European History
European History
Document Based Question
Created by
Jennifer Norton
Argonaut High School, Jackson, CA
Mandel Fellow – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 1999-2000
Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Documents
1-12. (Some of the documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.)
This question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. As you analyze the documents, take into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ point of view. Write an essay on the following topic that integrates your analysis of the documents. Do not simply summarize the documents individually. You may refer to relevant historical facts and developments not mentioned in the documents, although you are not required to do so.
Analyze various Europeans’ attitudes about and treatment of
Jews from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.
Historical Background: Jewish dispersion throughout Europe, the Diaspora, began during the Roman Empire. Throughout the Middle Ages, rulers and Christian church authorities passed laws limiting Jewish professions and land ownership, and requiring that Jews be publicly identified by dress. Jewish religious observances and customs, including Saturday Sabbath worship, prohibitions against consumption of pork, and circumcision set them apart from and often aroused the hostility of the Christian communities in which they lived. This hostility resulted in periodic expulsions of Jews, as in France in 1182 and later in 1306, and in England in 1290. Devastated by Mongol invasions in the 13th century, Polish princes welcomed immigrants from Western Europe which resulted in the establishment of a large Jewish population there by the sixteenth century.
Document 1
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|Source: Source: |
|16th century German 15th century German woodcut |
|depiction of Jewish couple showing form and size of |
|wearing required Jewish badges “Jew Hat” required by law. |
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Document 2
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|Source: 1495 Account by an Italian Jew regarding the expulsion of |
|Jews from Spain |
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|After the King had captured the city of Granada from the Moors he ordered the expulsion of all the Jews in all parts of his kingdom. One |
|hundred and twenty thousand of them went to Portugal. This king acted much worse toward them than the King of Spain, and after six months had|
|elapsed he made slaves of all those that remained in his country, and banished seven hundred children to a remote island to settle it, and |
|all of them died. Many ships with Jews went to the city of Naples. The king of this country was friendly to the Jews, received them all, and|
|was merciful towards them, and he helped them with money. The Marranos* in this city lent them money on pledges without interest; even the |
|Dominican Brotherhood acted mercifully toward them. |
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|* term used to describe Jews from Spain who converted to Christianity |
Document 3
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|Source: Martin Luther, “On the Jews and Their Lies”, 1543 |
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|I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and accursed people do |
|not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who |
|opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews… |
|They are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen from us by means of|
|their accursed usury. My advice is this: First, their churches or synagogues should be set on fire… Secondly, their homes should likewise be |
|broken down and destroyed. Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayerbooks and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies cursing and |
|blasphemy are taught. Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more…Fifthly, passport and traveling |
|privileges should be absolutely forbidden to Jews… Sixly, they ought to be stopped from usury…they remain our daily murderers and bloodthirsty|
|foes in their hearts. Their prayers and curses furnish evidence of that, as do the many stories which relate their torturing of children and |
|all sorts of crimes for which they have often been burned at the stake or banished…let us apply the same cleverness (expulsion) as the other |
|nations, such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc. and drive them out of the country for all time…so that we may be free of this insufferable and |
|devilish burden – the Jews. |
Document 4
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|Source: The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, 1595 |
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|Act 3 scene 1 |
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|Salarino: Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh: |
|what’s that good for? |
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|Shylock: To bait fish withal: if it feeds nothing else, it will feed my |
|revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a |
|million; laughed at my losses, mocked my gains, scorned |
|my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated |
|mine enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not |
|a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, |
|senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt |
|with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, |
|healed by the same means, warmed by the same winter and |
|summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? |
|If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall |
|we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will |
|resemble you in that. |
Document 5
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|Source: 1627 woodcut depicting Rodrigo Lopez, Portuguese Marrano and |
|personal physician to Queen Elizabeth I, hanged in 1594. |
Document 6
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|Source: Patent Granted by Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici March 10, 1611 |
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|Patent for the Jew Simon Basileo, on the 2nd of the present month: |
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|The bearer of the present document, the Jew Simone Basileo from Mantua, |
|has demonstrated his talent and his diligence to us while performing some |
|plays. Therefore, it is our wish and our pleasure that he be allowed to travel, |
|to sojourn and to perform plays in any city or in any other place in our State. |
|Furthermore, neither he nor his companion shall wear a distinguishing |
|badge, on their hat or elsewhere. Officials shall not hold this against them or |
|hinder them in any way, but shall offer the assistance and courtesy that |
|such ability merits. |
Document 7
Source: 16th Century German Source: Etching showing expulsion
woodcut showing of the Jews from Frankfurt
Frankfurt’s crescent after riots in ‘Jew Street’
shaped ‘Jew Street’ August 23, 1614.
established in 1492
and located outside city walls.
“1380 persons young and old were
counted at the exit of the gate.”
Document 8
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|Source: Blaise Pascal, mathematician, mid 17th century |
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|It is a marvelous thing to observe the Jewish people existing for so many |
|years and always in misery, for it is necessary as proof of Jesus Christ |
|both that they should continue to exist and that they should be miserable |
|because they crucified him. |
Document 9
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|Source: Papal Encyclical of Pope Benedict XIV, June 14, 1751 to the Primate, |
|Archbishops and Bishops, of the Kingdom of Poland |
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|In regard to the matter of the Jews, We must express our concern. Our |
|credible experts in Polish affairs have informed Us that the number of |
|Jews in that country has greatly increased. The Jews have so replaced |
|the Christians that some parishes are about to lose their ministers |
|because their revenue has dwindled so drastically… |
|Because the Jews control businesses selling liquor and even wine, they |
|are therefore allowed to supervise the collection of public revenues…they |
|have subjugated poor Christian farmers…some households of the great |
|have employed a Jew as “Superintendent-of-the-Household”; in this |
|capacity they ceaselessly flaunt authority over the Christians they are |
|living with. It is now even commonplace for Christians and Jews to |
|intermingle anywhere. What is less comprehensible is that Jews fearlessly |
|keep Christians as their domestics, bound to their service. Furthermore, |
|by means of their particular practice of commerce, they amass a great |
|store of money and then by an exorbitant rate of interest utterly destroy |
|the wealth and inheritance of Christians. |
Document 10
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|Source: Map showing ‘The Pale of Settlement’ 1795- 1917 |
Document 11
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|Source: Voltaire, “Treatise on Tolerance” 1763 |
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|If it were permitted to reason consistently in religious matters, it is clear we all ought to become Jews, because Jesus Christ was born a Jew, |
|lived a Jew, died a Jew and that he said expressly that he was accomplishing, that he was fulfilling the Jewish religion. But it is clearer |
|still that we ought to be tolerant of one another, because we are all weak, inconsistent, liable to fickleness and error. Shall a reed laid low |
|in the mud by the wind say to a fellow reed fallen in the opposite direction: “Crawl as I crawl, wretch, or I shall petition that you be torn up|
|by the roots and burned?” |
Document 12
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|Source: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Approved by the |
|National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789 |
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|Article 6: Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right |
|to participate personally, or through his representative, in its |
|foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or |
|punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law are |
|equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and |
|occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction |
|except that of their virtues and talents. |
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|Article 10: No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including |
|his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb |
|the public order established by law. |
Sources for Documents:
European History DBQ 15th -18th centuries
Documents 1 & 7:
Beyond the Pale, partners/beyond-the-pale
Document 2;
Paul Halsall, Jewish History Sourcebook,
Document 3:
Marvin Perry, Joseph Peden, Theodore Von Laue, Sources of the Western Tradition, Vol.1, Fourth ed., Houghton Mifflin Company, NY, 1999 p.313
Document 4:
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Document 5:
Paul Halsall, Jewish History Sourcebook,
Documents 6:
The Medici Archive Project: Jewish History, Religion and Culture jewish
Document 8:
Howard Langer, The History of the Holocaust: a Chronology of Quotations, Janson Aronson, NJ, 1997 p.14
Document 9:
Paul Halsall, Jewish History Sourcebook,
Document 10:
Yaffa Eliach, There Once Was A World, Little Brown and Co., 1998, p.37
Document 11:
Philosophical Dictionary: Tolerance
Document 12:
The Avalon Project yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rightsof.htm
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