The Status and Position of European Jews at the Beginning of the 20th Century

The Status and Position of European Jews at the Beginning of the 20th Century

A Jew is a person belonging to the religion of the Jewish faith. At

the beginning of the 20th century many Jews occupied land in Europe.

The Jews had many different positions and status's depending on which

country they were living in, in some places Jews were welcomed as part

of the community but in other places there were always those who were

suspicious of them. Jews were discriminated (singled out) against by

many different ethnic groups before the 20th century, they were

especially discriminated against by Christians, as they believed Jews

were to blame for the death of Jesus. They were also discriminated

against because of their different traditions and beliefs.

An example of Anti-Semitism (prejudice against the Jews) happened

around the time of 1345AD, at this time they were accused of starting

the Black Death. Jews were also accused of sacrificing children during

certain celebrations. None of this was true but because of those

rumours they were from then on seen as outsiders. Hatred against the

Jews led to violence in England in 1189 and 1290, in Germany in 1345

and in Spain in1492.

A great amount of the Jewish population lived in Russia but many were

forced to live in a part of Russia known as The Pale (which is now in

Poland.) If a Jewish person wished to live outside of The Pale they

needed permission that was almost impossible to gain hold of. People

living in The Pale at this time often became very poor as business

owners could not compete with each other and bring in good enough

profits. Inside Russia Jews had a very low status and were sti...

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was known that not all people whom were shot died and therefore waited

until nighttime when they would climb out of the trench of bodies in a

bid to escape.

The status and the position of the Jews got progressively worse as did

the persecution. People who were not Jewish but were married to Jews

or found to be helping Jews out had to suffer. By the time that the

Second World War had ended and all concentration and death camps had

been shut down it was recorded that Hitler and the Nazis had murdered

over 6 million Jews in what is know to day as the holocaust (death by

fire.) Hitler and the Nazis did all of this as part of their plan for

a greater Germany and a perfect race, although they managed to wipe

out a great number of the Jewish population they still failed in their

doings after coming to defeat in 1945.