Final answer:
Jews were the main victims of hysteria during the Black Death, facing persecution based on false accusations. Other marginalized groups also suffered, with financial tensions exacerbating the violence against them.
Step-by-step explanation:
Victims of Black Death Hysteria:
The group of people who became unwilling victims in the hysteria during the Black Death were the Jews. Due to rampant fear and a lack of understanding of the disease's actual causes, Jews were scapegoated and faced violent persecution, including massacres and the burning of their communities. This anti-Semitism stemmed from false accusations, such as the poisoning of wells, and escalated in the face of mass mortality and social upheaval.
Moreover, various social minorities such as clerics, foreigners, and those afflicted with leprosy also faced heightened discrimination and violence. Medieval society, unable to comprehend the biological mechanisms of the plague, resorted to blaming marginalized groups for the catastrophe. Such social responses to the plague in medieval Europe were magnified by the fact that many among the poor and minorities were already in a disadvantaged state due to prior economic and famine-related stresses.
The attacks on the Jewish community were not only driven by misguided fear of the disease but were also financially motivated. Financial instability prior to the plague's arrival had resulted in burgeoning debt among non-Jewish citizens, leaving Jewish moneylenders as targets for community outlashes. This culminated in the destruction of debt records housed within Jewish archives during outbreaks of violence against them.