Mystery of Blood among the Jews of All Times (Desportes), 118
Munich, 97, 98, 105, 108
Nagorra, Karl, 147 48, 153
National Liberal Party, 248n
Nazis, 162, 165 66, 167, 215
Neighbors (Gross), 166
Neuenhoven, 113 14
Neumann (county official), 81
Neuss, 151, 176
Neustettin, 35, 120, 168
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 21
Niewolinski, Klara, 148
Nirenberg, David, 172
No Blood (Efes Damim) (Levinsohn), 116
Nossek, David, 183, 201
Nuremberg, 99, 101, 103, 175
Nuremberg Chronicle, 102 3
Oberwesel, 97 98
Orcuta, 110
Orda, Paul, 79
Osiander, Andreas, 104
Osiander, Arnold, 243n
Ostdeutsche Zeitung, 182
Oxner, Andreas, 107, 109, 233n
Paetzold, Friedrich, 181
Pans, 98
Pascal, Mrs. (shopkeeper), 125
Passau, 103
passion plays, 172
Pastor Bonus, 235n
Patterson, Orlando, 179
Pawlikowski, Constantin Ritter Cholewa von, 117 18
pederasty, 189 90
Peterborough Abbey, 92
Peter Lombard, 93
Petras, Paul, 181, 182
Pforzheim, 97, 98
Pikarski, August, 193, 194
plague, bubonic, 101
Planck, Max, 55
Plath, Otto, 64, 189 90, 198, 199, 201, 212
Plath, Rudolf, 189
Plato, 96
Pobedonostsev, Konstantin, 119
Poetry and Truth (Dichtung und Wahrheit) (Goethe), 106
Poland, 101, 109 11
anti-Semitic violence in, 119, 105 66
Konitz and, 214 17
Poles:
anti-Semitism and, 168
in Germany, 38, 58, 59, 168, 248n
after World War I, 214
Polish Party, 182 83, 243n, 248n
Polna, 39, 40 41, 56, 188
Pomerellen, 57 58, 59
Posen (Poznan), 110, 111
Posidonius, 230n
Posing, 104
Poznan (Posen), 110, 111
Praetorius, Ignaz, 181, 184, 203
Prague, 97, 98, 105
Prechlau, 53
Preussisch-Friedland, 33
Preußische Jahrbücher, 37
printing press, 102
Prinz, “Dumb” Alex, 82–33, 132, 152, 183
Prinz, Rosalie, 83
“Prioress’s Tale, The” (Chaucer), 89
Protestantism, 104, 106, 115
Prussian army, 18
anti-Semitic riots and, 48, 49 50, 52
Przeworski (barmaid), 152
psychiatric patients, 215
Pulkau, 98, 108, 172 73, 175
Puppe, Dr., 188
Pythagoras, 96
Rader, Matthew, 109
Radtke, Margarete, 141 42, 156
Rahmel, Willi, 144
Ravensburg, 100, 132
Reading for the Plot (Brooks). 87
Reformation, Catholic, 109
Reformation, Protestant, 103 4, 112
Regensburg, 103, 105, 132
Reichart of Mospach, 132
Reimann, Mrs. (widow), 121 22
Reutlingen, 100
Reymann (pastor), 62
Rheinbaben, Baron von, 52, 201
Rhode, Auguste, 170, 196, 97
Rhode, Heinrich, 170, 196, 199
Rinn, 107, 109, 233n
Rintfleisch, 99, 118, 120, 172
ritual-murder charges, 18, 39, 40, 45, 84, 90, 98, 161, 176
books about, 106, 113, 114 18
Catholic hierarchy’s denunciation of, 111, 117
Catholic hierarchy’s sanction of, 107, 113
Christian maids in, 124 25, 140 42
in failure of investigation, 201
history of, 91 133, 230n
Holy Week violence and, 172
in Hungary, 120 21
infanticide, child abuse and, 126
Kracht’s interest in, 200
officials’ denunciation of, 114
plays about, 109
Reformation in decline of, 103 5
sexual murder and, 126 27
Roberts, Lord, 57
Roehl, Friednch, 47
Roehl, Martha Caspari, 47
Roelen, Selma, 128
Rohling, August, 110, 117 18
Roman Catholic Church, 169
Reformation and, 103 4, 109
ritual-murder charges and, 93, 94, 103, 107 8, 111, 112, 113, 115, 117
transubstantiation and, 96
Romania, 125
ritual-murder charges in, 123
Rosenthal, Josef, 86, 141 42
Ross, Anna, 65, 137
accusations of, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72 74, 85, 158
arrest of, 50, 51
background of, 71, 140
1904 theory and, 211, 212, 213
perjury trial of, 75 77, 170
Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 99
Rottingen, 98, 172
Rummelsburg, 35, 169, 247n
Russ, Friedrich, 139, 146 47
Russia, 116
anti-Semitic violence in, 119 20
pogroms in, 38
ritual-murder charges in, 123
Russians, in Germany, 38
Rutz, Mathilde, 85, 133
St. Pölten, 98
Sandomierz, 110 11, 115
Sawischewski, Marie, 193 96
Schama, Simon, 187, 206
Schiller, Auguste, 82
Schivelbein, 169
Schlawe, 53
Schleiminger, Franz., 59
Schlichter, Gustav, 148
Schmidt, Marie, 86
Schnick, Anna, 149
Schoppinitz, 124
Schuclt, Baron von, 201
Schudt, Johann Jacob, 106
Schultz, Regina, 149
Schweigger, Chief Prosecutor, 205, 214
science, 20
Senske, Elisabeth, 211
Serbia, 123
Settegast, Max, 26, 36, 151, 52, 198
Simanowski, Rosine, 85 8b, 133, 142, 147, 156
Simon of Trent, 106, 107 8
Skurz, 121 23, 132, 198 99
“social death,” 179
Social Democrats, 20
Soldin (merchant), 183
Solymosi, Esther, 120
Source Contributions to the Position of the Popes on the Jews, The (Stern), 116
South Africa, 57
Soviet Union, 165 66
Spain, anti-Semitism in, 100
Speisinger, Richard, 145, 146, 156
Speyer, 100, 103
Spiegalski, Klara, 27 28
Spohr, Hedwig, 27
Staatsbürgerzeitung (Berlin), 29, 47, 49, 50, 56–57, 60, 74,83, 151, 226n
Hoffmann’s story published in, 60 68
Stanford prison experiment, 177 78
Steffan, Arthur, 193, 194, 195
Stegers, 33, 179
Steinert, Dr., 129
Stern, Moritz, 116
Stöckebrant, Hermann, 183
Stolp, 169, 180, 247n
Stolpmann (barmaid), 152
Strack, Hermann, 116 17
Strasbourg, 100
Streubing, Klara, 151
Streusz, Anna, 27
suffrage, 20
Swabia, 115
Syria, 230n
Szenicz, 125
Szydlow, 110
Szymanski (teacher), 190
Tägliche Rundschau, 30, 212
Talmudic Jew, The (Rohling), 117
Talmud in Theory and Practice (Pawlikowski), 117 18
Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 20
Thiel, Jürgen, 36, 73
Thirty Years’ War, 112
Thomas a Becket, 92 93
Thomas Aqu
inas, Saint, 96
Thomas of Monmouth, 91–92, 229n
Tirol, 109
Tisza-Eszlar, 115, 120 21
Toller, Ernst, 18
transubstantiation, 95 96, 103
Treitschke, Heinrich von, 37 38
Trent, 102, 105, 110, 115
Treue, Wolfgang, 133
Tuchel, 173
Tuchler, Selma, 145, 228n
Turner, Victor, 174, 180
Tuszik, Elisabeth, 148
Ueberlingen, 108, 175
Ukraine, 173
anti-Semitic violence in, 119
Ursula (child), 108
Valréas, 97
Vandsburg, 35
Victoria, queen of England, 187
Vital, David, 119
Vogel, Max, 137, 170
Volk, Das, 129
Volkov, Shulamit, 22
Wackerbarth-Linderode, “Krautjunker” Baron von, 131
Waclawek, Philomena, 124
Warburg, Aby, 21
Weber, Max, 57, 115
Weckbecker, Arno, 215
Wehn, Inspector, 45, 192, 197
Weichel (teacher), 189, 197 99
Weikersheim, 98
Weimar Republic, 21, 214
Weissenburg, 97, 98
Weissensee, 97, 98, 105, 108
Welke (journeyman), 62
Werner (butcher), 126
Werner, “good,” 97 98, 112, 113, 234n–35n
Wesendrupp, Heinrich, 127, 128–29, 130
Westfälische Reform, 130
Westpreussisches Volksblatt, 169
Wielle, 168
Wienecke, Max, 146
Wiesenthal, Simon, 233n
Wilhelm II, kaiser of Germany, 19, 52, 187
Moritz Lewy pardoned by, 210
William, Saint, 91 92
Willich, 114
Winkelmann, Johann, 80–81, 83
Winter (Ernst’s mother), 27
Ernst Winter’s funeral and, 41
Winter, Ernst. 24, 137
alleged “pederasty” involving, 180 90
Anna Hoffmann’s alleged relationship with, 45 46, 49, 62, 145. 202 3, 205
archives on murder of, 23
autopsies on, 28, 64, 188
background of, 26 27
condition of body of, 26, 28, 63 64
discovery of body of, 25 26, 30
discovery of clothes of, 187–88
funeral of, 41 42. 57
Jewish girls and, 80, 81, 83, 145, 228n
last day of. 27 28
monument to, 209
Moritz Lewy’s alleged association with, 139 40, 143, 144 49, 156, 201
prostitutes visited by, 190 96
suffocation of, 188, 202
working-class associations of, 190, 193
Winter, Ernst, investigation of murder of, 28, 31, 36–37, 42–48, 187 206
anti-Semitic parties and, 37, 39
anti-Semitic stories and, 77 86
handkerchief in. 70, 196 97
Masloff’s accusations in, 68 75
motives of testimony in, 136
number of depositions in, 135
reward in, 37, 60
social composition of accusers m, 130 40
spectral evidence in, 36, 135
see also accusations, anti-Semitic
Winter, Johannes, 25
description of, 27
Ernst Winter’s body discovered by, 25, 26
Ernst Winter’s funeral and, 41
Wiwjorra, Mrs. (cabinet maker’s wife), 66, 159, 160
Wolff. Inspector, 130
women’s suffrage, 20
World War I, 21.57, 214
World War II, 165 66. 215
Wulff, Chief Prosecutor, 202
Würzburg, 98, 99, 103. 113
Würsburger Generalanzeiger, 209
Wycliffe, John, 103
Xanten. 115, 127 33, 151, 157, 188
Zander. Moritz, 141
Zander. Selig, 152
Zedlitz und Neukirch, Baron Gottlieb von, 29, 48, 49–50, 51, 52, 169, 176, 181, 184
Zeppelin, Graf, 55
Ziebarth. Wilhelm, 46, 62, 203
Zimbardo, Philip, 177 78
Zimmer, Georg, 73, 156
Zindler, Robert, 191 92
Zola, Emile, 30
Zuchowski, Abbé Stephan, 110
More Praise for
THE BUTCHER’S TALE
“Smith tells the story of a ritual murder accusation made in 1900 against the Jews of the town of Konitz, now part of Poland. A vicious anti-Semitic movement quickly took form, one based on all the old terrors and prejudices. But, as Mr. Smith tells it, the story is a morally complex one.”
—Richard Bernstein, New York Times
“All things considered, Konitz in 1900 would have seemed to most an unlikely place for an outbreak of virulent anti-Semitism, yet that is exactly what it underwent. Smith, in his careful recapitulation of the murder and its aftermath, sees it as an instance of the ‘process’ of anti-Semitism…. Smith argues, and most persuasively, that what happened in Konitz was that the bonds of community were broken…. Anti-Semitism had burrowed itself into the fabric of the town, to fester there for years to come and then to explode in the late 1930s, as it did throughout Germany, in an orgy of violence unlike any the modern world had known. The summer of 1900, it turns out, was a tiny prologue, unrecognizable as such at the time, to unspeakable things to come.”
—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
“The Butcher’s Tale is an illuminating microhistory of a chilling event: a gruesome murder in a small German town that triggered a resurgence of the ancient blood libel, the anti-Semitic charge that Jews use the blood of young Christians to make the Passover matzo. The charge has long been studied as a powerful way to understand murderous fantasies about Jews in medieval and early modern Europe. But the event that Helmut Walser Smith brings to light occurred in 1900 and serves as a key to unlocking a complex process whose full meaning was disclosed in the death camps.”
—Stephen Greenblatt, Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
“Uncommonly interesting and exceedingly well researched. But there are greater reverberations…. The tragedy of our era is that this work has a timeless quality.”
Michael Berenbaum (former director of the U.S. Holocaust Museum), The Jewish Journal
“Taking as his subject the sensational murder of a high school student in the eastern reaches of the German Empire in March, 1900, Smith expertly deploys the tools of the historian to unravel a mystery. A meticulous and riveting account of the crime itself, … Smith’s tour de force shows how all too easily neighbors became strangers, lives were ruined, and justice retreated before prejudice.”
R. S. Levy, Choice
“Although classified by the publisher as history/Judaica, this powerful volume will also appeal to true-crime readers and anyone interested in the dynamics that can turn a peaceful community into a place of hatred and violence.”
Publishers Weekly
“A riveting account of how a murder in a small German town snowballed into anti-Semitic accusations and violence. The ancient accusation of blood libel and ritual murder spread from whispers in the taverns to riots on the streets and, in 1900, the thriving and seemingly secure Jewish community of Konitz fell victim to the rage of its Christian neighbors.”
Joanne Philipps, The Jewish Times
“An image with depth of field…. Helmut Walser Smith makes the virulence of anti-Semitism visible; and he shows the latent threat that emanated from it.”
—Volker Ullrich, Die Zeit
“An important, well-researched, and above all an easy to read contribution to a long forgotten piece of German history.”
—Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung
“At first the text reads like a suspenseful detective novel. But then the micro-history, conceived as an interdisciplinary investigation, impresses with its appropriation
of cultural insights from anthropology, psychology and linguistics…. A profound study of anti-Semitism in Wilhelmine Germany.”
—Deutschland Radio
“Takes distance from easy explanations à la Goldhagen…. A pithy but multifaceted contribution to the cultural history of anti-Semitism.”
—Neue Zürcher Zeitung
“A brilliant thesis…. The book is … convincingly constructed, stimulating to read, and marvelously written.”
—Nils Freytag, Sehepunkte
Copyright © 2002 by Helmut Walser Smith
All rights reserved
First published as a Norton paperback 2003
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
Book design by Mary A. Wirth
Production manager: Julia Druskin
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Smith, Helmut Walser, 1962
The butcher’s tale : murder and anti-semitism in a German town / Helmut Walser Smith.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. Antisemitism Germany Konitz. 2. Blood accusation Germany Konitz. 3. Trials (Murder) Germany Konitz. 4. Konitz (Germany) Ethnic relations.
I. Title.
DS146.G4 S57 2002
305.892’404382 dc21 2002022883
ISBN 978-0-393-24552-3 (e-book)
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