Page "History of the Jews in France" Paragraph 14

The Jews of France do not seem to have suffered much during the Crusades, except, perhaps, during the first ( 1096 ), when the Crusaders are stated to have shut up the Jews of Rouen in a church and to have murdered them without distinction of age or sex, sparing only those who accepted baptism.

According to a Hebrew document, the Jews throughout France were at that time in great fear, and wrote to their brothers in the Rhine countries making known to them their terror and asking them to fast and pray.

In the Rhineland thousands of Jews were killed by the crusaders ( see German Crusade, 1096 ).