Kyburg massacre

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Kyburg massacre

The Kyburg massacre was an anti-Jewish attack that happened at Kyburg Castle, near Winterthur in what is now Switzerland. It occurred on September 18, 1349, during the Black Death persecutions.

Jews from nearby towns and regions sought refuge in Kyburg Castle. They had begun gathering there around November 1348, escaping violence in Winterthur, Diessenhofen, Aarau, and other towns ruled by the Duke of Austria. Some Jews from Zurich may have joined after the February 1349 massacre.

Under pressure from other imperial cities that had already killed their Jewish populations, Albert II, Duke of Austria, ordered the Jews in Kyburg to be burned. He had previously protected Jews in Pfirt and Alsace, but feared losing control if he did not act.

On September 18, 1349, 330 Jews who had taken shelter in Kyburg Castle were burned inside the fortress. The massacre was one of the deadliest anti-Jewish events in Swiss history during the Black Death era.