An example of the Russian anti-Semitism was in 1881, at Easter, there were attacks on Jews, called Pogroms, in 100 villages in southern Russia. This was because Easter time is a great Christian festival, which looked back on the crucifixion of Jesus, which the Jews were blamed for. The police did nothing to stop these attacks. The peasants who attacked the Jews said they were doing what the Tsar wanted. Which was actually true.
In the following year, 1882, the May laws were introduced. They were new laws against the Jews; they were supposed to be temporary, but remained until 1914. These laws included rules such as, the Jews had to move away from the cities and move into the towns, only a certain number of Jews could go to school or university, and Jews could only work certain jobs.
Because of these harsh laws many of the Jews left Russia, they emigrated, about 100,000 each year during the 1880’s. After 1891 groups of Jews were evicted, by notice and then force, to leave Russia by the government. They would send a few soldiers to tell the Jews living in the town, and if they did not comply with the orders they would be forced to leave by violence and abuse.
This led to the cruellest pogroms against the Jews in 1903 and 1905. In one week in 1905 there were 607 Pogroms in different parts of Russia, leaving hundreds of Jews dead, thousands wounded, and tens of thousands homeless. When the rest of the world heard about these attacks they were shocked and many important people protested, including famous writer Leo Tolstoy.
Also in 1905 the Tsar’s secret police published a book, a complete forgery, called ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’. This pretended to be a plan by the leaders of the Jews all over the world, to take over the world. Although it was completely made up, this book was read and believed by many Russians and other countries, especially Germany, and made the anti-Semitism worse for the Jews. Later the Nazis were to use this book in their anti-Jewish propaganda.
By 1914 over 2 million Jews had left Russia and emigrated to the USA, Germany, Austria, Britain and France.
The Jews in France had a completely different lifestyle that the Jews in Russia. Jews in France had a good position since the French Revolution of 1789, which brought in ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’, and so led to equal rights for the French people, including the Jews.
In the period of 1880-1920 French Jews were successful and accepted into French society. It was a time of optimism, where the Jews were looking forward to their future in France. They were also integrated into society. They were fully part of the French society. And finally they were assimilated, they were willing to play down there differences and be seen as French first And Jewish second.
There were only 86,000 Jews in France out of a population of 40 million, so the Jews were a very small minority of the population in France. This may explain why not many people saw them as a threat.
There is a lot of evidence of Jewish success in France, for example the Jewish Church had blended in and was not seen as very different from other religions. Also individual Jewish people achieved great success in education and won high awards and honours.
But there was still anti-Semitism underneath the surface of the French society. There were race theories, based on social Darwinism, several books were written which said the Jews were an inferior race, which was a danger to superior races. Also there was envy; some Frenchmen were jealous of the Jew’s success and wealth. In 1892 there was a famous corruption case over the building of the Panama Canal, and the Jews were accused of all sorts of financial cheating to do with this. And also clerical anti-Semitism, part of the French Catholic church began to attack the Jews, almost like the way the church attacked the Jews in the Middle Ages.
These reasons for hating the Jews got worse when many Jews arrived in France as refugees from Eastern Europe, refugees from Russia. After the Russian pogroms of 1881 120,000 Jews came to France. Altogether the number of Jew’s in France doubled. But many of the newly arrived Jews were much more traditional in their dress and customs, much more religious than the French Jews already there, and so they stuck out more and people began to notice them more and more.
The most famous case of the anti-Semitism laying just below the surface in the French society was the Dreyfus case. Alfred Dreyfus was a Jew who came to Paris and was the first Jew to be selected for Officer training in the army; this was where anti-Semitism towards the Jews was still strong. In 1894 he was accused of being a spy for the German government. A French Major, Esterhazy, the real spy, set him up along with the help of a senior officer, Major Henry who also hated Jews. He was tried in front of a court and found guilty of being a spy and sent to prison on Devil’s Island, a French colony off the coast of South Africa.
The French Jews wanted to play down the case because they didn’t wasn’t to draw attention to themselves, it might make the French people think that all Jews were traitors. But many French people believed that Dreyfus had been found guilty because he was a Jew, so they campaigned for the full enquiry. This split France into 2 sides, those for the Dreyfus case and those against Dreyfus. Many important people got involved. Eventually Dreyfus was returned to France and accepted a pardon, this still made him seem guilty, so many of his supporters were not happy about it.
The result of this case was that anti-Semitism grew and France was split between those who wanted Jews to be seen as full and equal members of society and those who saw them as a threat and potential traitors. This was like what was happening in Germany; some people liked the Jews some people didn’t.
In 1880 German Jews had the same legal rights as all the other Germans; they had legal equality. But there were still some restrictions against Jews in things like education, the army and especially the government.
Also in the 1880’s some people began to believe that there were various human races which formed a ladder of sorts, with the White, Aryan race at the top, and the Jews, along with Blacks and Slavs, at the bottom. This idea was developed from the writings of Charles Darwin, a British scientist who had discovered the theory of evolution. Because this race idea was based on Darwin’s work it was sometimes called ‘Social Darwinism’
Because of this idea, Jews were hated because of their race and religion. They were regarded as an inferior race threatened the survival of the superior, Aryan race. In spite of this most German Jews had become part of German society by the end of the 19th century; they were assimilated, like what happened in France. There were only 250,000 Jews in Germany, only 1% of the population, and their numbers were going down. Most Jews were optimistic about their future, again like France. They saw themselves as Germans first and Jews second. They trued to be good citizens, patriotic and law-abiding. In-fact many gave up their religion so that they were more like other Germans.
Many Jews were successful in business, politics, industry, banking, the arts, publishing and science. One successful Jew, Walter Rotheman, became a close friend of the Kaiser, Wilhelm the 2nd.
The Jewish success in Germany could be summed up in 2 words, Emancipation, having the same legal rights as other Germans. And Integration, being fully part of the German society. German Jews had their best times between 1890 and 1914 when German economy was strong and everyone fairly wealthy.
In World War 1 German Jews fought in the army and 12,000 were killed. They fought as Germans, alongside Germans. But again, like France, under the surface of their success there were still strong anti-Semitic feelings waiting to emerge. For example, after World War 1 many Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe, Russia, to Germany. Again like France they tended to be more religious and still have their traditional customs and tradition. They often lived together in certain areas, ghettos, and so were more obvious. All this made Jews easier to attack and to blame when things started to go wrong in Germany after the war.
In conclusion France and Germany were had similar situations with the Jews in their country. They were accepted and lived beside one another for a while. But there was anti-Semitism laying in wait to emerge, and when it finally did it split the country in half. Usually new Jews emigrating from Russia but still keeping their traditions strong caused the rise in anti-Semitism in both countries. Where as in Russia the Jews were hated since their arrival by everyone, and were forced to live in certain areas.
