Guardian newspaper sports
writer Jacob Steinberg has complained
that Twitter refuses to suspend a neo-Nazi account holder who sent him an image
portraying Jews as vampires.
However, it appears that
Steinberg has a strong case against the social media giant with the coincidental
publication of research tracing the horror genre’s deeply antisemitic roots,
Chloe Hyman, a graduate
research student at The Courtauld Institute of Art, points out in 'The Satanic
Jew: Antisemitism in Nosferatu' how in the silent horror movie
classic, which is an unauthorised screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s
Dracula, there is “grotesque treatment of Count Orlok’s body, which becomes a
site of projection for many Weimar anxieties, including fear of racial
degeneration and the Jewish Other”.
Debate still rages about the
origins of the word ‘Nosferatu’, but
while it is generally agreed that it was introduced into print via British 19th century writer, Emily
Gerard, it does not mean ’undead’ or
‘vampire’ but instead has an
etymological link, either to the Greek nosophoros (νοσοφορος;
"plague-carrier"), or the Romanian nesuferitul ("the
insufferable one").
Meanwhile, Hyman’s heavily illustrated
essay goes on to show how the “development of vampire lore in Germany is
intrinsically tied to medieval Christian fears of the Devil and the Jewish
Other”.
© Natalie
Wood (19 March 2019)
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