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The history of anti-Semitism is a story of demonization that is deeply intertwined with the societies, countries, and ages where it takes place.

It is the story of anti-Semites, of those who, over time, have made Jews their worst enemies. Indeed, at certain times in their history, societies have had a need for a common enemy to unite or galvanize their people, to divert attention, or to serve as a scapegoat. At other times, Jewish people have happily integrated within the communities where they live.
 
This series examines the twists and turns of this story, from Antiquity to the modern day, from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the Volga, and from the Iberian Peninsula to the birch forests of Poland. It will encompass Stalin and Pope John XXIII, Hitler and Alfred Dreyfus, King Louis IX or Saint-Louis as he was subsequently known, and Spinoza; some figures of hatred, others more benevolent characters.
 
The visual framework of the narrative will comprise both the traces left around the world, and remarkable 3D historical reconstructions created for the video game Assassin's Creed, acting as illustrations from the past, along with photographs and film archives from more recent times. It will draw upon research and analysis carried out by prestigious and respected academics. Eschewing witness testimonies and subjective opinions, it will bring together a wide range of contribution from some 30 historians, psychologists, and psychoanalysts to explore the multiple facets of the phenomenon and how they have evolved over time.
 
It will focus on specific stories from each era that mark out and illustrate the form of these manifestations of violence and hatred in an enlightening and moving manner. It will also provide context for the fightback against this recurrent phenomenon.
 
This four-episode series paints a comprehensive picture of this, “the longest hatred”.

She changed the course of history: a cold case about the most enigmatic heroine of the Middle Ages. Dive into her epic rise and spectacular fall, with 3D animations and never-before-seen documents from her rehabilitation trial. 

An epic rise and a spectacular fall: the destiny of a young village girl who claimed to have been sent by God to save France from the English invaders. Worshipped by an entire people, she was adviser to the powerful, became a war leader, won decisive battles, liberated cities and had her king crowned. Her adventure would take a tragic turn – at the age of 19, when she got burned alive at the stake after a mock trial. A deep dive into European medieval history, between animation and historical documentary.

Where did anti-Semitism first emerge? How did it grow? The first major wave of violence directed at Jews occurred in Antiquity, at Alexandria in Egypt, and has been well-documented.

How did anti-Jewish sentiment spread in Christian and Muslim civilizations? After three centuries of a golden age on the Iberian Peninsula, Grenada was the setting for a massacre.
The worst period was the time of the Crusades, when attacking Jewish people became a mass phenomenon. But the history of anti-Semitism in the first millennium AD also encompasses the first struggles to counter the spread of this hostility. This went from the first text denouncing hatred of Jews in Alexandria to the refusal of the Carolingian kings to discriminate against them, and from the protection for Jewish communities accorded by the Muslim rulers of Spain, and the appeals by Abbott Bernard de Clairvaux to bring an end to the massacres during the Crusades.

Over five centuries on three continents, the gradual dehumanization of Jews entered a new dimension. This was when the first “Jewish nose” appeared in the art of the Middle Ages. This stigmatization would soon go beyond iconography to give rise to the first distinctive characteristic bestowed on Jewish people.

Yet where did the stereotype associating Jews with money come from? Hatred of Jews became a political instrument, resulting in their expulsion from most of Europe. In the kingdoms cleared of their Jewish populations, a new, paradoxical phenomenon emerged: Anti-Judaism without Jews. After the Spain of the Inquisition, the series moves on to Eastern Europe where Jews found refuge. This was when the first anti-Jewish imagery appeared, along with the proliferation of so-called blood libels throughout Europe, falsely accusing Jews of the ritual murder of Christian children. The French Revolution would change the history of Jews worldwide. 

The 19th century saw new forms of hostility emerge of a racial and political order, and the coining of a new term: Anti-Semitism. 

Then in the mid 19th century, the fate of an Italian Jewish child, Edgardo Mortara, who was forcibly baptized a Catholic, challenged the multi-secular authority of the Church and brought about a change in mentalities. The industrial age then gave rise to the modern notion of “economic antiSemitism”, along with the first caricature of the Jews as “masters of the world”. The Dreyfus Affair took the caricature into a new age, forcing the fight against anti-Semitism into the political arena. It became even more high-profile when the man responsible for the pogroms in Ukraine was assassinated in Paris and his killer went on trial. Then in the first half of the 20th century the process of exterminating all Jewish people was instigated, resulting in the Holocaust. 

In the wake of the Shoah, the horror of the Nazi machine was gradually revealed to its full extent. And yet, the anti-Semitic phoenix has risen again from the ashes. After the war, survivors of the death camps were the victims of a pogrom in Kielce, Poland.

In the Arab world, following the creation of the state of Israel, Jewish populations were mainly forced to leave, paving the way for a new version of anti-Semitism without Jews. A revolution came from the Vatican, which officially brought an end to 2,000 years of Catholic anti-Judaism. But anti-Semitism mutates and takes on new faces, that of anti-Zionism, negationism, and even anti-Semitism in the name of anti-racism. In the 21st century, a new chapter is being written. While it has never been so vigorously condemned and outlawed, anti-Semitism is on the rise, either openly or covertly, and accompanied by new forms of violence.

The Trojans are surprised to discover that the Greeks have suddenly left the shores of Troy, leaving only a wooden horse, as imposing as it is mysterious. A spear is thrown into its flanks. Inside the horse, Greek warriors, including Odysseus, who invented this strategy, remain silent and still...

When the Trojans assume that the horse must be an offering to Athena, Priam has it brought into the city. At nightfall, the Greeks climb out of the horse, opening the gates of the city to the rest of their army, and start to massacre the Trojans. Menelaus is reunited with Helen. Paris fires an arrow into the heel of Achilles, who collapses to the ground. Zeus watches on helplessly and realises that men will no longer be able to believe in the gods after such a slaughter. With the city still burning, Odysseus sails away with his comrades, without any sense of triumph. Ten years of fighting. But who will remember the Trojan War?

Jesus, the founding figure of Christianity, is also an exceptional character in the Qur’an. Why? In what way? This series leads the investigation, with 26 of the greatest specialists from around the world and explore the emergence of Islam during the tiem of Muhammad. 

By the creators of “Corpus Christi.

A historical and scientific enquiry into the origins of the New Testament and the life of Jesus Christ involving specialists from all over the world.

Corpus Christi explores the question of Jesus seen historically and through the texts which tell us about his life. Corpus Christi tackles the viewpoints of the most eminent researchers worldwide who are working on the subject. Corpus Christi enables us to understand just how spectacular the distance is between what we know about Jesus - or what we think we know - and what is known by historians, linguists, bible scholars, and epigraphers who are endlessly analyzing and questioning the most fundamental Christian texts.

Released on DVD by ARTE Video

Best Historical Documentary - Nuit Des Clio 1997.

In verses 157 and 158 of Surah IV, the Qur’an tells the story of the crucifixion of Jesus very differently from the Christian tradition.

In it, Jesus is crucified, “or so it appears”. Might those who witnessed the scene have been victims of an illusion? Might someone else have been crucified in his place? Did Jesus really die on the cross?

The image of Christ on the cross is known all over the world, but are we even certain how the torture was inflicted?

Were convicts nailed or tied to the cross? What shape was the cross? Where did executions take place? Do the writings by historians of antiquity confirm those of the Evangelists? What can we learn from bone fragments of the sole crucifixion victim ever discovered (in Jerusalem), which are also dated 1st century AD? Who crucified Jesus: the Romans or the Jews, as the Gospel according to Saint John leads us to believe?

According to Surah IV of the Qur’an, “the People of the Book” —in this context, the Jews— claim that they have put Jesus to death. 

Contrary to historical fact, they contend that they have crucified him. Why this implausible claim? Why this self-accusation? Why does the Qur’an polemicize so much against the Jews of Arabia and yet all the while appear to remain faithful to the biblical tradition?