The following is an incomplete list of massacres that have occurred in present-day Germany and its predecessors: The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in the territory of the present-day Germany before the year 1000: In May and June 1096, during the Rhineland massacres, about 2,000–2,800 Jews have been killed by mobs of German and sometimes French Christians of the People's Crusade or committed suicide to avoid baptism.
At least 1,600 killings are well testified, but some estimates run up to 5,000 or even 10,000 victims, thus annihilating about 1/4 to 1/3 of the Ashkenazi population of the time.
The first persecutions of this group happened in late 1095 in France (Rouen riot of [December?]
The key person of the Rhineland massacres was Count Emicho von Leiningen who led undisciplined troops of up to 10,000 crusaders.
These series of massacres, which resulted in the partial or complete destruction of 210 Jewish communities in the Rhineland and 350 in all of Germany, started in Southern France (Toulon, April 1348) and Spain (Barcelona), than spread to Switzerland and South West Germany.