The History of Blood Libel

Transcript for: The Power of a Lie: The History of Blood Libel

Hatreds are rooted in stereotypes and myths. The lies persist despite heroic efforts to set the record straight. We are going to examine one of the most powerful and pernicious of those lies, the Blood Libel. It is false claim that Jews engage in ritual murder—that is, religiously sanctioned murder. It has been traced England in the 12 th century.

1. Church Photo and/or 2. Blinded Synagogue The 1100s were a time when many Christians were outraged that Jews refused to convert to Christianity. They saw the Jews’ refusal as a willful and obstinate denial of what they perceived as “God’s truth.” They expressed their anger in words and images that dehumanized and demonized Jews. It was in this charged atmosphere that some Christians began to accuse Jews of ritual murder. The accusation came at a time when life was precarious in Europe. And, as in other times of great fear and anxiety, many people found it all too easy to blame “them”—the people who are not like “us”—for every tragedy, every hardship, every loss.

3. Blood Libels Map 1144-1500, base map appears German Empire, France and England and then zooms into England and Norwich with first appearance of blood libel in 1144 (about 12 seconds total). The blood libel grew out of an incident that took place in Norwich, England, in 1144. On Good Friday, a woodsman discovered the body of a missing child in a forest near his home. The man claimed that young William’s death had to be the work of Jews, because no Christian would have murdered a child so brutally. The boy’s distraught family agreed. The authorities did not. They firmly stated that there was no proof that any Jew was involved. No one was punished for the child’s death.

4. William of Norwich Five years later, a monk named Thomas of Monmouth arrived in Norwich. After hearing the gossip, he decided that the boy’s death was no ordinary murder; it was a ritual murder . He claimed that “the Jews” were re-enacting the crucifixion. He charged that every year they killed an innocent child in much the way “they” killed Christ. He insisted that in 1144 the country they chose was England and the city Norwich. The chosen child was William of Norwich.

5. Map of Blood Libels, 1144-1500 Within just 50-years time, Christians in 8 European cities had accused Jews of ritual murder. In 1255, a new element was added to those charges in the German town of Fulda. It was the strange notion that “the Jews” murder innocent children “for their blood.” By the end of the 13 th century, the number of known accusations had more than tripled and spread to almost every part of Europe, despite the many rulers and popes who insisted that this charge was false. They insisted that Judaism does not permit ritual murder.

6. Blood Libel Drawing Over the centuries the blood libel became rooted in Christian culture in part because it tapped into the fears and anxieties of parents and children alike. It also had particular appeal to the greedy and the corrupt. As Pope Gregory X noted in 1271, some Christians purposely hid their children so that they could use the blood libel to extort money from Jews.

7. Blood Libel in Nazi Propaganda In the 12 th and 13 th centuries, the blood libel was rooted in religious beliefs. When those beliefs changed, the lie persisted. By the 1800s, it was often linked to notions of “race.” Accusations that Jews engage in ritual murder were now considered “proof” of the depravity of the so-called “Jewish race.” In the 1930s and 1940s, Adolf Hitler and his followers used the blood libel as propaganda.

8. Map of Poland, Kielce indicated and/or 9. Photo of 7 Planty, site of the Kielce pogrom

To the surprise of many people, the blood libel continued to incite violence long after the Holocaust ended. On July 4, 1946, a 9-year-old boy in Poland falsely claimed that “the Jews” had dumped him into a sack and then carried him to a basement where he witnessed the murder of 15 Christian children “for their blood.” Within hours of his supposed escape from “the Jews,” 5,000 angry Polish protestors surrounded a building owned by the Jewish community and attacked the Jews inside—nearly all of whom were survivors of Auschwitz and other death camps. When the rampage ended, about 75 Jews were injured and 41 were dead, including a number of infants. Police officers and soldiers rushed to the scene but did not even try to stop the violence.

10 and 11. Close up of Faces Carrying Coffin and Powerful Image of Survivors of Kielce And nearly 700 years after Innocent IV had become the first of pope to confirm that Jews do not practice ritual murder, Poland’s cardinal and all but one of his bishops insisted that the matter had not yet been settled. By the end of 1946, a virulent antisemitism had driven thousands of Jews from Poland, and many others were eager to join them.

The blood libel reveals much about the way a lie becomes imbedded in a society. It also reveals why antisemitism persists—it is a very convenient hatred.