The Irrational Panic of the Bubonic Plague

When the Bubonic Plague tore through Europe after 1347, the irrational panic of many elites consumed them. Their social rank was no protection from infection and probably they felt more helpless than their less wealthy compatriots because of this. At any rate, the first wave of the plague witnessed horrific violence as many patricians and nobles made scapegoats out of vulnerable communities.

In the Rhineland particularly, many wealthier Christians responded with anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish communities. The Stasbourg Massacre of 1349, for example, witnessed the public burning of hundreds of Jewish men, women, and children. A writer from Cologne known as “the World Chronicler” wrote about “The horrible means by which the Jews wished to extinguish all of Christendom, through their poisons . . . ” In many instances, the fear and dehumanization led to people believing stories fueled by confirmation bias rather than facts. Jews were frequently tortured into confessions of crimes like poisoning wells.

Some sympathized with the Jewish people. Henry of Hervodia, for instance, recorded that Jews were “cruelly slain . . . Women with their small children cruelly and inhumanly fed to the flames.”