What was anti-semitism like before 1933?

Answer 1

Anti-Semitism had been widespread in much of Europe and in the New World, too, for a very long time indeed. However, one needs to bear in mind that there's a great difference between being anti-Jewish and trying to exterminate whole Jewish populations. In the last few decades of the 19th century (from about 1870 onwards) it became racial, whereas previously it had been directed against the members of the Jewish religion. Also, in the period between about 1880 and 1910 it became an "-ism", a political ideology. Using all kinds of conspiracy theories, it claimed to have a cure for mankind's political and social ills. In this respect it was unlike earlier "religious" hostility towards the Jews. Anti-Semitism increased in the period from about 1880-1914. It was particularly strong in France (Dreyfus Affair and related matters), in some parts of Austria-Hungary (Vienna, for example) and above all, in Tsarist Russia, where the secret police actively encouraged violence against Jews (pogroms). Large numbers of Russian Jews fled westwards, to the U.S., to Britain and to France, too (despite the problems there). From 1918 onwards much of the world was gripped by fears of "Bolshevism". There was a widespread perception that Jews were subversives and Communists. (This was based in part on the rather high proportion of people of Jewish origin in the very early leadership of the Soviet Union. In view of the appalling treatment of the Jews under the Tzars, there was nothing surprising about this). In Europe one reaction to Bolshevism was the rise of Fascism, but in many countries this wasn't specifically anti-Semitic. Many anti-Communist refugees from Russia in the early 1920s were rabidly anti-Semitic and spread their ideology in Western and Central Europe - and to some extent in the New World. In the 1920s anti-Semitism in Europe was particularly strong in Poland, Romania, France and along the Danube (in Austria, for example, and also Hungary). One popular theory is that anti-Semitism tended to appeal in particular to people and organizations that were having really serious problems adapting to the modern world. Until 1933 Germany was regarded as a country where anti-Semitism was not particularly strong, and Jews elsewhere thought in the period c. 1900-1932 that Germany was a good place to live. After all, Germany had a good reputation as a civilized country, and civilized countries don't practice legally enforced racism or persecute minorities - or so it was thought. The German Jews were caught by surprise by what happened when the Nazis came to power. There's evidence that the German population, at least in the early years of Nazi rule, wasn't particularly anti-Semitic. For example, the boycott of Jewish businesses, ordered by the Nazis for 1st April 1933 was largely a flop.

Answer 2

Cultural anti-Semitism has been around for at least 2200 years, with the literature of the ancient Greeks containing vicious anti-Jewish diatribes. Several of these tirades were penned by famous Greeks who are considered as pillars of civilization, and have had their poisonous opinions in the public eye ever since then. This continued with the Romans and throughout the entire history of Christianity and has never disappeared since.

Answer 3

There was 1900 years of anti-Jewish sentiment, old habits/prejudice/traditions all lived on. The New Testament is full of antisemitic messages, all you needed WA to find a Christian and you found an antisemite.

Answer 4

There was growing antisemitism in Europe before 1933. Especially in Poland, which had been a haven for Jews since the fifteenth century when they were expelled from many countries. It was because of this issue that many Jews left Poland for Germany, which led to a lot of discontent in Germany and provided Hitler with a platform to stand on politically.

Answer 5

Pretty much the same, except that before Hitler the antisemites did not possess Volkswagen-powered gas chambers.