Hatred of Jews has its roots in the events connected with the Roman Empire's occupation of Jewish Judea, when it faced power intrigues of collaborators with the occupying power, Jewish armed resistance and religious zealots seeking a faith uncorrupted by secular power. When Christianity, hated for centuries, became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the story of the search for true faith became the story of how the Jews killed the Christian, Jesus. Jewish guilt was then defined as hereditary, every Jew was guilty of Christ's death since birth. Not accepting and rejecting the new, Christian faith was then another Jewish guilt. Today, the Catholic Church believes that all the sinners of the world are to be blamed for Jesus' crucifixion. But despite humanistic corrections, the story that "the Jews killed Jesus" influences ideas about Jews and Jewish people to this day.
The medieval Jewish community in Olomouc was destroyed as a result of hate campaign by monk John Capistran, nicknamed "the Scourge of the Hebrews", who was instrumental in expelling Jews who refused Catholic baptism from all Moravian royal towns. In Moravia, fortunately, there were no scenes such as in Wrocław, where his preaching led to the burning of dozens of Jews alive and the removal of Jewish children for re-education in Christian families. The expulsion of the Jewish population was definitively confirmed by a charter of King Ladislaus the Great dated 22 July 1454.
Apart from religion, of course, there was something else at stake: all Jewish property in the city was confiscated in favour of the powerful and all their loans and debts were cancelled. Medieval synagogues used to be converted into Catholic churches after the Jews were murdered or expelled; in Olomouc, it may have been the Church of St. Blaise, demolished in 1839, or perhaps another church in the current University area. The fragments of four medieval tombstones with Hebrew text, which were used for the construction of the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary after the confiscation of the Jewish cemetery, are now in the depository of the Museum in Olomouc.
The Jews expelled from Olomouc mostly settled in the nearby towns of Prostějov, Tovačov, Přerov, Lipník and Úsov, which did not belong to the king. For the next 400 years, Jews were not allowed to reside in Olomouc.
Sermon of St. John Capistran, panel painting, unknown author, 1470-80. Historical Museum Bamberg.
John Capistran was also active in Olomouc. The Church of the Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary was built on the very spot where he preached. On the wall of the presbytery of the church there is a drawing of the Siege of Belgrade, depicting St. John Capistran, who died of plague after the battle. Capistran, who was declared a saint in 1724, can also be found on Olomouc's Column of Honour of the Holy Trinity.