Well poisoning: Encyclopedia II - Well poisoning - Historical accusations of well-poisoning against Jews

Well poisoning - Historical accusations of well-poisoning against Jews

Medieval people did not know about the existence of viruses and bacteria, thus they could not understand epidemics. Any sudden deterioration of health was considered a result of poisoning. Europe was rattled by several waves of Black Death (often identified as bubonic plague) throughout the late medieval ages and crowded cities were hit especially hard by the disease, often losing up to 50% of their population at a time. Terrible scenes left mentally and emotionally distressed survivors searching frenziedly for perpetrators.

Predominantly city-dwelling Jewish people, who were administratively forced to live inside walled-up, segregated ghetto districts proved to be ideal scapegoats. Jewish mortality was significantly lower compared to the Christian population. Some medieval Europeans theorized that Jews must have poisoned city wells, while relying on their own wells in the ghetto, in order to exterminate Christian residents (a repetition of Christ-killing). Numerous pogroms were held and scores of Jewish people were burned, at the stake, inside synogogues and in private houses.

The decline of plague in Europe as well as the Renaissance and later the Enlightenment movement put an end to this practice. Yet, the term "well-poisoning" still carries a significant emotional payload and is generally avoided in Europe.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical accusations of well-poisoning against Jews", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki