[Music] the year was 1939 the month January we're still some months away from the second world war but tensions are on the rise Hitler and Nazi Germany were looking to expand they set their eyes on Poland amid all this Hitler decided to address his Parliament the Reich star his propaganda Minister helped write his speech the notorious Joseph gobl and this is what he said Hitler warned the of annihilating European Jews and he very nearly did that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust yet Hitler did not start this hatred hatred for Jews is
often called the most ancient hatred the oldest form of discrimination today we call it anti-Semitism in each period of History it took different forms Hitler being the most hateful one he converted anti-Semitism into genocide which makes you wonder how did it all begin why have Jews been historically targeted and why does it Prevail today time for a [Music] flashback let's start with the early Roman Empire and this was before Christianity so the Roman subjects were pagans they believed in a number of gods and forces but Jews did not like today they were monotheistic they believed
in just one one God so the Romans were suspicious everything about the Jews seemed like a red flag to them they wouldn't intermar they observed Sabbath and they circumcised their young today if you don't understand something you learn about it but this was the first century BC if you did not understand something you villainized it and that's what happened to the Jews you can find examples in many Roman writings the poet hinal said Jews are drunken and Rowdy the laer Cicero talked about how Jews always stick together how they had power in assemblies all classic
anti-semitic tropes things became worse after the death of Jesus Christ now we know who crucified Jesus it was the Romans but Christian propaganda hid that for a long long time now I'm throwing some dates at you so listen closely Jesus was crucified in the year 33 ad like I said the Romans did it years later in 70 ad the Romans destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem it was like a watershed moment Christians and Jews saw it as Divine punishment the New Testament reflected that instead of the Romans it now blamed the Jews Jews were depicted as
killers of Jesus it's a myth an absolute falsehood but back then people believed it in fact why back then even today many people believe it such sentiments led to a religious rivalry Christians versus Jews and the the church played a key role in this they taught all kinds of anti-Semitic things like Jews had no reason to exist anymore their whole job was to prepare for Jesus Christ's arrival and since that was done Jews had nothing more to do their existence was seen as an anomaly many of them were forced to flee we covered the Jewish
dispersion in our last episode you can watch it here but fleeing did not mean a life of Freedom anti-Semitism followed them in 312 Rome moved closer to Christianity their emperor Constantine converted and pretty soon the Roman Empire became Christian so the church now had more Powers it could influence the Emperor as a result new laws were created Jews were shunned to the margins of society they were also denied basic rights and freedoms in some places Jews had to wear markers like a yellow badge or a hat called huden Hut the idea was to identify and
stay away from them remember all this was over religion because the Jews refused to accept Christianity and propaganda played an important role in this hatred I'll give you some examples in 1144 a 12-year-old boy was found murdered in norch his name was William there was no evidence of who killed him no leads so the case was a dead end but four years later a monk turned up in Norwich and he said the Jews had killed William and that allegation was like a spy AR pretty soon everyone pointed fingers at Jews they were accused of blood
liel of killing Christian boys and using their blood for rituals today we call all of this fake news another example is from the Black Death the plague in the 14 century Christians said it was the work of the devil what's more the devil had a partner no prizes for guessing the Jews they were accused of poisoning the wells in Europe and none of this is backed by Pro proof but enough people said it so it became a fact much like propaganda today in most of these cases there was a logical explanation the whole thing about
Jewish money lenders they were shown as evil and cunning as holding more and more wealth even writers of this time fell for the strob like William Shakespeare you may have heard of his play The Merchant of Venice it has a Jewish lender his name is [ __ ] [ __ ] lends money to the Christian protagonist he gives it on one condition if the money is not repaid [ __ ] will take a pound of his flesh and guess how the play ends in shylock's defeat he ends up converting to Christianity but have you wondered
why Jews ended up as money lenders in the first place because Christians refused to do it in early Christianity lending for interest was forbidden but someone had to do it and that someone was the Jews it wasn't some devious plan to conquer the world it was just economics but European leaders never understood that they feared and persecuted the Jews they were banished from European Kingdoms in the year 1290 Jews were expelled from Britain in 13006 from France in 1348 from Switzerland and in 1394 from Germany we are talking about an entire religious group expelled in
many ways anti-Semitism was a convenient tool you could use it anywhere children going missing blame the Jews Christians not getting rich blame the Jews a deadly plague wiping out your population again blame the Jews so anti-Semitism became the answer to Europe's problems an easy and hateful answer things improved slightly in the 1700s this was the age of enlightenment also the time of the French Revolution so freedom and science with the catchphrases as Jews were emancipated they became citizens for the first time yet anti-Semitism persisted citizenship did not guarantee equal rights for Jews in many places
they were second class citizens and until now anti-Semitism was based on religion it was Christianity versus Judaism but in 1859 that changed Charles Darwin published his book on Evolution it talked about survival of the fittest now Darwin's theory was about organisms some beat their surroundings to reproduce others perished that's what he said but some thinkers applied Darin's Theory to race they said some races are superior others like the Jews are not they were not fit to survive it was around this time that the word anti-Semitism emerged until then Jewish hatred had no single term it
was first used by a German journalist Willam Mah he represented a new sort of Jewish hatred it wasn't just about killing Christ or kidnapping Christian children his hatred was rooted in race he believed Jews could change the racial structure of Germany and Hitler used this Theory later on such beliefs led to violence across Europe take the Russian Revolution for example it was followed by hundreds of Jewish pilgrims between 30 and 70,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed same in Poland and Belarus Nazi Germany was the culmination of everything we've just said of centuries of anti-Semitism Hitler blamed
Jews for Germany's defeat in the first world war he wanted a pure Arian Germany at first his policies were focused on marginalization Jews were fired from government services their businesses were shut down but after 1939 the policy changed it wasn't marginalization anymore it was extermination what Hitler called the final solution to the Jewish Problem millions of Jews were packed off to killing centers 6 million were murdered it's one of the darkest chapters in human history have things improved since then well the church has tried to make amends it exonerated Jews for the M of Jesus
Christ Pope John Paul II played a key role in this Outreach he visited a synagogue in 1986 he also established the vatican's relationship with Israel later the pope visited Israel's Holocaust Museum he said anti-Semitism is anti-christian yet it thrives in 2017 neo-nazis marched through the US town of Charlottesville They Carried Nazi Flags their chant was this Jews will not replace us and anti-Semitism has become a rallying call for Western far-right leaders it increases whenever Israel is at War now just to be clear criticizing Israel is not automatically anti-semitic but if that criticism is based on
race or religion it can be looking back what Europe did to Jews was unforgivable but it's also a lesson everything alien to us is not wrong everything we cannot comprehend is not wrong it's just different and that is the beauty of life and Humanity the world should try to understand and value such differences not stigmatize them that's the best tribute we can give as humans to those millions of Jews to make sure that no one goes through that pain [Music] again
