Final answer:
During the Black Death, Jewish communities and other minorities were unwilling victims, persecuted and falsely accused of causing the plague, leading to massacres and violence against them.
Step-by-step explanation:
The group of people who became unwilling victims in the hysteria during the Black Death were mainly the Jewish communities and other social minorities. The Jewish people faced widespread persecution, becoming scapegoats for the unexplained mortality rates, and were accused of poisoning wells and facilitating the spread of the plague. This baseless blame resulted in massacres and additional acts of violence towards them.
Other victims included those suffering from leprosy, foreigners, and even clerics who were at the frontline of providing care and thus also succumbed in large numbers. Scapegoating stemmed from fear and the lack of understanding of the illness, leading to the targeted violence against these minority groups. Economic turmoil and existing debts to Jewish lenders further exacerbated hostility towards the Jewish population during the plague.