O holocausto esquecido

A Holocaust Forgotten

Four and a half centuries before the Holocaust, thousands of Jews in Lisbon were tortured and killed for heresy on Easter.

Jon Miltimore | April 19, 2016

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If you visit Lisbon today, in the downtown square you can find a half of a stone orb resting on a slab. Within the stone circle is the Star of David, etched with the following:

"In memory of the thousands of Jews who were victimized by intolerance and religious fanaticism, killed on the massacre that started on 19 April 1506, on this square."

The Lisbon Massacre, also known as the 1506 Easter Slaughter, is one of the many sad stories of Jewish oppression in Europe. The event, which took place 510 years ago, offers insight into the deep religious intolerance that infected the continent during the 16th century. The event foreshadowed the religious Inquisition that would spawn in Portugal a generation later.

The seeds of the slaughter can be traced to Spain’s own Inquisition. Following Spain’s victory over Muslim forces at Granada in 1492, the Inquisition saw an opportunity to restore all of Spain to Christians. All that was required was the expulsion of some 200,000 Jews from the peninsula. The order was issued by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella on July 30 (a fact Columbus casually notes in his diary). Jews still remaining in Spain, an estimated 50,000-80,000 people, were put on ships and removed.

There were not a lot of nations looking to take in tens of thousands of Jews. In fact, Jews had already been expelled from England, France, and parts of Germany. Nearby Portugal, a nation of a million or so people, ironically was one of the few places many Jews were able to settle. Perhaps as many as 100,000 Jews found homes there under King Manuel I.
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