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515th Anniversary of Lisbon Massacre

On the Sunday after Easter in 1506, in Lisbon, more than 500 but perhaps as many as 4,000 people were murdered in a series of religious riots that went on for several days. Most of those killed were New Christians, Cristaos Novos, although a number of un-converted Jews and Old Christians were also caught up in the violence. Many of the perpetrators were then themselves executed as punishment by the Governor, acting in response to the very upset King, who was himself under pressure from the Pope to show a strong response.

Recall that in the decade after the Catholics Kings completed the conquest of Spain and the expulsion of the remaining Jews and Muslims in 1492, their policy became to either convert, leave, or die. Leaving was difficult since the neighboring kingdoms, including Portugal, had also criminalized non-christians, so many chose to convert. Unfortunately for those who settled in Lisbon, the local population hated the converts even more than those who kept their faiths. For these unfortunates, the outcome become both convert and die.

Here on the forum archives are mentions of the signage and plaque that commemorate the massacre, including in Rick's kids' blog entries, but there they blame superstition about drought as the underlying cause, and in the wikipedia entry they rationalize this as part of the general habit of blaming the plague on a scapegoat. Both these are ways of avoiding facing the hatred and greed and xenophobia that boiled over at that season in Portugal --
the murders were committed by a range of people, including German and Dutch maritime traders residing in the city, Dominican officials, and those who just took the opportunity of a tumult-in-progress to loot the goods and property of their neighbors.

I've been reading some of the journal articles about the events, but the quotations in Portuguese and German from the original eyewitness accounts are not easy to follow when I can only read Spanish and English. Also, a lot of the records of this period were lost in the earthquake that occurred on All Saints Day in 1755, when something like 30,000 people perished.

The first Sunday after Easter is called Divine Mercy - in the Bible, God and his spokesmen often warn that retribution for crimes will be visited on succeeding generations. So, the some thousands who were killed (horribly -- beaten, burned, defenestrated on to pikes held below the windows, and so on ) that day were requited with many thousands who died on All Saints about 250 years later.

https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1627-anusim
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon_massacre
https://www.britannica.com/event/Lisbon-earthquake-of-1755

Posted by
7995 posts

The past year has been horribly troubling. Clearly though, terrible things have been for a long time. Mass media make it easier to now learn of violence and catastrophes from near and far, and so maybe it seems the world has never been in worse shape. Maybe it really is, but it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns the previous millennia.

By the way, the most troubling thing on our Portugal trip almost 20 years ago was a guy offering, nicely, not menacingly, to sell heroin. This was bright and early one morning.

Posted by
1554 posts

Avi, There is a memorial to these evil acts which was installed in Lisbon in 2008. We have seen it and I could swear I took a picture of it but have looked at our pictures over and over and can't find it. I do remember being surprised to see something new in a square we had walked through numerous times in previous trips to Portugal. I did find it on line by searching Lisbon Jewish Memorial. Loosely translated it states: In memory of the thousands of Jews, victims of intolerance and religious fanaticism, assassinated in the massacre which began in this square on April 19, 1506. Not sure if there were any earlier acknowledgements of these acts. If not, I guess the 500th anniversary was about time to apologize. What is known is that 'intolerance and religious fanaticism' has not been cured in this world.

Posted by
127 posts

To this day, there are communities in central Portugal, and perhaps other regions, that practice Jewish rituals in secret. These hidden Jewish communities date from the banishment decrees of 1492. In the past few decades, some of these communities have emerged from hiding, but there may well be others who have remained secret.
Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of Jewish history in Portugal "History of the Jews in Portugal".
Although the fascist government was sympathetic with Germany and Italy during the second world war, Portugal was generally friendly to Jewish refugees fleeing the war.

Posted by
3961 posts

Thanks Avi for sharing this horrific part of history. We visited Portugal in 2016. Unfortunately this was not discussed on our tour. It should have been.