Charge of poisoning of the wells against the Jews

The poisoning of well is an act of malevolent handling of the sources of Drinking water, in order to cause death or the disease, or to prevent with an adversary from reaching fresh water resources.

The charges against the Jews of poisoning of well , are with the charges of ritual crime, and those of profanation of hosts, most frequently emitted during the Moyen-âge. They led to massacres and plunderings of their goods.

These charges often emerged in the event of catastrophe, epidemic, flood, dryness. The Jewish community often played the part of Scapegoat. Moreover, the Jewish often occupying of the trades of tradesmen or financial, some Débiteur S found easy to release itself from a Dette towards a Jew, while assembling the population and by organizing a Pogrom.

Among the charges of poisoning of the most notable wells, it is necessary to mention that which was propagated at the same time as the great plague of the XIVe century, and led to the disappearance of many Jewish communities of Europe.

The myth of the poisoning of the wells

Violent a epidemic of Bubonic plague (Black Death) devastation the Europe between March 1348 and spring 1351, carrying nearly one the third of the population. According to a high estimate, it is even 50% of the population of Germany which would have perished. Coming from the Central Asia via the south of the Russia, it is brought in Italy by sailors of Genoa. In March and April 1348, it is spread in Italy, Spain and in the south of the France. At the end of May, it reaches the south-west of the England. Although the Jews suffer from the plague as much as their Christian neighbors , a myth is created, mainly in Germany, that the expansion of the disease is due to a plot of the Jews to destroy the Christians, in poisoning the well of Drinking water.

This theory of the poisoning of the wells had already appeared a few thirty years before in Franconie in 1319. At that time one had shown the Jews to have poisoned the wells in order to propagate the Lèpre. The same charge had appeared two years later against the Jews in Dauphiné.

In 1348, once the launched charge, it is spread with an amazing speed of Ville downtown, of Village in village; and of the official reports are sent by the Bourgmestre S of several cities giving a report on supposed confessions of Jews which were stopped and acknowledged under torture.

The first Rumeur S seem to be produced in the north of Spain, with Barcelona, Cervera, and Tàrrega in July and June, but the true myth of the poisoning of the wells from of connection with the Black Death comes from Suisse in the current of the autumn of this year, although the Pape Clément VI has resulting in July a bubble declaring the falseness of this charge.

When the plague reaches Chillon on the Lac Léman, the Jews of the city are stopped and tortured. Certain Balavignus " confesse" that an elaborate plan was implemented by some Jews in a city of the south of France: Jacob with Paskate of Tolède, Peyret of Chambéry, and called Aboget. They would have prepared a poison made up of Cœur S of Christians, Araignée S, Grenouille S, of Lézard S, human flesh and of devoted Hostie S, and would have distributed the powder made starting from this concoction in order to throw it in the wells used by the Christians to draw drinking water. The report/ratio of ces" aveux" is sent to Châtel-Saint-Denis, Châtelard and with Bern; and of this city of the special messengers are dispatched towards all the towns of Switzerland and the High Rhineland, where pogroms occur immediately.

With Zurich, where these new charges combine with those of ritual murder, several Jews are flarings the September 21st 1348, while all the others are expelled of the city. The rumor reached Augsburg the November 22nd, then Würzburg and Munich before spreading itself in eighty towns of Bavaria where massacres of Jews occur. The next month, the epidemic reaches the High-Rhineland with the same results. With Freiburg-in-Brisgau, it is reported that four Jews of Brisach would have been sent to Freiburg with the Poison which they would have obtained with Basle, and which all the Jews of Strasbourg, Freiburg and Basle would be in the conspiracy. The January 30th 1349, all the Jews of Freiburg, except for twelve more fortunate, are killed. Richest time to be able to transmit all their goods will survive. The January 22nd, the Jews of Spire are victims in their turn. Several are killed, others Suicide NT and some agree to convert with the Christian faith in order to escape death.

Great massacres

During this time, the report/ratio on the alleged confessions arrives to Basle, Cologne, and Strasbourg. The mayor of Strasbourg refuses to accept the rumors and declares his intention to protect the Jews from the city. He is dislocated at once of his station and the February 16th 1349, more than 2000 Jews perishes on a Bûcher. The goods of the Jews are then plundered and divided between the Bourgeois of the city, the évêché and the Municipalité. The latter guarantees impunity with its citizens having taken part in the massacres.

The Jews of Worms are the following victims and not less than 400 of them are burned alives on March 1st, 1349. The July 24th, of the Jews of Frankfurt prefer immoler in Holocauste thus destroying by fire part of the city. The greatest number of victim is recorded with Mainz, where more than 600 Jews perish the August 22nd 1349. In this city, for the first time, the Jews defend themselves and kill more than 200 rioters, but in front of the number of their oppressors and the unequal fight, they are barricaded on their premises and vis-a-vis the choice dying of hunger or being baptized, put fire at their houses and perish in the flames. Two days later, it is the turn of the Jews of Cologne and the same month (although other files mention the March 21st), the 3000 Jewish inhabitants of Erfurt are victims of the popular superstition and hatred.

Punishment of the rioters

During this time, the protection of the duke of Austria avoids with the fatal madness being spread in its territories, except notable for the town of Krems where the September 29th the rabble succeeds in overflowing the soldiers protecting the ghetto and where all the Jews of the city are burned alives.

The last month of 1349 sees the attack of the Jews of Nuremberg (the December 6th), of Hanover, and Brussels. Then the popular madness is calmed and the leaders of the principalities and cities Germanic must determine the punishment to inflict to the assassins Jews and especially that to make rich person goods and possessions which the Jews left. Very little is done to seek the culprits and to punish them. The social fabric in its unit is completely disorganized by the terrible epidemic, and even if they had had the intention of it, the leaders do not judge necessary to increase devastation by punishing the murderers. The emperor however imposes an enormous fine of 20.000 marks silver to the inhabitants of Frankfurt for the loss which it underwent because of the massacre of the Jews. Other fines are inflicted by the officers of the imperial treasure.

The principal sanction comes from an imperial law which gives in heritage to the emperor the totality of the debts due to the Jews, so that except for specific cases where the evidence of the debts disappeared, the debtors, often at the origin of the disorders, gained these murders very little. In description above, only the principal massacres were mentioned (see the chart). The Jews were attacked in more than 340 cities of the Germanic empire (territory which currently covers Germany, Switzerland, the Alsace, Austria, the Belgium, the Netherlands) because of the Black Death, according to the Memorbuch of Nuremberg. That represents almost the totality of the cities where Jews in the middle of the XIVe century lived, except for the Austrian territories where they were relatively saved.

Conclusion

It is difficult to give an account of the inefficiency of the authorities against these explosions of popular fury. At the time already, he is recognized perfectly, such as for example by the municipal council of Cologne, that a riot against the Jews generally puts in danger the social order. The losses for the princely treasures and the imperial treasure are enormous. And in spite of that, far from taking measures to avoid these riots, the emperor has, in several cases, guaranteed in advance the impunity of the culprits of the crimes by organizing by advance the distribution of the houses and the goods of the Jews in the event of a riot. This occurred to Nuremberg, Ratisbon, Augsburg, and Frankfurt, and certainly in other cities. There is little doubt that the authorities if not took part, at least let make the rioters and in some exceptions close believed in the rumor of the poisoning of the wells.

Whole Jewish communities disappear following the massacres. It is the case among most important, of those of Strasbourg, Mainz and Erfurt. The others see the number of their members reduced considerably following the plague, with the massacres and forced conversions. From an economic standpoint, the majority of the Jewish districts were plundered and the burnt houses. As for the debtors of the Jews, the many ones died of the plague and the majority of the others refuse to recognize their debts. The Jews of Bavaria for example if are impoverished that the Margrave exempts them taxes during two years.

From this period, the Jews of the Germanic empire live permanently in fear of similar attacks; and the civil authorities adopt plans of expulsion like only means of finishing some with the Jewish question. At the end of the XVe century, there remain nothing any more but three important Jewish communities in all the German empire.

References

• This article is partially or entirely resulting from a translation of the article from the Jewish Encyclopedia in English: " Black Death" , a publication of 1901-1906 maintaining in the public domain.