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Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides

Crusades

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“ … they rose in a spirit of cruelty against the Jewish people scattered throughout these cities and slaughtered them without mercy, especially in the Kingdom of Lorraine, asserting it to be the beginning of their expedition and their duty against the enemies of the Christian faith. This slaughter of Jews was done first by citizens of Cologne. These suddenly fell upon a small band of Jews and severely wounded and killed many; they destroyed the houses and synagogues of the Jews and divided among themselves a very large, amount of money. When the Jews saw this cruelty, about two hundred in the silence of the night began flight by boat to Neuss. The pilgrims and crusaders discovered them, and after taking away all their possessions, inflicted on them similar slaughter, leaving not even one alive.”  

 Albert of Aix, Eyewitness of the First Crusade, 1096

Execution of the Jews

"Execution of Jews," illustration from a 13th century "Bible moralisée" [Moralized Bible]

“Now it came to pass that as they passed through the towns where Jews dwelled, they said to one another: “Look now, we are going a long way to seek out the profane shrine [the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem] and to avenge ourselves on the Ishmaelites [the Muslims], when here in our very midst, are the Jews—they whose forefathers murdered and crucified him for no reason. Let us first avenge ourselves on them and exterminate them from among the nations so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered, or let them adopt our faith and acknowledge of promiscuity [Jesus]. “ 

The Chronicle of Solomon bar Simson, 1140 

Discussion Questions:

1. What was the purpose of the Crusades?   

2. Why did these attacks occur in Europe?  

3. What religious antisemitic notions did the Crusaders use to justify their actions? 

4. Identify features of the illustration that expand upon the reading selections and explain the connection. 

Sources

Krey, A. (1921). The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants. Princeton University Press.  
Albert of Aix (Aachen), historian of the First Crusade gathered oral and written testaments of participants in the Crusade and provided a chronicle on the subject, the Historia expeditionis Hierosolymitanae (“History of the Expedition to Jerusalem”).. Little is known about his life. He himself never visited the Holy Land.  

Šelomo Eydelberg. (1996). The Jews and the Crusaders the Hebrew chronicles of the first and second Crusades. Hoboken, NJ, Ktav Publ. House. p.22. 
Solomon bar Simson was a German Jewish scholar from Worms.