13th–14th centuries
Crusade of the Pastoureaux
1320·Verdun-sur-Garonne
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
the Jews sheltering in the castle tower are killed there or take their own lives
In Verdun-sur-Garonne, the Jews took refuge in the castle tower, where they withstood a siege. When the position was about to be overrun, some of them chose death rather than fall alive into the hands of the assailants, and children were thrown from the windows.
This act bears a name in the Ashkenazi tradition: kiddush ha-Shem, the sanctification of the Name. It first appeared in the Rhineland during the First Crusade and recurred over three centuries whenever a community was cornered. Verdun-sur-Garonne is one of the rare attested cases in the south of France.
- Period :
- 13th–14th centuries
- Type :
- Military repression
- Region :
- Western Europe
- Country :
- France
Chroniques françaises du XIVᵉ siècle ; Nahon, Les Juifs du Midi.