An Anti-‐Semitic Slaughter Law? the Origins of the Norwegian
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Andreas Snildal An Anti-Semitic Slaughter Law? The Origins of the Norwegian Prohibition of Jewish Religious Slaughter c. 1890–1930 Dissertation for the Degree of Philosophiae Doctor Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo 2014 2 Acknowledgements I would like to extend my gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Einhart Lorenz, who first suggested the Norwegian controversy on Jewish religious slaughter as a suiting theme for a doctoral dissertation. Without his support and guidance, the present dissertation could not have been written. I also thank Lars Lien of the Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities, Oslo, for generously sharing with me some of the source material collected in connection with his own doctoral work. The Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History has offered me excellent working conditions for three years, and I would thank in particular Professor Gro Hagemann for encouragement and not least for thought-provoking thesis seminars. A highlight in this respect was the seminar that she arranged at the Centre Franco-Norvégien en Sciences Sociales et Humaines in Paris in September 2012. I would also like to thank the Centre and its staff for having hosted me on other occasions. Fellow doctoral candidates at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History have made these past three years both socially and scholarly stimulating. In this regard, I am indebted particularly to Chalak Kaveh and Margaretha Adriana van Es, whose comments on my drafts have been of great help. ‘Extra- curricular’ projects conducted together with friends and former colleagues Ernst Hugo Bjerke and Tor Ivar Hansen have been welcome diversions from dissertation work. Lastly, I thank friends and family for support and interest, especially Andreas, Karl Kristian, Magnus, but foremost Nicolas for critical thinking and quotidian inspiration. Andreas Snildal, Oslo, March 2014 3 4 Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 3 Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Part 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 9 Background ............................................................................................................................ 9 Research Questions and Delimitation .................................................................................. 14 Historiography ...................................................................................................................... 17 Perspectives .......................................................................................................................... 26 Methodology and Sources .................................................................................................... 32 Outline .................................................................................................................................. 38 Part 2: Ideological and Institutional Background ..................................................................... 41 2.1: European Kosher Slaughter Controversies ....................................................................... 41 Switzerland – ‘Schächtfrage als Judenfrage’ ...................................................................... 42 Germany: Anti-Semitic Activism and Political Tolerance ................................................... 45 Finland: Anti-Semitism or Anti-Russian Sentiments? ......................................................... 50 Sweden: Economic Considerations over Animal Concerns? ............................................... 51 2.2: Anti-Semitic Currents and Actors in Norway c. 1910–1930 ............................................ 54 Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia in the Peasant Movement .................................................. 59 2.3: Animal Protection and Science ......................................................................................... 63 Social Structure .................................................................................................................... 65 Rejection of Scientific Authority ......................................................................................... 67 The Veterinary Authorities and the Struggle for Public Health ........................................... 69 Part 3: First phase 1890–1925. From Animal Protection Cause to Agricultural Policy .......... 71 3.1: The Animal Protection Movement and Shechita in Norway and Denmark 1890–1910 ... 71 19th-Century Slaughter Methods in Scandinavia ................................................................. 74 Shechita in Denmark and Norway ........................................................................................ 80 The 1891 Petition ................................................................................................................. 83 Reactions in Norway: Accusations of Anti-Semitism .......................................................... 86 Reactions in Denmark: Shechita Protected .......................................................................... 90 Ritual Slaughter and the Semantics of the Humane ............................................................. 91 The Cruel ‘Ritual’ ................................................................................................................ 92 Reactions to the Finnish Prohibition .................................................................................... 95 Rituals of the Past ................................................................................................................. 97 Jews and Catholics ............................................................................................................... 99 The Danish Animal Protection Movement and Shechita ................................................... 101 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 105 3.2: Slaughterhouse Reform and the 1913 Kristiania Prohibition ......................................... 107 19th-Century Slaughterhouse Reforms in Europe .............................................................. 109 The Slaughterhouse as a Heterotopic Place ....................................................................... 111 The Establishment of a Public Slaughterhouse in Kristiania ............................................. 114 Proceedings of the City Council ......................................................................................... 117 The Exclusion of the Jewish Community from the Public Slaughterhouse ....................... 119 The ‘Public Opinion’ – the Press and the Animal Protection Movement .......................... 121 The Butchers and Shechita ................................................................................................. 124 5 From Sanitary Concerns to Animal Welfare ...................................................................... 127 Out of Sight, Out of Mind? ................................................................................................ 130 3.3: The Attempt to Prohibit Shechita in Aker, 1913–1914 ................................................... 132 The Judicial Investigation of Axel Grün ............................................................................ 134 Charges Dropped ................................................................................................................ 138 Strategies of the Police and Prosecuting Authorities ......................................................... 140 The Slaughter Affair in the Press ....................................................................................... 143 An Anti-Semitic Turn? ....................................................................................................... 145 Kosher Slaughter as a Question of Civilisation ................................................................. 147 Cruelty in the Jewish Religion ........................................................................................... 149 Abuse of Religious Freedom .............................................................................................. 152 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 153 3.4: Trondheim 1919 – Tolerance, or the Lesser of Two Evils? ............................................ 155 The Establishment of the Trondheim Public Slaughterhouse ............................................ 155 A Failed Intervention ......................................................................................................... 159 A Jewish Conspiracy? ........................................................................................................ 162 ‘Our animals’ and Jewish Butchers .................................................................................... 165 Acceptance, or Tolerance ‘for the Time Being’? ............................................................... 166 3.5: Political Pressure and Bureaucratic Resistance: The Slaughter Ordinance in the Ministry of Agriculture 1914–1925 ...................................................................................................... 170 Malm’s 1914 Draft for