Was tun Historiker und Schriftsteller der Geschichte an? Zwei Testfälle - Medina und Mainz

Discusses historical accounts of the massacre of the Jewish tribe Quraiza in Medina by the followers of Muhammad in 627, and of the Jews of Mainz by Crusaders in 1096. In both cases, there is the story of a Jew who could have saved himself but chose instead to die with his brethren. The story of Medina was described by the Arab chronicler Ibn Ishak; in modern times it became a subject of contention between Muslim defenders of Muhammad and anti-Muslim Westerners and Jews. The memory of the Mainz massacre was suppressed by later generations of German Jews in their desire to feel at home in Germany. The Zionist poet Tchernichowsky wrote about both massacres, and at their center the two martyrs; but in the spirit of the new Jewish nationalism he turned these martyrs into heroes who died fighting.