Martin Luther

If I am to be a Christian, I must be a Jew.

What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? First, their synagogues or churches should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered with earth and crushed so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.

Secondly, their homes also should be razed and destroyed. For they pursue the same aims in them as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies, in order that they may realize that they are not masters in our land, as they boast, but miserable captives, as they incessantly lament and wail.

Thirdly, their prayer books and Talmudic writings, which are full of idolatry, lies, curses, and blasphemy, should be taken from them.

Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more.

Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not farmers or craftsmen or merchants, but only usurers, and they should remain at home.

Sixthly, they ought to be deprived of the opportunity to practice usury, and all their cash and treasure of silver and gold should be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping.

Seventhly, let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given flail, axe, spade, and spindle, and let them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on Adam's children.

If these works of mercy do not suit them, then we must expel them forever from our country.

Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal with them with utmost severity, as Moses did in the wilderness, when he slew three thousand... for if we do not, we are partners in their sins.

To be sure, I would not execute a Jew; I would not even allow him to be a farmer, but I would drive him out of the country.

A man should not lie with his wife before she has been three nights in bed.

To kill a peasant is not murder; it is helping to extinguish the conflagration. Let there be no half measures! Crush them! Cut their throats! Here, there, everywhere! Whoever can, strike, slay, stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel.

Therefore, dear Lords, help here, save here, release here, stab, smite, strangle here, whoever can. And if you die in it, blessed are you; for you die in obedience to God's Word and command (Rom. 13) and in the service of love, to save your neighbor from hell and devil's fire.

For the ass will have blows, and the populace will be ruled by force. God knew this well, and therefore he put a sword into the hand of the rulers, not a fox's tail.

I would rather have my tongue cut out than retract a single syllable.

Peasants are no better than pigs.

If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die in childbearing—she is there to do it.

What is worse, the Jews, in their synagogues, curse our Lord Jesus Christ and Mary His mother, and call her a whore, and Christ a mamzer [bastard], that is, a son of a whore.

He who would be a Christian must be a Jew.