Hatred of the Jews

Comparing the Treatment of Jews in the 1000’s of the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 1940’s

by Andrew Creech

         The Jews in Medieval times were treated very badly, but during the Holocaust of the 1900’s, it was much worse.
         In the middle ages, Christians and Jews had been living in harmony.  In fact, many Jews had climbed the social ladder and were merchants, artisans, and landowners.  But around 1000 A.D., the Christians started to turn on the Jews.  For some unknown reason, they suddenly began to believe that Jews were outsiders and threats to society.  Jews were even blamed for causing plagues, famines, and other natural disasters.
         Because of this false accusation, the Christians began to persecute the Jews.  To begin with, they attacked the Jews.  The Christians killed thousands of Jews.
         Most of the beliefs that Jews were a menace from the church of all things.  The leaders of the church were able to “find” evidence in the Bible that Jews were responsible for killing Jesus.  This is a stupid claim because Jesus came here to die, not to live to be eighty and then die.
         The church even met and made requirements for Jews.  They required them some Jews to wear badges or certain cloths so that others would be able to tell that they were Jews.  Some areas forced Jews to mover to Ghettos, which were special communities for just Jews.  The rules took away Jew’s right to own land.  In order to survive without land, many Jews had to become peddlers or money-lenders.  These jobs were hated by Christians. 
Christians even went as far as expelling Jews from their land.  To get away from persecution, many Jews moved to Poland.
The Holocaust started in 1941.  In this year, the Nazi leaders applied a plan to help reach their goal of complete extermination of all Jews in Europe.
The Nazis duplicated several techniques from the middle ages.  They kicked Jews out of jobs and schools.  They forced Jews to wear badges that were imprinted with the Star of David.
The Jews reacted by running away or hiding.  But many were caught and sent to concentration camps or Ghettos.  These were camps that were just for Jews.  The Jews in Ghettos were mistreated, staved, and diseased.  Even though they were living such awful lives, many Jews tried to stay hopeful.  Some of them led secret classes to learn skills and trades.
In January 1942, the Nazis came up with a plan to permanently destroy the Jews.  They went around and shot any Jews that they saw.  Or they would send them to death camps.  These camps were awful.  Many Jews were killed in poison gas chambers.  Some of them were killed by Nazi doctors who were doing cruel experiments on them.
Jews were treated worse than any other ethnic group ever has in the history of the world.  Just reading it makes people want to kill all of the German.  This is, however, not fair because it was just the Nazi leaders who hated the Jews, not all of the civilians and soldiers, who did not have a choice.