Skip to content
Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides
 
Created in collaboration with the Holocaust & Human Rights Center, the NYS Education Department, and the NYS Archives Partnership Trust.

Judensau

Home

The Judensau (German for "Jew’s sow") was a grotesque and antisemitic motif that emerged in medieval and early modern Europe, particularly in Germany. It depicted Jews engaging in obscene or degrading interactions with a sow (a female pig), an animal considered impure according to Jewish dietary laws (kashrut). Jewish prohibition against eating pork comes from Torah, in the Book of Leviticus Chapter 11. The earliest known Judensau image dates back to around 1230, carved on the exterior of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. Over the centuries, similar images appeared on churches, public buildings, and illustrated texts, especially in Germany and Austria. These carvings and woodcuts often depicted Jews suckling from or performing grotesque acts with a pig. The Judensau motif served as a means of portraying Jews as spiritually corrupt or impure, aligning with medieval Christian antisemitic stereotypes. 

judensau

A Judensau [Jew's sow] statue at the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Bad Wimpfen.

judensau

Judensau at the city church of St. Mary in Wittenberg/Germany  

CTSNY_GraphicSeparator_full_2917x200.png

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is your reaction to the text and images?   
  2. Why do you think the image of a sow or pig was used? 
  3. In what ways did the widespread use of the Judensau motif on churches influence social attitudes toward Jewish communities during the medieval and early modern periods?