This Day in History: The Mainz Massacres

In the middle of the 14th century, a mysterious plague began spreading in Asia. The plague, which claimed many lives (about 35 million people in China alone, according to estimates), also started spreading to Europe. Populations were gripped with fear.

The plague, referred to as the "Black Death," wiped out between a quarter to half of Europe's population at the time, marking a colossal demographic catastrophe. The illness that afflicted so many was most likely the black plague.

Unable to prevent the catastrophes, the masses turned to the next "solution"—finding someone to blame... and they, of course, were the Jews.

Jews were accused of orchestrating a global conspiracy and spreading the plague, with one of the "explanations" being that Jews suffered less from the disease than other nations (likely due to better adherence to hygiene practices, which were not yet known to the general public).

Despite pleas from the king and the pope not to harm the Jewish community, the mobs across Europe attacked Jews in one of the most severe events in Jewish history. Ancient Jewish communities were destroyed and thousands of Jews were brutally murdered. The persecutions peaked on the 9th of Elul, 1349, when the massacres began in Mainz, Germany. While the Jews attempted to fight back, they could not withstand the mobs. 6,000 Jews were murdered in the Mainz massacres, and those who survived fled east to the plains of Poland.