•Jacob von Konigshofen (KYOO-nigs-hahf-en; 1346-1420) served as town historian for Strasbourg (STRAHS-boorg), a German-speaking city in what is now France. Alsace (al-SAS), also mentioned in his account, is a region on the border between France and Germany. His chronicle refers to a number of Swiss cities: Berne, Zofingen (TSOH-fing-en), and Basel (BAHL). These he calls "Imperial Cities" because they were part of the Holy Roman Empire, a collection of states based in what is now Germany. He also mentions the southern French cities of Marseilles (mar-SAY) and Avignon (AHV-in-yawn). Since 1309, the popes had ruled from the latter city rather than from their traditional seat in Rome.
•The term "Jewry" refers to Jews as a whole, and from his account, it is clear that Konigshofen did not believe the accusations leveled against them. He even observed that many were killed simply for their money. When he wrote that some Jews had "admitted" to poisoning wells, he was referring to false "confessions" that had been extracted after hours of torture.
•The separation of Jews from Christians in medieval Europe continued after death; hence Konigshofen referred to the Jews having their own cemetery. He also noted that some Jews escaped death by accepting baptism, a ritual that supposedly meant that they had converted to Chris-tianity—though given the circumstances, it is hard to imagine that any of these conversions were genuine. It is interesting to note that the massacre described took place on the day honoring the patron saint of love, Valentine.
• There are several references to fire in Konigshofen's report—in most cases, the fires in which Jews died. A well-known method of execution during the Middle Ages was burning at the stake, in which a victim was bound to a pole and heaped with branches around their feet; the branches were then set on fire, burning the victim alive. But Konigshofen also noted that the pope kept a fire burning in a room, probably intending this as a way of disinfecting the air and thus keeping the Plague away from him.
•Konigshofen describes a conference attended by the deputies or city councilmen of several cities, who met to decide the fate of Jews arrested in their various jurisdictions. The Strasbourg deputies, at least, were prepared to free those who had been arrested, and defiantly demanded to know why the citizens of their town had closed all wells—suggesting that they did not believe the popular
Claim that the Plague had resulted from Jews' poisoning of the water supply. Unfortunately, it is clear from the text that the heroic Strasbourg deputies were overruled.
"The Cremation of Strasbourg Jewry St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 1349—About the Great Plague and the Burning of the Jews"
In the year 1349 there occurred the greatest epidemic that ever happened. Death went from one end of the earth to the other, on that side and this side of the sea.... In some lands everyone died so that no one was left. Ships were also found on the sea laden with wares; the crew had all died and no one guided the ship. The Bishop of Marseilles and priests and monks and more than half of all the people there died with them. In other kingdoms and cities so many people perished that it would be horrible to describe. The pope at Avignon stopped all sessions of court, locked himself in a room, allowed no one to approach him and had a fire burning before him all the time. And from what this epidemic came, all wise teachers and physicians could only say that it was God's will. And as the plague was now here, so was it in other places, and lasted more than a whole year. This epidemic also came to Strasbourg in the summer of the above mentioned year, and it is estimated that about sixteen thousand people died.
Epidemic: A widespread disease.
Wares: Cargo.
Plague: A disease or other bad thing that spreads among a group of people.
Reviled: Despised.
In the matter of this plague the Jews throughout the world were reviled and accused in all lands of having caused it through the poison which they are said to have put into the water and the wells— that is what they were accused of—and for this reason the Jews were burnt all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany, but not in Avignon, for the pope protected them there.
Nevertheless they tortured a number of Jews in Berne and Zofin-gen who then admitted that they had put poison into many wells, and they also found the poison in the wells. Thereupon they burnt the Jews in many towns and wrote of this affair to Strasbourg, Freiburg, and Basel in order that they too should burn their Jews. But the leaders in these three cities in whose hands the government lay did not believe that anything ought to be done to the Jews. However
Bishop: A figure in the Christian church assigned to oversee priests and believers in a given city or region.
Feudal lords: Nobility or large landowners.
Deputies: City councilmen.
Indignation: Irritation or anger.
Clamor: Loud noise.
Baptize: Lowered into water as a symbol of death and rebirth; considered by some to be a necessary part of conversion to Christianity.
Proportionately: Evenly.
Cremated: Burned completely.
In Basel the citizens marched to the city-hall and compelled the council to take an oath that they would burn the Jews, and that they would allow no Jew to enter the city for the next two hundred years. Thereupon the Jews were arrested in all these places and a conference was arranged to meet [in] ... Alsace, February 8, 1349. The Bishop of Strasbourg, all the feudal lords of Alsace, and representatives of the three above mentioned cities came there. The deputies of the city of Strasbourg were asked what they were going to do with their Jews. They answered and said that they knew no evil of them. Then they [the deputies] asked the Strasbourgers why they had closed the wells and put away the buckets, and there was a great indignation and clamor against the deputies from Strasbourg. So finally the Bishop and the lords and the Imperial Cities agreed to do away with the Jews. The result was that they were burnt in many cities, and wherever they were expelled they were caught by the peasants and stabbed to death or drowned....
The Jews Are Burnt
On Saturday—that was St. Valentine's Day—they burnt the Jews on a wooden platform in their cemetery. There were about two thousand people of them. Those who wanted to baptize themselves were spared. Many small children were taken out of the fire and baptized against the will of their fathers and mothers. And everything that was owed to the Jews was cancelled, and the Jews had to surrender all pledges and notes that they had taken for debts. The council, however, took the cash that the Jews possessed and divided it among the working-men proportionately. The money was indeed the thing that killed the Jews. If they had been poor and if the feudal lords had not been in debt to them, they would not have been burnt. After this wealth was divided among the artisans some gave their share to the Cathedral or to the Church on the advice of their confessors.
Thus were the Jews burnt at Strasbourg, and in the same year in all the cities of the Rhine, whether Free Cities or Imperial Cities or cities belonging to the lords. In some towns they burnt the Jews after a trial, in others, without a trial. In some cities the Jews themselves set fire to their houses and cremated themselves.
The protective clothing of a physician treating people with the Plague. The Plague, or Black Death, killed between twenty-five and thirty-five million people in Europe in the mid-1300s. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation.
World History
