Caracas – Note Rolles – in the media channels hitherto considered prestigious, such as Radio Nacional de Venezuela, an anti-Semitic campaign has been broadcast against the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, who has never denied his Jewish roots, despite his being a Catholic.
In recent days we have heard Chavez calling Capriles “Pig”. In an article published recently Carlos Raul Hernández wrote: “It is clearly evident that this insult by Chavez is not accidental, but entirely intentional.”
Hernández explained that “in many European churches, in relieves or statues of the Middle Ages, repulsive figures with Jewish characteristics are presented, on top of a huge sow or beneath it, in shameful, provocative postures. The new strong man has reconnected between the terms “Pig” and “Jew”, Saujude or Judensau, as Hitler used to bellow in his aggressive speeches.”
According to Wikipedia, the German words Judensau (a Jewish sow in German) and Judenschwein (a Jewish pig) are an expression of the antisemitic iconography originating in the Middle Ages, which represents Jews in a manner which is derisive and deprived of human dignity. This used to be a common motif in the anti-Jewish Christian art and in antisemitic caricatures in ancient times. The image of the pig was used to increase the humiliation of the Jews, since the meat of the pig is considered by them to be defiled and is a forbidden food.
Judensau figures can be found starting from the 13th century and they were created mainly in central Europe. This motif was found in reliefs and statues in about 30 churches and buildings in central Europe. In addition, starting from the 15th century, this motif served as a vicious caricature that appeared in posters or in other means of communication in order to mock the Jews in front of the public. Starting from the 19th century, this term served also as an antisemitic curse. The Nazis adapted this figure to their purpose and exchanged the original term with the term Saujude that served them as an obscenity for publicly denouncing, humiliating and threatening people of Jewish origin in antisemitic campaigns.
Today, the use of the word Judensau is a punishable offense in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
