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Changes In Anti Semitic Attitudes During The Changes In Anti Semitic Attitudes During The Twentieth Century Anti-Semitism is a form of racial prejudice which relates to any political, social, and economic discrimination directed against Jews. Anti Semitic attitudes consider all people of Jewish heritage, despite their individual religious practices. Anti Semitic attitudes and practices have evolved over time and are spread throughout the world. The twentieth century has seen several episodes of anti Semitism, the most well known of these being the Holocaust of World War Two. Throughout this century, society has been shaped by events such as wars which have changed the roles and values held by almost every imaginable social group in society. As a direct result of this and several other factors, attitudes towards discrimination of any kind have evolved to a point where prejudice, if it has not diminished, is far more hidden as the century draws to a close.
This is true of any group which traditionally faced oppression, such as women, people of African or indigenous descent and Jews. Anti Semitic values are thought to have developed in Germany in the middle of the 19 th century, Jews were considered to be inferior to peoples Aryan descent. This theory gained worldwide support and only little objection from ethnologists of the time. Some of the earliest roots for this anti Semitism are considered to be in the Roman Empire where Jewish religious practices were reasons for discrimination by the Roman society. The Bible states that Jesus Christ was a Jew, however his life led to the development of the Christian Church. Throughout time, Christians then, considered the Jews as the killers of Christ.
As the Christian faith is far more widespread than Judaism, persecution of the Jews for this anti Semitic attitude at its base level evolved the world over. (Anti-Semitism, Microsoft Encarta 1994) At the beginning of the twentieth century, Anti-Semitism was a very strong and widespread practice. In Russia, the beginning of the century saw several massacres of Jewish communities which resulted in the death of thousands of Jews. The Jewish population was prevented from owning land and entering higher education. In Germany, discrimination on religious grounds had been made illegal in 1871.
However, persecution and discrimination against the Jews was labelled as racial and continued openly reaching even into parliament. (Anti-Semitism Encarta, 1994) Several countries throughout Central and Western Europe followed the German anti Semitic practices. Austria s Christian Socialist party publically advocated anti-Semitic ideas. (Ackerman, N Anti Semitism and Emotional Disorder 1961) The situation in France was slightly different however as the country was adjusting to the changing roles of the church. Both the state and the church advocated anti-Semitism, again basing their prejudice on the ideas developed in Germany. Several anti-Semitic documents appeared, one example being the newspaper La Libre Parole, which was started by Edouard Drumont. In 1906 the infamous Dreyfus affair displayed French anti Semitic values. Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish army officer who was imprisoned for alleged treason.
However, after his release anti-Semitism disappeared from the political forefront. (Friedlander, A. Leo Back, 1968 The onset of World war 11, and in particular the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, brought about the culmination of these underlying anti Semitic attitudes. The Nazi Party, lead by Adolf Hitler supported and imposed upon the German people the superiority of the Aryan race. Jewish inferiority to those of Aryan descent had a historical foundation which was enhanced under Hitler s rule in Germany. The Nazi party lead a campaign of propaganda presenting Jewish people as having communist and capitalist traits, instantly presenting them as an opponent to the dominant and still popular Nazi values. Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for all anything which he opposed, often referring to them in his speeches and presenting an inkblot which would incorporate his needs.
One such example is of two brothers he referred to in a speech, Moische, was a banker: Isidor, a communist. (Ackerman, Anti Semitism and Emotional Disorder 1961) Statements such as these instantly create an idea of an ambiguous culture in the Jews and provide a means for people to create their own anti Semitic value. Hitler began a campaign which involved the creation of a pure Aryan race, this of course required the prevention of a Jewish bloodline joining this new race. Between 1939 and 1941, the final solution to the Jewish problem was developed. Jewish people in Germany and gradually throughout German occupied territories were required to wear armbands or badges with the Star of David on them. It was made illegal for the non-Jewish population to interact with the Jewish community, who were labelled vermin. Anti Semitic propaganda was prominent and appeared in different forms.
Jewish run businesses were vandalized and closed, and Jewish people were prevented access to employment and education. Interbreeding with Jewish people was defiled so much it was considered almost sacrilegious. Gradually, Jewish people were rounded up and deported from their towns to military controlled Ghettos where they were forced to live in cramped and often filthy conditions. The Nazis controlled all access to the ghettos and the Jews became fully reliant on them for all basic needs. (Butler, E. The Real Nature of the Opposing Forces 1951) This policy of deportation spread throughout all of Nazi occupied Europe. Vichy France actually arrested and imprisoned their Jewish population to allow easy deportation to the newly developed work camps and, the death camps both run by the Nazis.
However, Romania and Denmark refused to give their Jewish populations to the Germans and deported them to neutral countries such as Sweden. Once imprisoned in the camps, the Jewish occupants were treated as animals. All possessions were taken from them and collected by the Nazi party. Jewish owned homes became Nazi property leaving the people with only the Nazi issue clothing which they were given.
Gradually the Jews were loaded onto trains, crammed like cattle and taken to the death camps. In fact, the rail tariff was lessened if a train carried more than 1000 Jewish people. Inmates at the camps were exposed to inhumane torture and fed rotten food products. Those who survived these almost unspeakable abuses were eventually put to their death.
There were six major death camps across Germany which used a variety of methods to exterminate Jewish people. &# 61623; Kulmhof used gas vans to kill 150 000 Jews &# 61623; Belief used carbon monoxide and had a death toll of 600 000 &# 61623; Sobibor saw 250 000 deaths in its gas chamber &# 61623; Treblinka was the scene of another 800 000 deaths in its gas chambers &# 61623; At Lubin 50 000 Jews either gassed or shot &# 61623; Auschwitz was the biggest camp and was the site of over 1 million deaths and used fast acting hydrogen cyanide to exterminate huge numbers of Jews at a time. (Holocaust Microsoft Encarta 1994) Jewish people were also used as test items for scientific and medical testes which resulted in either death or horrendous lasting results. The most common form of this experimentation was in different forms of sterilisation often with dramatic side effects. It should be noted that the holocaust victims also included other such groups such as a small Slavic contingent as well as the disabled, homosexual, communists and Jehovah s witnesses. (Bard, M. Rewriting History in Textbooks, 1998) This blatant persecution of the Jews over such a long period led to a forced hatred by population of Europe, especially in Germany.
The people resented Jews as they feared the outcome of any disagreement with Nazi policies. This hatred also prevented feelings of guilt at sudden persecution of people with whom life had been integrated. Even if it was insincere, anti Semitism was at its peak at this time while people did whatever was necessary to survive life under a cruel dictator s regime. At the conclusion of the war the world was horrified at the discovery of what had occurred in the Nazi death camps.
This outrage lead to the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was incorporated by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. During the Nuremberg Trials which heard international war crimes several Nazi officials were prosecuted for their involvement in the attempted genocide. (Gerard, Rev Today and for Life 1990) It was here that the attitude towards anti Semitism changed. As a direct result of the atrocities suffered by the Jews during World War 11 the public opinion of anti Semitism, especially in Germany has changed to be completely in discriminatory. Although the official position of the united Germany is strongly against anti-Semitism, there have still been outbreaks of violence and hostility towards the Jewish people since World War Two. (Waldman, Complete Independence or Holocaust, 1997) These attacks have appeared throughout Europe and to a lesser degree in Britain and America. Destruction of synagogues and Jewish businesses is a prime example of the post was anti Semitic hostility. On May 14, 1948, Israel was granted independence as a Jewish state.
This state was created after many years of civil war between the Jews and other Palestinian nations. However, the truth and scale of the Nazi persecution prompted the creation of this state. Among the first immigrants to the new country were the survivors of the death camps. Their establishment in Israel was supported by reparation payments coming from the West German government. Over time, immigration increased and Jewish people from all over the world began to come to Israel.
Today, is not uncommon for Jewish people to make a pilgrimage to Israel, if not permanently migrating. The creation of the Jewish State was not met with enthusiastic support. For the Palestinians it marked land which they had lost and several battles ensued the creation of the state. It was not until 1993 that a peace declaration was signed between the Jews and the Arab nations of Palestine. Anti Semitic outbreaks have occurred since World War Two and continued worldwide into this decade. (Anti Semitism monitoring Forum, 1999 Report) These attacks have been of a different kind, with the creation of Neo Nazi movements. Small African American anti Semitic groups have evolved along side the white supremacist Neo Nazis throughout Europe and America.
Christian religious policy was reversed by the events of WORLD WAR TWO And there has been a focus on removing the religious base of prejudice. It seems that the world was so shocked by the atrocities of the Holocaust that blatant anti Semitism has almost disappeared with only small factions publically persecuting the Jews. In fact in the period after the was, Christian and Jewish relations improved and during Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965) the Roman Catholic church formally revoked the accusation all Jews are responsible for the death of Christ and labelled genocide and racism as not Christian. Many members of the Nazi Party fled to South America after the war and there several anti-Semitic incidents have occurred. The Israeli seizure of a Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, in Argentina in 1960. Eichmann who was tried in Jerusalem for crimes against the Jews and hanged, led to some of the most serious attacks.
The pre war Russian attitudes of anti-Semitism lasted well into the postwar period. , Judaism was still outlawed by orthodox Soviet communists, as was Zionism. Unproved reports of and professional discrimination of Soviet Jews continued to come from the USSR for several years after the war. Jews were prevented from emigrating until the end of the 1980 s when political upheaval occurred throughout Eastern Europe. Again, the fall of communism led to the rise of anti Semitic attacks as the Europeans used the Jews as a scapegoat for their attacks. (web) Throughout the twentieth century, the Jews have been blamed for failings in the societies in which they lived.
Jewish people were seen as lower class citizens and were forced to be subservient by the majority of the population in the culture they shared. As a minority group, the Jews depended on these people for employment and all their basic needs. The creation of a Jewish state and the atrocities of World War Two Provided the Jewish community with a way to escape anti Semitism and forced their oppressors to change their values towards them. On December 9, 1998 the United Nations general assembly acknowledged Anti-Semitism as a form of racism for the first time (web). Almost all the world s minority groups have faced persecution at different times. The last decades of the twentieth century has seen public opinion towards discrimination of any kind change towards a more liberal ideal.
This has meant that anti Semitism has been to a great part of society removed. However, in a large instance, the attitude has been pushed underground and not completely removed. Terrorist style anti Semitic attacks continue throughout the world as does the new white supremacy based on the Nazi model. The biggest change in Anti Semitic attitudes throughout the twentieth century is that in 1999, it is not the Jews which are held at fault in these attacks, but these parts of society showing prejudice, discrimination and persecution. It can only be hoped then, that into the twenty first century that this and any other form of discrimination become truly a thing of the past.
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New York, 1961 3. Anti-Semitism, Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk &# 038; Wagnalls Corporation. 4.
Brad, Mitchell G. Ph. D. Rewriting History in Textbooks The American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. New York, 1998 5.
Butler, Eric D. The War Behind the War, The real Nature of the Opposing Forces Anderson s, Melbourne, 1951 6. Friedlander, Albert. Leo Back Teacher of Theresienstadt, Holt Rinehart and Winston, Canada 1968 7. Henry, Marilyn. The Invisible Wall Between Germans and Jews 1999 8.
Holocaust Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk &# 038; Wagnalls Corporation. 9. Modern anti Semitic http: //remember.
org/History. root. modern. html 10. Rabbi Eliezer Waldman Complete Independence or Holocaust, Yeshival Kiryat Arba, 1997 11. Rev.
Bernie Gerard Today and for Life CFICEJ, USA, 1998 12. The Anti Semitic Monitoring Forum Report of Anti Semitic Incidents, Israeli Foreign Ministry, May 1999 Report, Israel 1999. The Making of Modern Europe
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Research essay sample on Anti Semitic Anti Semitism
