During the Nazi era, the majority of the population in Germany belonged to the Christian church. The Roman Catholic church and German Evangelical church were the main pillars and had a significant role in shaping society. They used their traditional loyalty to the ruling government to get state influence over the Jews. This study will evaluate the conflict and coexistence of Jews and Christians in Germany and how Christians used their good relationship with the state to influence and dominate the Jews.
The Jews had for long been a dominant religion in Europe before World War II. However, the post-war environment created a political force that led to the rise of antisemitism. The anti-Semitic had damaging accusations against the Jews based on their history, nature, and reactions. Jews had been accused of causing serious harm to other societies that hosted them for a long time (Flamery 1985, 99). Therefore, the Jews were viewed as the cause of unceasing hatred in most parts of Europe. The effects of this antisemitism have gone on for decades, and the anti-Semitic finally concluded a perception that was purported as the ‘Jewish problem.’
These claims in European society had dominated the 19th century. However, some people found them inaccurate and significantly challenged them. The Jews, non-Jews, and other westerners had to look for the origin of Judaism-phobia in Europe and especially in Germany, whereby they concluded that Jews were a minority compared to Christians, competition for converts, use of legal power by Christians to spread propaganda against Jews and money lending (Flamery 1985, 96). These factors are discussed below and how they affected Jews’ relationship with Christians.
Christianity has been a significant player in spreading anti-Jewish sentiments in the historical face. In the 1930s, when Nazis came to power, despite claiming that they had dropped religious considerations, they were a major cause for antisemitism. The history of antisemitism was a three-step process starting with antiquity in the earliest stages of Christianity; it intensified in the Middle Ages and then the frightening spectrum in modern antisemitism (Griech-Polelle 2018, 35). After World War II, Jules Isaac, a French historian, made an influential and powerful case that connected the roots of antisemitism to Christianity which attracted much public opinion and resistance from the churches denying their connection to antisemitism.
The other reason that brought conflict between the coexistence of Christian and Jews is that the Jews were the minority while Christianity was a major religion. “Every minority has disquiet as its portion, disquiet that causes it to reflect on its relations with those – in simplest terms the majority – that surround it, that hostilely confronts it” (Cohen 1991, 207). The quiet minority group continued to examine the present and past relationships with Christians. The Jews applied this knowing that they had been a minority group for more than two millennia; therefore, they were keen to investigate the minority status and analyze it. They were very keen and observed the actions of the church elders toward them. This created a tense relationship between them and the Christians in the first half of the Middle Ages.
Another factor that impacted their relationship was the competition for converts. Most of the tense relationships between the Jews and Christians in late antiquity came from the competition for converts. The Jews and Christians were both involved in the active missions of seeking converts. However, despite concentrating most of the missionary activities on the pagans, the Jews and Christians were still working on converting other people of opposing faiths (Cohen 2007, 209). Both religions used the same methods to convert, including violence, bribery, doctrinal preaching, and discussions. However, Christians used the religious functions to serve as propaganda, and they had polemical writings that provided Christian disputants with counterarguments that they would use in their discussion. For instance, the Liber contra Judaeos by Amulo, a petition to the emperor Charles the Bald, was aimed at having discriminatory legislation against the Jews (Cohen 1991, 205). It included a lengthy dogma exposition and supporting religious arguments that Jews opposed.
Christians used forceful methods to convert Jews and spread the gospel. During the missionary work, Jews were forcefully taken to synagogues to hear the preaching of the priests between 815 and 822 in Mainz (Cohen 1991, 207). At the beginning of the 11th century, forced baptisms were also carried out after crusades in a cynical nature. If the Jews resisted baptism, they would then be killed. In 1066, the archbishop of Trier said that he would expel all the Jews who did not accept baptism.
The Jews as well used similar tactics in converting Christians. They were aggressive, bitter, and used violence to spread their religion. They used a warning tone for those who were against them. The Jews were not supposed to welcome Christians in their weekly feasts or to eat the unleavened bread (Marcus 1999, 525). Their leaders warned the Jews from having close relationships with Christians. This created some enmity between the two religions which strained their relationship.
Therefore, the conversion of Jews and Christians significantly affected their coexistence as they had created enmity between them. Christians used propaganda to rubbish Jew’s faith beliefs. Additionally, they forced them to be baptized and listen to the sermons, which led to tense relationships between Christians and Jews. Christians executed Jews who did not want to be baptized and this mostly affected children. These actions led to a bad relationship and conflict between Jews and Christians.
The Christians, using Pope Innocent III used political and legal power to influence policies and created new policies against the Jews, which affected the Christian-Jews relationship. After ascending to power, the Pope came up with new policies made to bring a significant decline in Judaism. For instance, baptized Jews were not allowed to practice Jewish customs; their high-interest rates were subjected to surveillance and Jews were not allowed to appear in public during Easter. Additionally, Jews wore distinctive dresses to ensure that they were easily identifiable and avoid intermarriage between Christians and non-Christians. These actions negatively affected how the Jews and Christians lived because the Christians had more power in the government, which gave them priority over the Jews.
Economic factors such as moneylending and the banking ability of the Jews as well impacted their relationship with the Christians. The Jews and Christians had good relationships in the first Millennia, although it was based on tense grounds. Especially in territories controlled by German tribes, the Jews’ legal status were entirely based on the King who gave them a listening ear. During this period, the Jews had got some freedom, and they were no longer wearing their distinctive dresses, adopted local names, and were able to trade without religious profiling (Chazan 1980, 115). The Jews’ rural lands had gained a significant increase in value, and they were selling them and moving to towns. During this period, the Jews had gained some equality and would live in the same streets as Christians.
However, the Jews started to seek unique identification amongst themselves. They instructed their children in Hebrew and adopted various dressing styles, such as the tall conical hat to be noticed. When the church council saw the rising power of Jews, it started to form new policies to identify all Jews, such as adopting the badge to be worn conspicuously. In this era, the Jews’ relationship with Christians had become a positive one, and in fact, it was the closest they ever had during the 11th century (Chazan 1980, 118). However, the Jews continued to expand eastwards to colonize the lands. Most of the Jews had become money lenders, and this had seemed to be their exclusive occupation. They had even become conscious and held financial positions but were still under strict observance by the King. Basically, in Germany, every class or group had acquired loans from the Jews. The Jews had to pay tillage, and the only way they would ensure that they got their money back was through payment of debts, and sometimes it would lead to hostility. The Jews, however, paid off a layer of their money to the King’s treasury without direct approval from the King. This enabled them to get closer to the leaders and therefore had most of their issues addressed by the government (Hallo et al. 1984, 97). During this time, the Jews’ dominance had grown, and they developed a better relationship with Christians, although they were still considered a threat and competitor. By the 19th century, the Jews had become more established by living in the same towns as Christians, had different clothing and badges to differentiate them, practiced their own religion, and were very much involved in the money trade.
Therefore, money lending is an economic activity that positively impacted the relationship between Jews and Christians. The Jews used money lending to get some state influence and gain some state protection. However, this does not mean that the Jews had an excellent relationship with the Christians because they were still competing for supremacy. Christians saw the Jews as a threat to their religion, and sometimes, violence would erupt between them.
During the end of the 11th century, the relationship between Jews and Christians started deteriorating. This can be seen in the various violent events that occurred in Germany during Hitler’s regime when he ordered the execution of Jews (Hallo et al. 1984, 112). The Christians began oppressing Jews in different varieties: some inflicted in the legal practice while others used popular myths to insult Jews. Political influence such as the one created by Hitler led to the death of many Jews. He shaded propaganda that Jews had a long nose and deserved to be killed (Raggam-Blesch 2019, 384). These political factors led to the myth that Jews were evil and had to be insulted or executed. Hitler also used the legal framework against the Jews by creating awards for his army to encourage them to kill Jews. Henry II also ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Mainz in 1012 as a potential warning to Jewish proselytizers and a sign of showing that he accepted the common myth of the “error of Jews.”
One of the notable events was the attack on Jews, which happened simultaneously with the First Crusade in Rhine Valley. Jews were slaughtered in Mainz, Metz, Prague, and Trier. The second Crusade was held by an influential preacher who encouraged attacks against Jews. One of the Cistercian monks, Ralph, traveled all over Mainz, Speyer, Worms, and other neighboring towns preaching for people to accept the cross (Linder 1997, 37). However, those who did not accept to become Christians faced the wrath of having their houses burnt.
This shows that political influence was used to scare the Jews and force them to abandon their faith. Christian leaders used the power and legal influence to have Jews murdered to influence Christianity. Although some leaders in Germany protected the rights of the Jews, they did not support them fully. For instance, Bernard Flatly opposed the killing of Jews because they were living tokens (Griech-Polelle 2018, 42). He did not want them to be killed but rather exploited by Christians.
The relationship between Jews and Christians in Germany was tense, characterized by violence. The Christians used their good relationship with the state to influence policies that allowed the killing and exploitation of Jews. Some of the main factors which led to negative relationships between Christians and Jews include: Jews were a minority, competition for converts, legal support for Christian leaders against Jews, money lending activities by the Jews, and inferiority of the Jews.
References
Chazan, Robert. 1980. Church, State and Jew in the Middle Ages. New York: Behrman House, pp. 1-340.
Cohen, Jeremy. 1991. Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict. New York.
Cohen, Jeremy. 2007. Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Flamery, Edward. 1985. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism. New Jersey.
Griech-Polelle, Beth Ann. 2018. “Jesuits, Jews, Christianity, and Bolshevism: An Existential Threat to Germany?” Journal of Jesuit Studies 5 (1): 33–53. Web.
Hallo, William W, David B Ruderman, Michael Stanislawski, and Mazal Holocaust Collection. 1984. Heritage: Civilization and the Jews: Source Reader. Éditeur: New York, Ny: Praeger, pp. 1-214.
Linder, Amnon. 1997. The Jews in the Legal Sources of the Early Middle Ages. Detroit: Wayne State University Press; Jerusalem, pp. 1-67.
Marcus, Jacob Rader. 1999. The Jew in Medieval World: A Sourcebook 315-1791. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press.
Raggam-Blesch, Michaela. 2019. “‘Privileged’ under Nazi-Rule: The Fate of Three Intermarried Families in Vienna.” Journal of Genocide Research 21 (3): 378–97.