The Butcher's Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town

“The butcher’s tale” has a number of meanings and functions on a number of levels in the book. It refers principally to the gruesome murder of Ernst Winter, carried out with a method reflecting the butcher’s trade. It also refers to the petition which the Christian butcher, Hoffmann, published to exonerate himself and incriminate his Jewish colleague Lewy. This meaning can be extended to evoke the Jewish ritual murder legend itself—a “tale” (that is, a myth) of butchery that was perpetuated throughout the centuries. This sense of the phrase can also be turned around to reflect the hideous violence practiced by Christians toward Jews throughout the book.

In titling his book The Butcher’s Tale, Smith evokes and advertises the graphic and grisly nature of its subject matter. The title also reminds us that two different butchers—one Christian, one Jewish—are at the center of the story.

The legend of Simon of Trent ascribed the murder of a young boy in the northern Italian city of Trent in the 15th century to a ritual murder carried out by the city’s Jews. Simon was venerated as a martyr for centuries, and a graphic depiction of the martyred child was installed under the bridge tower in Frankfurt, Germany.