Witch Persecutions & the Holocaust

Brief overview of the impact of religion, politics and history on executing society’s “undesirables”

While I was writing Witch of Scrapfaggot Green, I thought about the Holocaust, the persecutions of Jews and the 6,000,000 other victims: “mentally ill,” Slavs, Gypsies and homosexuals, and parallels with the witches’ persecutions. Hitler’s secret agenda was to revive Germanic Paganism and exterminate those were in his way. His extermination of Jews resulted in a global outrage he hadn’t expected, leading to his downfall. Next on his agenda were Christians. Pagan Symbol of the Sun: Hitler and the Swastika

In both cases, the groups that spawned hatred within the society and times they lived in were hunted with rabid fervor, tortured and exterminated. Religion played a major role in both outrages. Christian targets were Pagans whom they believed were in league with the devil.

History and politics has their role in genocide. Hitler established the Third Reich. When the witches were persecuted, Christianity and royalty played a key role in governing the people, the former because of its influence on the latter. During the Burning Times, between the late 1500s and 1700s, there were 12,545 recorded executions. Estimates range from 35,184 to 63,850 victims in Europe and America.North Berwick Witches' Persecution is an example of how religion and politics played a role in this travesty. Animals weren’t exempt from the terror as Cats Persecuted as Familiars illustrates.

Other examples of persecution of witches are The Witches of Zugarramurdi, Stamford Witch Trials: Kinder, Gentler than Salem, Witchcraft Wars, Trials and Hunts in Pennsylvania, The Voodoo Murder of Pennsylvania I: Background and The Voodoo Murder of Pennsylvania II, the Crime and Trial.