The Butcher's Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town

This chapter discusses the antisemitic riots in Konitz, comparing them to Jewish pogroms in other periods, from the Middle Ages to World War II. The main idea of the chapter is that in persecuting Jews, Christians are carrying out precisely what they accuse the Jews of doing: ritual murder.

One notable example that Smith discusses is that of the Polish town of Jedwabne, where in July 1941 the townspeople cooperated with the occupying Nazis in rounding up and massacring 75 of the town’s Jewish members by burning them inside a barn.

Such persecutions reenacted a drama with familiar motifs and symbols going back centuries. The antisemitic violence of the Middle Ages often occurred during Holy Week, sometimes spilling out from village Passion plays in which Jews were portrayed as the killers of Christ. In later eras, townspeople attacked not only Jews but also government officials who were perceived as protecting the Jews. Persecutions could sometimes threaten to take the form of lynching (similar to what was practiced in the southern US), although this was rarely carried out to the extreme. Even citizens who did not condone the actions of the antisemites nevertheless “tacitly supported” their actions by not stopping them (171).