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Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides

Expulsions from Western and Central Europe

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Expulsion of Jews from France

Illustration of the expulsion of Jews from France in 1182 by King Philip Augustus 

Expulsion of the Spanish Jews in 1492: The following account gives a detailed and accurate picture of the expulsion and its immediate consequences for Spanish Jewry. It was written in Hebrew by an Italian Jew in April or May 1495:

After the King [Ferdinand] had captured the city of Granada from the Moors, and it had surrendered to him on the 7th [of January 1492]... he ordered the expulsion of all the Jews in all parts of his kingdom - in the kingdoms of Castile, Catalonia, Aragon, Galicia, Majorca, Minorca, the Basque provinces, the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and the kingdom of Valencia. Even before that the Queen had expelled them from the kingdom of Andalusia.

Expulsion of Jews Map

Map Showing Expulsion of Jews

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is your reaction to the text and images?
     
  2. What contributed to the expulsion of the Jews from Western Europe?
     
  3. Where did Jews eventually settle?

Sources

Marcus, J. (1938). The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315- 1791. Fordham University.   https://origin.web.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1492-jews-spain1.asp