Similarities Between The Spanish Inquisition And The Holocaust

The Spanish Inquisition lasted from 1478 to 1834. The goal of the Spanish Inquisition was to expel, convert or kill all Non-Catholics from Spain in Spain. When people were accused heresy they would be pit on trial, but before they could be on trial they had to sit in jail which most of them were unsanitary and people were given little food to eat. The punishments people received if they were found guilty were: torture, public humiliation, and death. The trials were unfair, unjustified and not necessary. The Spanish Inquisition did not help spread Catholicism and in fact slowed the spread because of the fear that it instilled in Non-Catholics.

They claimed that those of the Jewish faith were responsible for Jesus’ death, and therefore they were unable to be trusted. The expansion of Jewish communities infuriated the Christian society, pushing them towards their breaking point. In 1391, anti-Semitic violence broke out in Castile, and spread across many other areas in Spain such as Barcelona, Saragossa, and Valencia. Mobs entered the Jewish communities to burn synagogues, invade homes, rape the women, and kill the dominant Jewish rulers that were recognized. The Jews of Spain were given an ultimatum; evacuate, or convert to Christianity. Nearly half of them agreed to convert their faith, and they were baptized in order to show their true commitment to the Church. Those who converted were referred to as Conversos or “New Christians”. This ultimatum that those of the Jewish faith were given satisfied Christian societies, but it soon became apparent that the Conversos were not acting accordingly in respect to the Christian belief system. Although they attended church and participated in Christian traditions, behind closed doors, it was believed that they continued to practise the traditions, beliefs, and holy days outlined by the Jewish faith. They refrained from eating pork, and supposedly celebrated the Jewish Sabbath which lasted from Friday’s sundown until Saturday’s nightfall. This realization caused Christians to become furious, and those who had been deemed

Genocides are classified by an eight stage process that explains the causes and identifying factors of a genocide. Both the Holocaust and Holodomor are prime examples of genocides, and although the eight stages of genocide are shown through both, they were implemented differently in some aspects. The Holodomor, a genocide in the 1930’s targeting Ukrainians, was similar to the Holocaust through the stages of classification, organization, polarization, and denial, but different in the ways of preparation, extermination, dehumanization, and symbolism.

Within Spain, for a time Jews were accepted as productive and unthreatening members of society. This continued until it was decided that the Jewish community was not doing what was expected of them, at which time the Inquisition began. Jews had become accepted because they practiced and accepted the Christian faith in the public eye, however in private they

Western European countries fought to be superior and each took a different route to how they believed this could be achieved. The Spanish and Polish colonies in the Americas enacted Inquisitions against the non-Christian religions, creating territories of distrust and hatred towards each other. The English colonies, however, took on a more tolerant direction. After the Jews were readmitted into England, their value became more evident as the population grew along with their commerce. As trade for England traveled to the American colonies, so did the Jews. America was a new land that promised religious tolerance and revenue to those who lived there. Where there is religious tolerance there will be Jews moving there to escape

Relations between the Christians and Jews of medieval Europe were always influenced by their unequal social and economic statuses and the religious competition that existed between them. While the Jews served a purpose in the Christian religion, this purpose meant that the more populous Christians that had come to dominate Europe only tolerated the Jews. No premise of equality existed, and the Jews came to depend on relationships with lower-level rulers to secure their relative safety. Rumors persisted that Jews had poisoned wells, and the Jews were often the targets of violence that the Christians seemed exceedingly willing to deliver. Overall, life was better for the Christians and worse for the Jews, although this would be of no

The arrival of the Inquisition was swift and powerful, the decline of the Inquisition was drawn out and pathetic. Laws slowly began to be abolished around the eighteenth century. The distinction between Old and New Christians was no longer legally binding, the Moriscos had all but been erased from Spain, and Judaism had no influence. The job was done. Over hundreds of years and a multitude of rulers hellbent on eradicating religious diversity, a mild amount of success had been achieved. As the decades rolled on, however, rulers became more and more disinterested with the inquisitorial rule. The looming French Revolution severely hurt the seemingly dormant Inquisition. The Revolution brought new condemnation for the movement, and more specifically, condemnation for the unnecessarily violent actions of the church. The Inquisition was truly crippled early in the nineteenth century as a Constitution was being constructed by Rafael Riego, an Asturian battalion commander. Through this, and various civil wars and revolts within the nineteenth century, the Spanish Inquisition was officially demolished. The movement that had thousands tortured, imprisoned, and murdered had finally

Like the Holocaust in the 1930s-1940s, Jews during this time were treated with brutality. Manchester describes it as, “Jewry was luckier - slightly luckier - than blacks. If the pogroms of the time are less infamous than the Holocaust, it is only because anti-Semites then lacked twentieth-century technology” (35). In the year 1492, the Spanish had regained control of Spain. The rule of Spain was now under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. They were not fond of Jews in their nation. The Jews in Spain were given three months to convert to christianity or to leave. After seeing what the Spanish were doing in Spain, the king of Portugal ordered the expulsion of all Portuguese Jews. Any Jews who wouldn’t leave or were slow to leave were massacred. Around four thousand Lisbon Jews were killed during a single night in 1506. Only three years later persecution of Jews in Germany began. Jews throughout history have been treated badly but during the medieval period it was especially hard if you were a Jew.

Anti-Semitism as a term to describe hatred of Jews was not used until the second half of the nineteenth century, but a bias against Jews had existed for thousands of years. This resentment of the Jews as a people can be traced back to theological roots as well as practical concerns in early Europe. The most significant and accepted origin of anti-Judaism is the death of Jesus. Jews were branded as the murderers of Christ and Jesus’ followers developed a deep hatred of them. This undertone to Christianity endured over time and became an inherent facet of the religion. Later, when Jews attempted to assimilate into European societies, they faced strong discrimination and resistance. Other citizens viewed them as economic competition. In addition, negative stereotypes evolved about the Jews in relation to their

The background to the Edixt of Expulsion extended for more than 700 years prior to the Expulsion itself. The background begins with the conquering of the Iberian Peninsula by Berber Muslims arriving from North Africa in around 711-718, from the Visigoth kingdom, which had ruled the land prior to Muslim conquest. Almost immediately after the Muslim conquest, the Reconquista began, in which Christian people fought to retrieve the land of which the Muslims had conquered. The overall goal of the Reconquista was to retrieve territory on the Iberian Peninsula and convert or isolate people of different faiths such as the Jews and Muslims. (Source 5) The Reconquista continued from the beginning of the Muslim kingdom in the region, finally ending after the conquest of the city of Granada in 1492. (Source 6) Preceding the conquest of Granada, the newly wed Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, looking for religious uniformity, established the Inquisition, in which the Inquisitors demanded that all Monarchs ruling different regions of land punish all the Maranos (Jews who converted to Christianity yet continue to practice Judaism in secret) by confiscating their property. (Source 7) However, the Inquisition faced a challenge in their battle against heresy. Conversos, influenced by Jewish family in which

The word “inquisition” means to examine. Inquisitors would “examine” suspected Heretics, people whose ideas do not match those of the Roman Catholic Church, and punish them accordingly. This included torture and burning. The great inquisition movement that took place in Spain, or Hispania as it was called before Spain united. It was called The Spanish Inquisition. It took place for approximately five hundred years, from the late 15th century to mid 19th century. Many ironic elements were involved in the history of the Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition lasted longer than any other preceding it, and was the most cruel, bloodthirsty, and festive of all. The objective of the inquisition, in its early state, was to

Before Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492, The Spanish Inquisition made it known to anyone within Spain’s domain of influence that if a person was not of the Catholic religion, they were to be punished severely and sometimes even fatally. This influence would undoubtedly be brought over to the Americas a century later, as the colonization of the New World would begin by then. While it was very essential for the Spanish (as well as the Portuguese) to improve their economy by using the resources they found in Latin America, it seemed to a number of them as if that was the only reason for being there, or the main reason at the very least. During the Spanish Inquisition and from that point after, it was the Pope’s main goal, to

Kamen notes the ambiguous pressure on Jews, as despite the anti-semitism of contemporary Europe, the ‘Aragonese crown protected the Jews and conversos firmly, rejecting all attacks on them‘ and how any existing anti-Semetic legislation went unenforced (Kamen 15). Even after Ferdinand and Isabella initiated their reign in 1474, the monarchs were ‘never personally anti-Semitic’ and their intervention in domestic politics demonstrated an ‘impressive picture of the monarchy protecting its jews’ (Kamen, 16). In actuality, the inception of the Inquisition and the subsequent expulsion of the Jewish population was prompted by the actions of ‘Judaizers’, who were made up of conversos who had attempted to persuade newly assimilated Christians to return to their original Jewish faith. The efforts of these Judaizers concerned the crown and as a result the Inquisition was officially founded on September 27, 1480 as a means of regulating the the disruptive and disobedient conversos.

The Inquisition executed Jews and Muslims. However, even the ones who converted to Christianity or born Christian were tortured if they once were of another faith or if it could be traced back in their roots. The ones who had the Jewish blood, or of any other faith and were born Christian, were tortured more severely. The accused was not allowed to have a lawyer or counsel for their defense.

As if that were not enough, “Between 1648 and 1658, in organized massacres called pogroms, over 700 Jewish communities were destroyed. Jewish deaths numbered in the hundreds of thousands” (Esposito 107). Finally I learned of the Spanish Inquisition where Jews were once again treated as something separate from humanity. “Many were tortured and burned at the stake. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492” (Esposito 108). They endured this suffering for no crime they committed. They endured this suffering because of their faith. It is unfathomable to me. The Jews have a long history of violence against them and of others trying to eradicate them, a history that I was not fully aware of until this class.