The Butcher's Tale

by Helmut Walser Smith

"In 1900, in Konitz, a small town in the eastern reaches of the German Empire, a Christian boy was found brutually dismembered, the blood seemingly drained from his limbs. The crime resembled the traditional blood-libel accusations against the Jews, the kind dramatized in Bernard Malamud's classic novel The Fixer. Without evidence, local Christians -fueled by a dangerous mixture of slanderous gossip and historical fasehood - quickly accused their Jewish neighbors of ritual murder. Within weeks of the murder, the town was engulfed in violent anti-Semitic riots and demonstrations.". "In The...

See on goodreads | librarything