Maus

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the Holocaust, antisemitism, and antisemitic violence.

Early non-Jewish civilizations distrusted the minority Jewish religion, and the newly converted Christian rulers of the Roman Empire sought to validate Christianity as the successor of Judaism. They blamed Jewish people for the death of Christ. Rome and subsequent European nations portrayed Jewish people as demonic and responsible for tragedies like the Bubonic Plague, leading to mass killings called pogroms and restricted legal rights. The false and harmful stereotypes of the greedy Jew and the Jewish Illuminati emerged because moneylending was one of the few trades open to them, and they were banned from government positions except as project financiers.

The years leading up to World War II (1945-1948) as Adolf Hitler, German Chancellor, rose to power marked an increase in antisemitism. Though antisemitism has much earlier roots, Hitler was motivated by a desire to “purify” the human race, which meant one that was purely German and excluded specific groups of people, including those of Jewish heritage, Romani people, and gay people. Hitler spread his ideology by systematic propaganda, which blamed Jews in particular for many atrocities, including Germany’s downfall in World War I. Hitler set about murdering these individuals gradually, first by establishing restrictions on Jews in Germany.