The Butcher's Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town

One of the striking aspects of the Konitz story is the estrangement between the Christian and Jewish communities, despite them living and working in close proximity to each other. Smith delves into this issue in Chapter 2, where he explains the social order in Konitz in terms of a plot or narrative with “heroes” and “villains.” Even prior to Winter’s murder, in Konitz, Jews and Christians rarely associate with each other, marriage between them is strongly disapproved, and there is a language barrier. Christian townspeople treat their Jewish neighbors as if they are members of an “alien” species, spouting deeply prejudiced views: “[T]hey are a civilization apart, and […] one questions their humanity” (88). The system of othering and dehumanizing an entire group of people makes it easy to justify atrocity and prejudice. Moreover, this community divide is not just religious but social: “Although both men [Hoffmann and Lewy] are butchers and neighbors, Hoffmann belongs to the respectable middle class […]. Lewy, by contrast, [belongs] to a ‘lowly community’ for whom ‘nothing is sacrosanct’” (87). Lewy’s lower class status in addition to his Jewish identity make it even easier for both the lower-class and middle-class Christians to view him and others in the Jewish community as animalistic “others.