European Antisemitism from Its Origins to the Holocaust

This 13-minute film introduces the history of antisemitism. The term was coined in the 19th century and refers to prejudice against or hatred of Jews. But as this film shows, anti-Jewish hostility goes back many centuries—to the era of early Christianity and the Middle Ages. As a religious minority, Jews in Christian-dominant Europe were consistently persecuted as “outsiders.” They became scapegoats and victims of targeted violence in times of severe hardship and economic and political change. Anti-Jewish prejudices endured and took on new forms as western societies became more secular in the 19th century, and Jews gained more rights and opportunities. Some politicians used “the Jews” as scapegoats in their attempts to gain support from people left behind by economic change. Ultra-nationalists, seeking ethnically homogeneous nations, saw Jews as biologically “foreign”—a different “race.” Antisemites also hatched conspiracy theories about “Jewish power” and that, after World War I and the Russian Revo