEIGHT=50 WIDTH=140 BORDER=0 ALIGN=LEFT TOP></A></ALIGN> <ALIGN=LEFT><A HREF="docquote.html" TARGET="MainFrame"><IMG SRC="media/next.gif" ALT="[NEXT]" HEIGHT=50 WIDTH=140 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT></A></ALIGN> <BR><HR> <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-174705-4']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(ga); })(); </script></BODY>