Jews had lived in Basel since at least 1213, when the local community was one of the largest in Europe.[3] The community grew, and by the middle of the 14th century it featured 19 houses and a synagogue.[4] With the spread of the Black Death in the 14th century, there were pogroms against Jews because of rumors of well poisoning and very few Jews dying from the Black Plague, as it is known now. Some Basel nobles had been temporarily banished from the city on the basis of what was believed to be false testimony provided by the Jews (Ac quibusdam eciam nobilibus Basilee pro quandam iniura Iudeis illata ad logum tempus bannitis).[4] The distrust for the Jews by the commoners stemmed from their belief the Jews were “allied” with the nobles, to whom they often loaned money, and with whom the workers were in contention in the struggle for power.[4] The fact that the commoners supported the nobles on this occasion indicates the complexity of Basel’s social structure. Already by Christmas 1348, before the so-called ‘plague’ had reached Basel, the Jewish cemetery was destroyed and a number of Jews fled the city.
Members of the guilds and other town members burst into the Basel city hall, demanding that the exiled nobles be allowed to return. The city councilors complied with their request, avowing that no Jew would be allowed to return to the city for 200 years. However, less than 15 years later, in the wake of the disastrous earthquake of 1356, Jews were allowed back and by 1365, the existence of a second Jewish community is documented. Without any sort of trial or investigation, the city councilors then ordered the Basel Jews to be exterminated. All the Jews of Basel were taken and locked into a wooden structure. [SOURCE: Battegay, Lubrich, Caspar, Naomi (2018). Jewish Switzerland: 50 Objects Tell Their Stories. Basel: Christoph Merian. pp. 42–45.] The latter was built on a nearby island in the Rhine, the location of which is unknown, though it was possibly near the mouth of the Birsig, now paved-over. It could also have been a sand bank. On 16 January 1349, the wooden structure was set alight and the Jews locked inside were burned to death or suffocated.[4]
The mob captured all remaining Jews in the city and locked them into a wooden hut they constructed on an island in the Rhine (the location of this island is unknown, it was possibly near the mouth of the Birsig, now paved-over). The hut was set alight and the Jews locked inside were burned to death or suffocated.
The number of 300 to 600 victims mentioned in medieval sources is not credible; the entire community of Jews in the city at the time was likely of the order of 100, and many of them would have escaped in the face of persecution in the preceding weeks. A number of 50 to 70 victims is thought to be plausible by modern historians. Jewish children appear to have been spared, but they were forcibly baptized and placed in monasteries. It appears that also a number of adult Jews were spared because they accepted conversion.[3]
Similar pogroms took place in Freiburg on 30 January, and in Strasbourg on 14 February. The massacre had notably taken place before the Black Death had even reached the city. When it finally broke out in April to May 1349, the converted Jews were still blamed for well poisoning. They were accused and partly executed, partly expulsed. By the end of 1349, the most of the Jews of Basel had been executed or expelled, their cemetery destroyed and all debts to Jews declared settled. [SOURCE: Haumann, Erlanger, Kury, Meyer, Wichers, Heiko, Simon, Patrick, Werner, Hermann (1999). Juden in Basel und Umgebung Zur Geschichte einer Minderheit. Darstellung und Quellen für den Gebrauch an Schulen. Schwabe Verlagsgruppe AG Schwabe Verlag]
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Basel
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Massacre
