A Jewish Journey. Sheldon Cohen
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to astrological forces to Jews. Of these four etiologies, Jews were the only controllable choice, so their inquisitors tortured them. Under such duress, some confessed to anything and the word went out that the Jews had poisoned the wells.
It became local government policy to rid the area of the Jews. The townspeople divided all the Jew’s money and other possessions. The local populace drowned or burned the Jews to death. Thus did most of them perish. Many who managed to escape this punishment committed suicide by cremating themselves in their own homes.
Pope Clement VI lost seven cardinals as well as eleven thousand of his subjects in the city of Avignon. He refused to accept his advisors suggestion that the plague resulted from a conjunction of stars and planets, so he ordered autopsies in an attempt to determine the cause. This was one of the first pioneering efforts in the field of pathologic anatomy. He also refused to accept the suggestion that Jews were the cause since he observed that Jews were dying as fast as were their Christian neighbors. However, his efforts were not enough and by the time the plague had passed, very few Jews remained alive in Western Europe. In Oberammergau, in 1633, the panicky townspeople gathered in a little parish church and vowed to produce the drama of the Suffering and Death of Jesus every ten years if only the plague would disappear.
God answered their prayers. The plague abated and soon, with the help of monks from a neighboring monastery, the villagers fulfilled their promise.
From the 1670’s on, every decade beheld an ever-enlarging spectacle portrayed with fervor and devotion by the townspeople. The reputation of the Passion Play spread throughout Europe, and increasing numbers of the faithful came for religious renewal.
In the 1840s, the Passion Play committee consisted of twenty-four Oberammergau citizens. Their responsibility was to organize and market the coming play, and choose the principle actors from the many Oberammergau citizens clamoring to participate. This selection process took place six months in advance of the play and the townspeople held their collective breaths waiting to see if they received a part. The only ones eligible were town citizens and at least half of them participated.
The people of the town felt responsible for this important task. To them the play was their sacred tradition handed down from generation to generation. For the six months prior to the opening of the play, the citizens stopped all town amusements and concentrated on rehearsals.
The Passion Play from medieval times to the 1840s remained unchanged. The villains, the deicidal Jews, find Jesus guilty of “blasphemy” and they turn him over to the Romans for sentencing. A Jewish mob led by Caiphus demands punishment for Jesus, and the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate, agrees to their demands by condemning him to the cross.
The story line rotated around the battle between absolute goodness (Jesus) and absolute evil (the Jews) that collaborated with devils to kill Jesus. In the eighteenth c century, the Jews were clad with prominent double horned hats. The point needed emphasis; the Jews assumed the role of the devil.
Caiaphas, portrayed as leading the Jews against Jesus, was a member of the Sadducee sect, all descended from aristocrats and priests. They accepted the authority of the written Torah and viewed the priests as the only experts on Jewish law. Their primary form of worship was the cult of sacrifice. They did not believe in the concept of an immortal soul. They did not accept a divine afterlife with its punishment or rewards. They denied the existence of angels. A minority of Jews, influenced by the Roman culture supported the Sadducees. This relationship assured that the Romans would always appoint a Sadducee as High Priest.
The majority of Jews were Pharisees. They accepted the written Torah and believed that at Mount Sinai, God handed down an oral Jewish law tradition that they were responsible for interpreting. They also believed in the immortality of the soul, and thus a divine reward/punishment system in an afterlife. The Pharisees taught and encouraged study and prayer as the proper form of Jewish worship. Many Pharisees thought of Jesus as an important Rabbi and teacher.
CHAPTER 3
BERLIN, GERMANY (1875)
Following the German victory over France in the War of 1870, an intense nationalism under Bismarck replaced German liberal, democratic ideas. A new German Reich, dominated by Prussia and German militarism, saw a further inhibition of democratic principles including an eventual outlawing of the Social Democratic Party.
As this new system evolved, anti-Semitism increased. The word went out that Jews caused the economic depression of 1873.
Otto Bauemler, molded in this milieu of anti-Semitism, left Oberammergau to study philosophy and history at the University of Berlin. He was the first member of his family to attend a university and his father saw him off with great pride and hope. At five feet and ten inches, he was three inches taller than his father, had brown and wavy hair and his upper body was well built, developed from assisting his father over the anvil. But in time, as he immersed himself in academia, he lost the muscular definition. His skill at debating put him at the head of his class, and his professors took note of this promising student.
With his father’s influence behind him, Otto sought and had no trouble finding student organizations that had anti-Semitism as their principle ticket to membership. Anti-Semitic fellow students and teachers influenced his thinking. He graduated with high honors, remained in the academic environment, and achieved a full professorship in German history. He had published many articles and as his influence grew, he became a founding member of the Christian Social Worker’s Party.
The underlying philosophy of this hoped for political force was their virulent anti-Semitism. The Jews were involved in a conspiracy for world dominance. It behooved all German Christians to protect themselves against the insidious treachery of the Jew. Restrictive anti-Semitic legislation was necessary to restrict Jewish influence.
In the eyes of the Christian Social Worker’s Party, and as stated in a speech delivered by Otto Bauemler: “Die Juden sind unser ungluck” (the Jews are our misfortune). This slogan took on a life of its own, and fifty years later, the Nazis adopted it as their rallying cry.
Otto Bauemler advocated an initial five-point approach to controlling Jewish influence in Germany:
1.The Jew’s influence in the judiciary was to be limited.
2.Jewish immigration is outlawed.
3.No Jew could serve in any government position.
4.No Jew could serve in the military.
5.Only Christian teachers could teach in grammar schools.
In his role as a history professor, he was an agitating force in the lives of many students. His positions caused considerable controversy amongst the university authorities, and they forced him to leave. In his mind, there was no doubt as to the reason—a Jewish plot was behind his failure to keep his post.
This only reinforced his often-taught conviction that Judaism was a separate race apart from humanity. No effort to convert or to assimilate Jews was feasible. Their basic nature was the personification of evil. The influence of the Devil was all-consuming, and exorcism was impossible.
Otto said. “Jews were a foreign drop of blood in the German body; one with destructive power!” He also said. “The Jew who turned away the Savior was cursed to wander the earth. Jews have so dispersed themselves that they found rest nowhere. And they never would until they find the true Messiah.”
Preceding Nazism, Otto claimed that the German people were now the chosen people of the Christian era. The Jew had been the chosen of the pre-Christian era, but because they rejected the Messiah, they were doomed. The Jew who turned away the Savior had to wander the earth forever. There was no chance of co-existing with the Jew. His father was right all the time. How wise he was. A mere blacksmith, forced to interrupt his education at an early age, but still able to comprehend the Jewish threat to the world. His father’s legacy would not die.
By the 1880’s, a torrent of German anti-Semitism was to be unleashed; more political parties adopted the creed. Many unions arose which had anti-Semitism