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Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany*
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How persistent are cultural traits? Using data on anti-Semitism in Germany, we find local continuity over 600 years. Jews were often blamed when the Black Death killed at least a third of Europe’s population during 1348–50. We use plague-era pogroms as an indicator for medieval anti-Semitism. They reliably predict violence against Jews in the 1920s, votes for the Nazi Party, deportations after 1933, attacks on synagogues, and letters to Der Stürmer . We also identify areas where persistence was lower: cities with high levels of trade or immigration. Finally, we show that our results are not driven by political extremism or by different attitudes toward violence.
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Metadata
- Authors
- Voigtländer, N., & Voth, H.-J.
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-07-26
- Volume
- 127
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1339-1392
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W2890919688
- Cited by
- 737
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 181.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
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