Britannica Sources used in this answer

What antisemitic statements did Martin Luther make later in his life?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Antisemitism demonstration in Paris — antisemitism Demonstrators protesting antisemitism during a silent march in Paris. The march commemorated Mireille Knoll, a Jewish woman who had survived the Holocaust and was murdered in her home on March 23, 2018, in what authorities called a hate crime.

Toward the end of his life, Martin Luther expressed increasingly virulent and strident antisemitic views, which stood in stark contrast to his earlier, more positive sentiments regarding Jews.21

Driven by frustration over the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish community, Luther’s later pronouncements included calls for the expulsion of Jews and the burning of their synagogues. In his writings, he stated, "We are at fault for not slaying them," and further claimed that society allowed them to live freely despite their alleged "murder, cursing, blaspheming, lying and defaming".21

These hateful statements, which were later emphasized by the Nazis to promote their own agenda, have been formally renounced by major Lutheran denominations, including the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in 1983 and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1994. It is essential to recognize that such rhetoric is fundamentally incompatible with the ethical principles of human dignity and respect for all people.2