Explain the status and position of the European Jews at the end of the19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Refer to Russia, Germany and France.

Due to the French revolution of 1789, which gave ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ to all citizens of France, Jews had legal rights as normal citizens. In the years of 1880-1920 Jews were integrated into everyday life, as in France they were in a small minority, so they did not stand out. They were successful; they were educated and achieved success in their professions. However, due to this success they gained respect but also incurred the jealousy of non-Jews who made various accusations, for instance of financial fraud in the making if the Panama Canal. There was a hint of anti-Semitism during this period but as Jews from Russia immigrated to France anti-Semitism started to grow, when the total population of Jews doubled. Because of these huge numbers Jews stood out more, also they were much more traditional than the original integrated French Jews. They dressed differently, and their customs were also different and people were afraid of the number of Jews increasing. It had become a common topic of how to deal with them. The Dreyfus case is a fine example of anti-Semitism; he was the first Jewish man to be offered officer training (in the army, where anti-Semitism was strong), he was wrongly accused of being a German spy by the French Major Henry, the spy himself, who was anti-Semitic. He was sent to jail on Devil’s Island. This case divided the country, people for Dreyfus and people against him. Eventually Dreyfus returned to France and accepted a pardon, though his supporters did not approve of this because this made him seem guilty.

In 1880 Germany Jews had equal legal rights, but some restrictions did apply, for example in education, the armed forces and the government. There were many famous Germans who made anti-Semitic statements, for example Alfred Stocker said “Jews were a danger to the German Nation”. During the 1880’s people started to believe that the human races were part of a hierarchy with the Aryan race at the top, and Jews, blacks and Slavs at the bottom. This was based on the work of Charles Darwin who defined and enunciated evolution; this is called ‘social Darwinism’. Only 1% of the total population were Jews, there were assimilated so these problems did not have much effect.  Jews acted as proper Germans, patriotic and law abiding, also optimistic of their future. In some cases Jews even abandoned their religion to fit in. Emancipated and integrated, Jews were part of Germany and some were extremely successful, for instance Walter Rotheman a friend of Kaiser Wilhelm II. But under the surface waiting to erupt was anti-Semitism. The emigration of traditional strongly religious Jews from Russia, who were much more conspicuous than the liberal Jews. This made them an easy target for the failure in World War 1, and this was the starting point for the persecution of the Jews and the rides of anti-Semitism.

The position of Jews in Europe was never totally equal to the host population, and they always experienced anti-Semitism in some way. The worst being in Russia where Jews were legally restricted in many ways and chose to emigrate from Russia. In France and Germany anti-Semitism was not so intense but still under the surface waiting to sprout. The anti-Semitism in France and Germany grew following the influx of Jews from Russia, and the growing strength of the philosophy of  Social Darwinism which provided opportunistic politicians a convenient excuse for the misfortunes of the country