Schaffhausen Executes Thirty Jews Over Blood Libel
Authorities in the Swiss city of Schaffhausen tortured and executed thirty Jewish residents after accusations of blood libel, the recurring medieval falsehood that Jews used the blood of Christian children in religious rituals. The Schaffhausen massacre was one of dozens of similar episodes across Central Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which Jewish communities were destroyed on the basis of fabricated charges. The blood libel accusation persisted for centuries as a tool for scapegoating and has been identified by historians as one of the most destructive antisemitic myths in European history.
June 25, 1401
625 years ago
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