PRESENT – ABSENT
(15th – 18th centuries)
The Jewish community in Wrocław ceased to exist due to a decree issued by the Czech King Władysław II Jagiełło – the Ius Iudaeos non tolerandis. Based on this decree, Jews were prohibited from settling in the city. However, this did not mean that followers of the Mosaic faith were completely barred from staying in Wrocław. They appeared there regularly, especially during fairs, certain church holidays, and the famous wool markets. Their stay was, however, only temporary and strictly related to trade. During their visits, Jews were required to wear yellow circles on their clothing, which were intended to distinguish them from other merchants and residents. The rule prohibiting Jewish settlement in Wrocław and parts of Silesia was rarely broken and only for important reasons, which did little to change the growing prejudices that arose in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Present-Absent
Korn Jude
The first medals appeared during the Renaissance. Those from the late 17th and early 18th centuries gained popularity among all social classes. A small piece of metal, made of silver for the wealthy and copper or tin for the poor, held particular significance. One of the graphic motifs depicted a Jew as a servant of evil forces, a speculator, and the cause of human misfortune. Christian Wermuth and Johan Christian Reich were medalists who were not born or did not work in Silesia, but their medals were widely distributed in that region. Wermuth also illustrated his medals with events from Silesian history. However, both depicted Korn Jude, i.e., the Jewish grain merchant, and it was these depictions that became canonical for European antisemitism and persisted in popular imagination until the 20th century. A man carrying a full sack of grain had a devil on his back, who was spilling the grains. This image suggested that Jews were responsible for famine, food shortages, and high prices during times of crisis. [1]The authors referred to words from the Old Testament, placing a quote on the medal: “The people curse those who hoard grain, but blessings are on the head of those who sell it” (Proverbs 11:26).
Another medal depicts a time of prosperity and a Jew hanging from a tree, with the devil tightening a noose around his neck. The author of the medal suggested that the Jew committed suicide because he could no longer speculate on grain, or that it represented divine justice. Such depictions led to pogroms and the expulsion of Jews. They fostered antisemitism and were used by Nazi propaganda during the interwar period and throughout World War II. The medals were exhibited at a Nazi exhibition in Munich in 1937 under the telling title “The Eternal Jew.”[2]
[1]https://biblia.deon.pl/2010/rozdzial.php?id=549&werset=1#W1 – accessed on March 22, 2023
[2] https://twojahistoria.pl/2019/08/06/niszczycielskie-pasozyty-i-szkodniki-jak-przedstawiala-zydow-nazistowska-propaganda/ – accessed on April 25, 2023
Zachariasz Łazarz, or Jewish Country Bumpkins.
The sermons of the Franciscan and inquisitor John of Capistrano led to the destruction of the Jewish community in Wrocław. The act of violence against the Ashkenazi community was completed by the law *ius Judeos non tolerandis*, which was granted to the city in 1455 by the King of Bohemia, Władysław II Jagiełło. This was one of many documents that prohibited Jews from settling in a given area. And indeed, for two centuries, none of them could reside in Wrocław, and the only Jews were merchants who came temporarily to the city for fairs, markets, and other church holidays. An exception was also the stay of Isaac Meyer in the years 1546-1548, who was the lessee of the imperial mint.
The situation changed only after the end of the Thirty Years’ War, which devastated and depopulated the Silesian region. The need to rebuild the region’s economy forced the church authorities, which controlled the suburbs of St. Matthew and St. Vincent, to bring in new settlers, including Jews. Broader changes were prompted by the lease of the Wrocław mint in 1657 to Zacharias Lazarus from the Czech town of Nachod, who settled within the city limits, despite the resistance of the city council. The firm stance of Emperor Leopold I softened the Wrocław authorities, as the revenue from minting coins was more profitable than anti-Semitic regulations. Zacharias was therefore the first Jew since the mid-15th century to settle permanently in Wrocław and establish a place of worship. Although the case of the mint manager, who minted krajcars and thalers for Leopold, was an exception, it was in 1657 that the modest beginnings of the revival of the Wrocław Jewish community can be seen.
"Jewish cemeteries"
At least from the end of the 12th century, the presence of Jews in Silesia was associated with minting and lending money at interest. Initially, they were not as visible as in the neighboring regions of Poland, which was divided in 1138, where they leased ducal mints. In the areas under the rule of Mieszko III and his successors, mainly in Greater Poland and the Kraków region, silver bracteates were minted with the name and title in Hebrew. Jews who settled in Silesia in the 12th and 13th centuries lent money to Henry I the Bearded and his successors, and they probably minted Hebrew-inscribed bracteates in the Głogów mint. Thus, the circulation of money and the granting of loans dominated the relations between the Jews of Wrocław and the Christian majority. On many occasions, loans from the Jewish community were an important source of help for feudal lords. Despite the relatively low interest rate of 10-15%, these loans became a cause for later persecution and pogroms, and repaying debts in more difficult times became problematic.
In the 16th century, the dislike of Jews was also a manifestation of resistance to the policy of the Czech King Ferdinand I of Habsburg. This ruler, who was fighting against Protestant princes, took advantage of the lack of military support for his troops from Silesia and introduced a series of reforms that limited the city’s autonomy. One of these was linking the Silesian monetary system with Bohemia. In this way, haler coins with the king’s initial in a crown began to be minted in Wrocław, probably after 1546. The Prague Jew, Isaac Meyer, became the manager of the mint, and this aroused the dissatisfaction of the people of Wrocław, who called the coins “Jewish haler.” The mint manager lived in Wrocław for only two years, so his stay was not permanent and did not violate the ban on Jews settling there. The community had to wait several more decades for its revival.[1]
[1] https://journals.pan.pl/Content/120835/PDF/6_WN_ROK_LI_ZESZYT_2_Paszkiewicz_Vultus.pdf; http://www.izba.centrum.zarow.pl/artykuly/574-w-sakiewce-dawnych-mieszkancow-gminy-zarow-cz-3-srebrne-brakteaty – accessed on April 29, 2023
