Fabert says:

This is a good book, though I believe it could have been even better. The story that is being told here is quite an important one. It has been rather neglected in modern history books (which is why Smith’s book fills a gap), but in the years and even decades immediately after Winter’s murder the incident was debated endlessly in newspapers and anti-Semitic literature. The Nazi propaganda paper ‘Der Stürmer’ even ran a long serial about it towards the end of World War II, trying to whip up as much frenzy of racial hatred as possible. In the main, this story is retold quite competently in ‘The Butcher’s Tale.’ And whoever reads the book will learn all that is necessary about it, in full detail.

Smith is a historian who was here given the opportunity to write for a wider audience. I wonder if the publishers had a hand in prompting him to tailor his prose for that purpose. I’m all in favor of micro-history, and I’m certainly not complaining that the work is too detailed. But I suspect that to a degree, effective communication has here been sacrificed on the altar of cheap suspense. We do not know who murdered Winter, and though I have no quarrel with Smith not revealing this until the end (usually, readers want their crime stories to have a resolution, after all), I sometimes felt that he was at pains to obscure this in order to maintain his readers’ interest.

Another drawback is that Smith’s tone can at times be rather moralistic, even preaching, though always in a subtle manner. From the start I had the feeling that the only person in Konitz Smith knew for sure couldn’t be the murderer was the Jewish butcher, the man that the anti-Semites pointed to as their scapegoat. The scapegoating certainly did take place, and that is also, indeed, the main lesson to be learned from this story. But by focusing almost exclusively on this most crude and immediate aspect of the anti-Semitic response, Smith fails to see the other ways in which anti-Jewish propaganda could utilize these events. Often, indeed, Smith’s account reads rather like the sometimes overly apologetic reporting offered in the liberal press at the time. And it was often at this type of reporting that the conservatives and anti-Semites could strike most effectively, charging that while they (the conservatives) were not pointing their fingers at anyone but merely pleading for a fair investigation and eventual trial, the liberals were obstructing this by sermonizing about how the murderer must under no circumstances be the Jewish butcher. They would say, in effect, that the ‘blood libel’ was not an argument that they used, but that the liberals used. Certainly, this was all fundamentally dishonest, as they were indeed counting on the more rabble-rousing brand of anti-Semites to do the dirty work, while leaving the more subtle, ‘intellectual’ propaganda to them. The point here is merely that Smith misses this secondary type of propaganda by exclusively concentrating on the primary type.

Still, this is a good–and easy–read.

Rating: 4 / 5

Carson says:

Helmut Walser Smith’s The Butcher’s Tale analyzes a town’s (Konitz Germany)involvement in anti-Semetic activity in 1900. At the turn of the century Germany is experiencing great progress in the arts, sciences, and they are considered the most literate in the world. Although the education system is the envy of other modern nations during the period, the government unfortunately continues to see the nation’s minorities as a problem. Although the Jewish minority has been fully emancipated since Napoleon’s invasion, anti-Semitism is still prevalent in Germany. Anti-Semitic sentiments have made their lives difficult, nevertheless, the Jewish community has been able to assimilate themselves into German society and have a voice in larger cities such as Berlin.

However in Konitz on March 13, 1900 body parts of a murder young man are found strewn throughout town. Immediately the Jewish community is suspected and anti-Semetic events take place. Walser Smith in The Butcher’s Tale investigates the murder of the young man and how it tore the community of Konitz apart. Furthermore, Walser Smith illustrates to his readers the history of anti-Semetism, the place of anti-Semetism in Germany during 1900, and how anti-Semetic sentiments would evolve in Germany’s future (particularly under the Third Reich). The book is written extremely well which makes it an easy read (it sucks you into the historical plot much like a novel). In addition, for anyone looking to gain knowledge of how anti-Semetism evolved in Germany or the roots of anti-Semetism this is an excellent opportunity.
Rating: 5 / 5