On 21 March 1349, amid the ravages of the Black Death, between 100 and 3,000 Jews were slaughtered in Erfurt, Germany, as anti-Semitic hysteria swept through Western Europe.
Accused of poisoning wells and spreading the plague, Jewish communities became scapegoats for a terrified populace, leading to brutal pogroms across the continent.
In Erfurt, the violence saw entire families murdered, homes looted, and centuries of Jewish presence erased in a single day.
This massacre was part of a wider pattern of persecution that devastated Jewish life in medieval Europe, a grim reminder of how fear and prejudice can lead to unspeakable atrocities.
