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In case you guys don't click all the links in my posts, I managed to slide in a reference to this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland…
You see, on their way to conquering Jerusalem and massacring myriads of its inhabitants, the savages ("crusaders") did a trial run.
On their way from France east they passed through towns in the Rhineland and Palatinate with Jewish centers and committed massacres.
Those massacres were small since those cities were small - the savages didn't really have big cities - but their impact was vast.
Trier, Cologne, Worms, and Mainz had massacres, totaling ~12,000; only in Speyer was there respite as the local bishop opposed the genocide.
These cities, esp. Mainz, were important centers of early High Medieval Ashkenazi Judaism, and their Jewish populations were wiped out.
Early Modern Ashkenazi Judaism was centered on Poland-Lithuania because of 500 years of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Western Europe.
In Western culture today people still say "crusader" and mean "fighter for justice" and not "genocidal savage." It's jarring. /end
