Antisemitism in France - Antisemitism After 1945

Antisemitism After 1945

After the end of World War ii in 1945 the surviving Jews began to return to their homes but many choose to immigrate to the US and British controlled Palestine. Although the horrifying evident of the Nazi regime antisemitism wasn't banished from Europe. Blood labels and prosecution against Jews continued due to the fear of the local population that the Jews will claim back their property stolen during the holocaust or expose the true nature of the assistance given by the local population in the occupied territory to the Nazi regime.

In 1946 the Kielce pogrom had occurred in Poland when locals blamed Jews for kidnapping Christian child. violence broke out which resulted in the killing of around 40 Jews.

The after war period was characterized by rise in antisemitism in the USSR. In 1948 Stalin launched the campaign against the "rootless cosmopolitan" and in which numerous Yiddish-language poets, writers, painters and sculptors were killed or arrested. Also in the Doctors' Plot issued between 1952-1953 number of Jewish doctors were arrested and accused of an attempt to murder leading party leaders. There were also assumptions, made by modern historians such as Edward Radzinsy, that Stalin planned to deport the Jewish population of USSR to exile in Kazakhstan or Siberia.

After the foundation of Israel and the escalation of the Israeli-Arab conflict a new kind of antisemitism has begun to emerge in Europe as a part of the anti- imperialist struggle of the lest organizations and especially the extreme left.

The criticism against Israel as a conquering imperial power and the solidarity between the extreme left parties and the Palestinian struggle on the one hand and the assumption that European Jews support Israel that is defined as "Jewish state" resulted in a connection that was created between Judaism and Zionism, connection that in some cases resulted in attacks on the Jewish communities in western Europe. One example is the German leftist terrorist group "Revolutionary Cells" whose members participated in hijacking the Air France Flight 139 in 1976 (Operation Entebbe) and the planning to assassinate the head of the German Jewish community, Heinz Galinski and famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

During those years the antisemitic attacks from various neo-Nazi groups and the flourish of antisemitic conspiracy theories continued throughout western Europe.