Customer Reviews

The Butcher's Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town

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In March 1900 in Konitz, Prussia, two townsfolk find a package containing the upper body of a missing young man. Other body parts wrapped inside packing paper typically used for meat are subsequently found throughout the town. Though the authorities believe the local Christian butcher killed the lad, rumors abound even way beyond the town's borders that the Jews performed an ancient ritual using the blood of Christians in the baking of Passover matzo. Taken seriously by many Christians, riots and other violent acts against the Jewish community occurred.

THE BUTCHER'S TALE is an excellent look at a true crime incident that led to unproved accusations followed by anti-Semitic rioting and acts of violence against the Jewish population. Dr. Helmut Walser Smith provides deep insight into the historical evidence, especially collected in minute detail by the police and uses this anecdotal case to prove the "process" of turning personal bias and local quarrels into a structured vicious attack on a weaker relation in this case the Jews. Generalizations can be drawn from this powerful work that takes a specific medieval belief applied at the beginning of the twentieth century and yet the use of accusing a scapegoat seems so commonplace throughout the world of today.

Harriet Klausner

I was recently assigned to read this book for a World Civilizations history course in college, and I was surprised by how interesting it turned out to be.
The author offers historical facts and evidence of a supposed 'ritual murder' in Konitz, a German town. But it reads like a suspense story that makes you want to keep reading to know what happened.
I strongly recommend this book to those interested in anti-Semitism and history.

This is a good book, though I believe it could have been even better. The story that is being told here is quite an important one. It has been rather neglected in modern history books (which is why Smith's book fills a gap), but in the years and even decades immediately after Winter's murder the incident was debated endlessly in newspapers and anti-Semitic literature. The Nazi propaganda paper 'Der Stürmer' even ran a long serial about it towards the end of World War II, trying to whip up as much frenzy of racial hatred as possible. In the main, this story is retold quite competently in 'The Butcher's Tale.' And whoever reads the book will learn all that is necessary about it, in full detail.

Smith is a historian who was here given the opportunity to write for a wider audience. I wonder if the publishers had a hand in prompting him to tailor his prose for that purpose. I'm all in favor of micro-history, and I'm certainly not complaining that the work is too detailed. But I suspect that to a degree, effective communication has here been sacrificed on the altar of cheap suspense. We do not know who murdered Winter, and though I have no quarrel with Smith for not revealing this until the end (usually, readers want their crime stories to have a resolution, after all), I sometimes felt that he was at pains to obscure this in order to maintain his readers' interest.

Another drawback is that Smith's tone can at times be rather moralistic, even preaching, though always in a subtle manner. From the start I had the feeling that the only person in Konitz Smith knew for sure couldn't be the murderer was the Jewish butcher, the man whom the anti-Semites pointed to as their scapegoat. The scapegoating certainly did take place, and that is also, indeed, the main lesson to be learned from this story. But by focusing almost exclusively on this most crude and immediate aspect of the anti-Semitic response, Smith fails to see the other ways in which anti-Jewish propaganda could utilize these events. Often, indeed, Smith's account reads rather like the sometimes overly apologetic reporting offered in the liberal press at the time. And it was often at this type of reporting that the conservatives and anti-Semites could strike most effectively, charging that while they (the conservatives) were not pointing their fingers at anyone but merely pleading for a fair investigation and eventual trial, the liberals were obstructing this by sermonizing about how the murderer must under no circumstances be the Jewish butcher. They would say, in effect, that the 'blood libel' was not an argument that they used, but that the liberals used. Certainly, this was all fundamentally dishonest, as they were indeed counting on the more rabble-rousing brand of anti-Semites to do the dirty work, while leaving the more subtle, 'intellectual' propaganda to them. The point here is merely that Smith misses this secondary type of propaganda by exclusively concentrating on the primary type.

Still, this is a good--and easy--read.

The Butcher's Tale is on the surface the story of the murder of an 18 year old boy in an obscure town in a backwards corner of Germany in 1900. The parts of the book which deal with the discovery of the body and the subsequent investigations read like any report of a murder might, with heavy emphasis on detail and comparisons of witness testimony, etc.

The most important parts of the book deal, however, with the reaction of the townspeople to the murder: an upsurge in anti-Semitic hysteria which eventually forced the government to send troops to keep order. Smith does a good job of analyzing the roots of anti-Jewish prejudice in Germany and Central Europe and provides a fascinating history of the beginnings of the so-called blood libel and desecration of the Host stories, belief in which accounted for much of the anti-Jewish feeling in Central and Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages on. Smith also draws some interesting parallels with the behavior of the German government in 1900, when it actively protected its Jewish citizens, and then in the 1940s, when the Third Reich actively sought to massacre those same citizens.

This book is important because it gives us precious insights into the tendency of human beings, even well educated, civilized humans, to lapse into hysteria and believe the most unbelievable stories about people they once trusted and accepted. Read this book, and remember it the next time you hear rumors about child molesting day care workers, or secret covens of Satanists among us, or other widespread, previously unsuspected, conspiracies.

Once I started to read this facinating book, I couldnt put it down.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an in depth view at how anti semitism flourished in those times, and how destructive it was.
I was amazed at how the author gathered so many details, interviews, photos, etc. Very impressed- and for someone who preffers fiction over non, that means alot!!

Helmut Walser Smith's The Butcher's Tale analyzes a town's (Konitz Germany)involvement in anti-Semetic activity in 1900. At the turn of the century Germany is experiencing great progress in the arts, sciences, and they are considered the most literate in the world. Although the education system is the envy of other modern nations during the period, the government unfortunately continues to see the nation's minorities as a problem. Although the Jewish minority has been fully emancipated since Napoleon's invasion, anti-Semitism is still prevalent in Germany. Anti-Semitic sentiments have made their lives difficult, nevertheless, the Jewish community has been able to assimilate themselves into German society and have a voice in larger cities such as Berlin.

However in Konitz on March 13, 1900 body parts of a murder young man are found strewn throughout town. Immediately the Jewish community is suspected and anti-Semetic events take place. Walser Smith in The Butcher's Tale investigates the murder of the young man and how it tore the community of Konitz apart. Furthermore, Walser Smith illustrates to his readers the history of anti-Semetism, the place of anti-Semetism in Germany during 1900, and how anti-Semetic sentiments would evolve in Germany's future (particularly under the Third Reich). The book is written extremely well which makes it an easy read (it sucks you into the historical plot much like a novel). In addition, for anyone looking to gain knowledge of how anti-Semetism evolved in Germany or the roots of anti-Semetism this is an excellent opportunity.

A great way to research anti-semitism in Germany prior to the forming of theWeimar Republic. Gives a German historywhile investigating and coming to your own conclusion as to who is the killer? Murder mystery combined with accurate historical information.

It starts with a murder, a lie,and a coverup to keep the lie real.
The Butcher's tale reminded me of the lies, and finger pointings, believed by the masses of witches in their midst..
It brings up, and out of the lighted shadow, 'blood libel', and ritualistic murder. Hatred,and untruths of christian children,being hung unpside down, their throats cut, to catch their blood, a pail, and the blood used as an ingrediant to cook passover matzoh.
Long ago prejudice, and anti semitism rears it's ugly head, as friend turns against friend, and family member against family member, as the towns people rush the investigation of a butchered corpse,whose body parts are found up and down the towns river.

The reviews of this book may lead you to expect a true-crime story. It was researched very well and and is, therefore, a meticulous examination of German townspeople at the beginning of the 20th century; but the reviews are more interesting than the book. This is not because the story, itself, is not interesting but because it is told in a dull manner.

If you think, as I did, that this book will tell you why a whole town of Christians would not only believe false stories about Jews but actually make up the false stories, forget it. The author seemed to attempt to do this through his detailed examination, but I still don't know the answer. Maybe no one does.

Even if I had not already read the author's preface, after I read this book I could have told you he is a college professor and had his students critique part of the book. It reads like a term paper, lots of facts but not a page turner. A very interesting story, then, turns out to be a dull book.