Thursday, March 14, 2024

Postcard from the past - Jews are unwanted

Would you believe it? Back in the late 19th century, there was a lot of prejudice against Jewish people. Surprising, right? Well, meet Wilhelm Marr, a German journalist who actually came up with the term "antisemitism" in 1879. He used this fancy term to describe hostility towards Jews. He introduced it in his publication, "The Victory of Judaism over Germandom." So, it all started with a book in Germany in 1879! Quite the scientific term compared to simply calling it Jew-hatred, don't you think?

This prejudice was so prevalent in German society that it gave rise to antisemitic parties like the German Social Party (DSP), founded around the same time as Marr's term. Led by Adolf Stoecker, a Protestant pastor, this movement blended conservative, nationalist, and anti-Semitic ideas. They claimed that Jews held too much power in finance, commerce, and the media, which they believed was harming German culture. They even advocated for legal restrictions on Jewish economic activities and university enrollment, similar to Nazi ideology later on. As we all know, the same idea of Jews controlling everything still prevails today. Today people actually believe that Israel controls almost everything, including using birds and sharks as spies!

Responding to this growing antisemitism, the Zionist movement emerged, aiming to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This idea was met with some support within antisemitic circles, suggesting that maybe it would be a good idea to expel Jews.

Here we see a postcard from around 1900, titled "Die Zukunft" (The Future) which shows German soldiers forcing out a large group of Jews, who are following a route indicated by the sign "Nach Palästina" (To Palestine). The exiled Jews, portrayed with stereotypical negative attributes such as deformed bodies and enormous noses, are pictured leaving a lush landscape and crossing into barren desert land, which was how Palestine was seen. Unfortunately this postcard is not mine.


This postcard below, also from around 1900, shows the expulsion of Jews to where they originally came from, Palestine. Apart from To Palestine as the previous card, the text says "And when they are inside, shut the gates and there will be peace throughout Europe". Jews must be expelled because they are greedy money lenders as shown by the images at top left.


 
;I am not sure whether they want us to go to Palestine which is where we came from or as today they are saying get out of Palestine as we are colonialists here. I am confused.


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