Antisemitism is another word for hatred of Jews.
It has existed for a very long time and still exists today.
When Jews are verbally or physically abused this is called antisemitism.
The murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II
is the most extreme example of antisemitism.
But how did it come about?
And how do you recognize antisemitism?
But first, what makes a person Jewish?
You are Jewish when you have a Jewish mother. Many Jews are religious.
But there are different movements within Judaism.
You can also be Jewish without believing in God.
Many Jews see themselves as part of the Jewish people.
Jews live all over the world. That has been the case for 2000 years.
Ever since the Romans took the Jews into slavery
and brought them to Rome in the year 70 A.D.
After this, Jews spread out all over the world.
Jews are a small minority in many countries.
Often, they are farmers, traders or labourers
living together peacefully with the other people.
But often Jews were forced to live separately, isolated from the rest.
Sometimes they lived in a ghetto, a closed-off neighbourhood within the city.
During the Middle Ages, the era from the year 500 to 1500
Jews were also a minority in Europe.
Most people in Europe were Christians and they had little contact with Jews.
Old prints show that Jews were viewed as different or that they were hated even.
Christians did not like that the Jews had a different religion.
And that they did not see Jesus as their Saviour and the son of God.
Some Christians even saw Jews as the people who murdered Jesus.
Jews also had different customs. That is why Jews were often discriminated against.
And many professions were prohibited to Jews
but they were allowed to work in trade and finance.
The negative image of Jews continued to exist beyond the Middle Ages.
When a country wasn't doing well, negative stories about Jews started to appear.
They were excluded and even persecuted.
Because a small but visible group of Jews was working in trade or finance
they were accused of being power-hungry
causing all kinds of ghost stories about Jews to appear.
These stories were handed down
from generation to generation and became deeply rooted.
During the 20s and 30s of the 20th century
Hitler and the Nazis used these old ghost stories. They made Jews into scapegoats.
For example, Hitler accused Jews of being the cause of the economic crisis.
Losing WWI was also their fault according to Hitler.
Hitler and the Nazis saw the world as a struggle between the human races.
More and more people started to believe that Jews caused problems
and that the Germanic people were better.
If international financial Jewry should succeed, within and outside Europe
to plunge the nations into a World War again
the result will not be worldwide Bolshevik rule and the victory of Jewry
but rather the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe.
In 1933, Hitler and the Nazis came to power in Germany.
They took more and more measures to discriminate against Jews.
For example, Jews were not allowed to marry other Germans anymore.
People were also called upon not to buy from Jewish-owned shops anymore.
In 1939, WWII started. Germany conquered country after country in Europe.
In 1941, the Nazis decided
to systematically persecute and kill all Jews in Europe.
This is called the Holocaust or the Shoah.
And not only Jews.
Other groups like disabled, Roma and Sinti and gay people were also persecuted.
A total of six million Jews were killed.
WWII ended in 1945, but antisemitism still exists.
It shows up in different places, in different ways. Sometimes very openly
when people on the street are verbally or physically abused for looking Jewish.
When Jewish cemeteries or places of prayer are vandalised.
Or when anti-Jewish slogans are chanted during soccer games.
Hatred and prejudices against Jews can also be found online.
For example, myths like: Jews are secretly in power in many countries.
Jews control the media or Jews control the global financial markets.
Myths and ghost stories that are from the Middle Ages and still exist today.
Sometimes it is unclear whether something is antisemitism or not.
Lethal attacks on Jewish people are a clear case.
But discussions about the Middle East or Israel are harder to judge.
Some people make remarks that are obviously hateful against all Jews.
But criticism on Israel is not always antisemitic.
Prejudices, negative remarks and extreme opinions can be offensive to Jews.
They contribute to a negative image of all Jews
and to the age-old ghost stories and myths.
In short, antisemitism has existed for a long time.
And, unfortunately, it still does.