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The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Cover of the first book edition ofThe Great Within the Minuscule and Antichrist, in which theProtocols appeared as an appendix
Author
Unknown; plagiarised from various European authors
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion[b][c] is anantisemitic hoax purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published inImperial Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. It played a key part in popularizing belief in aninternational Jewish conspiracy.
The text was exposed as a work ofblack propaganda by the British newspaperThe Times in 1921 and by the German newspaperFrankfurter Zeitung in 1924. Beginning in 1933, distillations of the work were assigned by some German teachers, as if they were factual, to be read by German schoolchildren throughoutNazi Germany.[1] It remains widely available in numerous languages, in print and on the Internet, and continues to be presented byantisemitic groups as a genuine document. It has been described as "probably the most influential work of antisemitism ever written".[2]
TheProtocols is a fabricated document purporting to be factual. Textual evidence shows that it could not have been produced prior to 1901: the document alludes to the assassinations ofUmberto I (d. 1900) andWilliam McKinley (d. 1901), for example, as though these events were plotted out in advance.[3] The title ofSergei Nilus's widely distributed first edition contains the dates "1902–1903", and it is likely that the document was actually written at this time in Russia.[4]Cesare G. De Michelis argues that it was manufactured in the months after a Russian Zionist congress in September 1902, and that it was originally a parody of Jewish idealism meant for internal circulation among antisemites until it was decided to clean it up and publish it as if it were real. Self-contradictions in various testimonies show that the individuals involved—including the text's initial publisher,Pavel Krushevan—deliberately obscured the origins of the text and lied about it in the decades afterwards.[5]
Political conspiracy background
Towards the end of the 18th century, following thePartitions of Poland, theRussian Empire conquered the world's largest Jewish population. The Jews lived inshtetls in the West of the Empire, in thePale of Settlement and until the 1840s, local Jewish affairs were organised through theqahal, the semi-autonomous Jewish local government, including for purposes of taxation and conscription into theImperial Russian Army. Following the ascent ofliberalism in Europe and among theintelligentsia in Russia, the Tsarist civil service became more hardline in its reactionary policies, upholdingTsar Nicholas I's slogan ofOrthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality, whereby non-Orthodox and non-Russian subjects, including Jews, Catholics, and Protestants, were viewed assubversives who needed to be forcibly converted and assimilated; but even Jews like the composerMaximilian Steinberg who attempted toassimilate by converting to Orthodoxy were still regarded with suspicion as potential "infiltrators" supposedly trying to "take over society", while Jews who remained attached to their traditional religion and culture were resented as undesirable aliens.
The Book of the Kahal (1869) by Jacob Brafman, in the Russian language original
Resentment towards Jews, for the aforementioned reasons, existed in Russian society, but the idea of aProtocols-esqueinternational Jewish conspiracy for world domination was minted in the 1860s.Jacob Brafman, a Lithuanian Jew fromMinsk, had a falling out with agents of the localqahal and consequently converted to theRussian Orthodox Church and authored polemics against theTalmud and theqahal.[6] Brafman claimed in his booksThe Local and Universal Jewish Brotherhoods (1868) andThe Book of the Kahal (1869), published inVilna, that theqahal continued to exist in secret and that its principal aim was undermining Orthodox Christian entrepreneurs, taking over their property and ultimately seizing political power. He also claimed that it was an international conspiratorial network, under the central control of theAlliance Israélite Universelle, which was based in Paris and then under the leadership ofAdolphe Crémieux, a prominentfreemason.[6] The Vilna Talmudist,Jacob Barit, attempted to refute Brafman's claim.
The impact of Brafman's work took on an international aspect when it was translated into English, French, German and other languages. The image of the "qahal" as a secret international Jewish shadow government working as astate within a state was picked up by anti-Jewish publications in Russia and was taken seriously by some Russian officials such as P. A. Cherevin andNikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev who in the 1880s urgedgovernors-general of provinces to seek out the supposedqahal. This was around the time of theassassination of Alexander II of Russia and the subsequentpogroms. In France, it was translated by MonsignorErnest Jouin in 1925, who later supported the Protocols. In 1928,Siegfried Passarge, aFar Right geographer who later gave his support to theNazis, translated it into German.
Aside from Brafman, there were other early writings which posited a similar concept to theProtocols. This includesThe Conquest of the World by the Jews (1873),[7] published inBasel and authored by Osman Bey (bornFrederick van Millingen). Millingen was a British subject and son of English physicianJulius Michael Millingen, but served as an officer in thearmy of the Ottoman Empire where he was born. He converted toIslam, but later became a Russian Orthodox Christian. Bey's work was followed up byHippolytus Lutostansky'sThe Talmud and the Jews (1879) which claimed that Jews wanted to divide Russia among themselves.[8]
Numerous parts in theProtocols, in one calculation, some 160 passages,[10] were plagiarized from Joly's political satireDialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu. This book was a thinly veiled attack on the political ambitions ofNapoleon III, who, represented byMachiavelli,[11][better source needed] plots to rule the world. Joly, arepublican who later served in theParis Commune, was sentenced to 15 months as a direct result of his book's publication.[12]Umberto Eco considered thatDialogue in Hell was itself plagiarised in part from a novel byEugène Sue,Les Mystères du Peuple (1849–56).[13]
Identifiable phrases from Joly constitute 4% of the first half of the first edition, and 12% of the second half; later editions, including most translations, have longer quotes from Joly.[14]
The Protocols 1–19 closely follow the order of Maurice Joly'sDialogues 1–17. For example:
Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
How are loans made? By the issue of bonds entailing on the Government the obligation to pay interest proportionate to the capital it has been paid. Thus, if a loan is at 5%, the State, after 20 years, has paid out a sum equal to the borrowed capital. When 40 years have expired it has paid double, after 60 years triple: yet it remains debtor for the entire capital sum.
— Montesquieu,Dialogues, p. 209
A loan is an issue of Government paper which entails an obligation to pay interest amounting to a percentage of the total sum of the borrowed money. If a loan is at 5%, then in 20 years the Government would have unnecessarily paid out a sum equal to that of the loan in order to cover the percentage. In 40 years it will have paid twice; and in 60 thrice that amount, but the loan will still remain as an unpaid debt.
— Protocols, p. 77
Like the god Vishnu, my press will have a hundred arms, and these arms will give their hands to all the different shades of opinion throughout the country.
— Machiavelli,Dialogues, p. 141
These newspapers, like the Indian god Vishnu, will be possessed of hundreds of hands, each of which will be feeling the pulse of varying public opinion.
— Protocols, p. 43
Now I understand the figure of the god Vishnu; you have a hundred arms like the Indian idol, and each of your fingers touches a spring.
— Montesquieu,Dialogues, p. 207
Our Government will resemble the Hindu god Vishnu. Each of our hundred hands will hold one spring of the social machinery of State.
— Protocols, p. 65
Philip Graves brought this plagiarism to light in a series of articles inThe Times in 1921, being the first to expose theProtocols as a forgery to the public.[15][16]
Hermann Goedsche was a spy for thePrussian Secret Police who was fired from his job as a postal clerk for helping to forge evidence against the democratic leaderBenedict Waldeck in 1849.[citation needed] Following his dismissal, Goedsche began a career as a conservative columnist, and wrote literary fiction under the pen name Sir John Retcliffe.[17] His 1868 novelBiarritz (To Sedan) contains a chapter called "The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of theTwelve Tribes of Israel." In it, Goedsche (who was unaware that only two of the original twelve Biblical tribes remained) depicts a clandestine nocturnal meeting of members of a mysteriousrabbinicalcabal that is planning a diabolical "Jewish conspiracy." At midnight, the Devil appears to contribute his opinions and insight. The chapter closely resembles a scene inAlexandre Dumas'Giuseppe Balsamo (1848), in which Joseph Balsamo a.k.a.Alessandro Cagliostro and company plot theAffair of the Diamond Necklace.[18]
In 1872, a Russian translation of "The Jewish Cemetery in Prague" appeared inSaint Petersburg as a separate pamphlet of purported non-fiction. François Bournand, in hisLes Juifs et nos Contemporains (1896), reproduced the soliloquy at the end of the chapter, in which the character Levit expresses as factual the wish that Jews be "kings of the world in 100 years"—crediting a "Chief Rabbi John Readcliff." Perpetuation of the myth of the authenticity of Goedsche's story, in particular the "Rabbi's speech", facilitated later accounts of the equally mythical authenticity of theProtocols.[17] Like theProtocols, many asserted that the fictional "rabbi's speech" had a ring of authenticity, regardless of its origin: "This speech was published in our time, eighteen years ago," read an 1898 report inLa Croix, "and all the events occurring before our eyes were anticipated in it with truly frightening accuracy."[19]
Fictional events in Joly'sDialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu, which appeared four years beforeBiarritz, may well have been the inspiration for Goedsche's fictional midnight meeting, and details of the outcome of the supposed plot. Goedsche's chapter may have been an outright plagiarism of Joly, Dumas père, or both.[20][d]
Structure and content
TheProtocols purports to document the minutes of a late-19th-century meeting attended by world Jewish leaders, the "Elders of Zion", who are conspiring to control the world.[21][22] The forgery places in the mouths of the Jewish leaders a variety of plans, most of which derive from older antisemitic canards.[21][22] For example, theProtocols includes plans to subvert the morals of the non-Jewish world, plans for Jewish bankers to control the world's economies, plans for Jewish control of the press, and – ultimately – plans for the destruction of civilization.[21][22] The document consists of 24 "protocols", which have been analyzed by Steven Jacobs and Mark Weitzman, who documented several recurrent themes that appear repeatedly in the 24 protocols,[e] as shown in the following table:[23]
Freedom and Liberty; Authority and power; Gold equals money
2
Economic War and Disorganization Lead to International Government
International Political economic conspiracy; Press/Media as tools
3
Methods of Conquest
Jewish people, arrogant and corrupt; Chosenness/Election; Public Service
4
The Destruction of Religion by Materialism
Business as Cold and Heartless; Gentiles as slaves
5
Despotism and Modern Progress
Jewish Ethics; Jewish People's Relationship to Larger Society
6
The Acquisition of Land, The Encouragement of Speculation
Ownership of land
7
A Prophecy of Worldwide War
Internal unrest and discord (vs. Court system) leading to war vs Shalom/Peace
8
The transitional Government
Criminal element
9
The All-Embracing Propaganda
Law; education; Freemasonry
10
Abolition of the Constitution; Rise of the Autocracy
Politics; Majority rule; Liberalism; Family
11
The Constitution of Autocracy and Universal Rule
Gentiles; Jewish political involvement; Freemasonry
12
The Kingdom of the Press and Control
Liberty; Press censorship; Publishing
13
Turning Public Thought from Essentials to Non-essentials
Gentiles; Business; Chosenness/Election; Press and censorship; Liberalism
14
The Destruction of Religion as a Prelude to the Rise of the Jewish God
Judaism; God; Gentiles; Liberty; Pornography
15
Utilization of Masonry: Heartless Suppression of Enemies
Gentiles; Freemasonry; Sages of Israel; Political power and authority; King of Israel
16
The Nullification of Education
Education
17
The Fate of Lawyers and the Clergy
Lawyers; Clergy; Christianity and non-Jewish Authorship
18
The Organization of Disorder
Evil; Speech
19
Mutual Understanding Between Ruler and People
Gossip; Martyrdom
20
The Financial Program and Construction
Taxes and Taxation; Loans; Bonds; Usury; Moneylending
21
Domestic Loans and Government Credit
Stock Markets and Stock Exchanges
22
The Beneficence of Jewish Rule
Gold equals Money; Chosenness/Election
23
The Inculcation of Obedience
Obedience to Authority; Slavery; Chosenness/Election
24
The Jewish Ruler
Kingship; Document as Fiction
Hagemeister notes that
the text of theProtocols is completely devoid of the old, traditional accusations against Jews such as deicide, host desecration, well poisoning, ritual murder, blood defilement, fake conversation, or interest taking and usury. ..[T]he motives and images of modern, racially motivated antisemitism (such as physical inferiority, financial and sexual greed, racial intermixing) are also lacking. The only clearly anti-Jewish motives and defamations found in theProtocols concern the pursuit of world domination, the possession of money and gold, and global networking.[24]
The book's vagueness—almost no names, dates, or issues are specified—has been one key to this wide-ranging success. The purportedly Jewish authorship also helps to make the book more convincing. Its embrace of contradiction—that to advance, Jews use all tools available, including capitalism and communism,philo-Semitism and antisemitism, democracy and tyranny—made it possible forThe Protocols to reach out to all: rich and poor,Right andLeft, Christian andMuslim, American and Japanese.[25]
Pipes notes that theProtocols emphasizes recurring themes of conspiratorial antisemitism: "Jews always scheme", "Jews are everywhere", "Jews are behind every institution", "Jews obey a central authority, the shadowy 'Elders'", and "Jews are close to success."[26]
The great importance ofThe Protocols lies in its permitting antisemites to reach beyond their traditional circles and find a large international audience, a process that continues to this day. The forgery poisoned public life wherever it appeared; it was "self-generating; a blueprint that migrated from one conspiracy to another."[27]
The first known mention ofThe Protocols was in a 1902 article inSaint Petersburg's conservative newspaperNovoye Vremya by journalist Mikhail Osipovich Menshikov. He wrote that a venerable lady of the upper class had suggested he read a small booklet,The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which denounced "a conspiracy against the world". Menshikov was strongly skeptical of the authenticity ofThe Protocols, dismissing its authors and spreaders as "people withbrain fever".[28] In 1903,The Protocols was published as a series of articles inZnamya, aBlack Hundreds newspaper owned byPavel Krushevan. It appeared again in 1905 as the final chapter (Chapter XII) of the second edition ofVelikoe v malom i antikhrist ("The Great Within the Minuscule andAntichrist"), a book bySergei Nilus. In 1906, it appeared in pamphlet form edited byGeorgy Butmi de Katzman.[29]
These first Russian language imprints were used as a tool forscapegoating Jews, blamed by the monarchists for the defeat in theRusso-Japanese War and theRevolution of 1905. Common to all the texts is the idea that Jews aim forworld domination. SinceThe Protocols are presented as merely adocument, thefront matter andback matter are needed to explain its alleged origin. The diverse imprints, however, are mutually inconsistent. The general claim is that the document was stolen from a secret Jewish organization. Since the alleged original stolen manuscript does not exist, one is forced to restore a purported original edition. This has been done by the Italian scholar,Cesare G. De Michelis in 1998, in a work which was translated into English and published in 2004, where he treats his subject asapocrypha.[29][30]
In 2020, the Russian historian Ljubov’ Vladimirovna Ul’Janova-Bibikova found a typescript version ofThe Protocols in the manuscripts collections of the Moscow Central Library. The copy included manuscript additions of terms and corrections found in the 1906 version edited byGeorgy Butmi. The handwriting is similar to other manuscripts written by Butmi. This typescript copy confirms that the Protocols were written at least in part in Russia, and were not completely written or translated in France.Cesare G. De Michelis has signalled the importance of the discovery of this typescript.[31][32]
As theRussian Revolution unfolded, causingWhite movement–affiliated Russians to flee to the West, this text was carried along and assumed a new purpose. Until then,The Protocols had remained obscure;[30] it now became an instrument for blaming Jews for the Russian Revolution. It became a tool, a political weapon, used against theBolsheviks who were depicted as overwhelmingly Jewish, allegedly executing the "plan" embodied inThe Protocols. The purpose was to discredit theOctober Revolution, prevent the West from recognizing theSoviet Union, and bring about the downfall ofVladimir Lenin's regime.[29][30]
First Russian language editions
The frontispiece of a 1912 edition using occult symbols
The chapter "In the Jewish Cemetery in Prague" from Goedsche'sBiarritz, with its strong antisemitic theme containing the alleged rabbinical plot against the European civilization, was translated into Russian as a separate pamphlet in 1872.[1]: 97 However, in 1921, PrincessCatherine Radziwill gave a private lecture in New York in which she claimed that theProtocols were a forgery compiled in 1904–05 by Russian journalistsMatvei Golovinski and Manasevich-Manuilov at the direction ofPyotr Rachkovsky, Chief of the Russian secret service in Paris.[33]
In 1944, German writerKonrad Heiden identified Golovinski as an author of theProtocols.[34] Radziwill's account was supported by Russian historian Mikhail Lepekhine, whose claims were published in November 1999 in the French newsweeklyL'Express.[35] Lepekhine considers theProtocols a part of a scheme to persuade TsarNicholas II that the modernization of Russia was really a Jewish plot to control the world.[36]Ukrainian scholarVadim Skuratovsky offers extensive literary, historical andlinguistic analysis of the original text of theProtocols and traces the influences ofFyodor Dostoyevsky'sprose (in particular,The Grand Inquisitor andThe Possessed) on Golovinski's writings, including theProtocols.[36]
In his bookThe Non-Existent Manuscript, Italian scholarCesare G. De Michelis studies early Russian publications of theProtocols. TheProtocols were first mentioned in the Russian press in April 1902, by the Saint Petersburg newspaperNovoye Vremya (Новое Время –The New Times). The article was written by famous conservative publicistMikhail Menshikov as a part of his regular series "Letters to Neighbors" ("Письма к ближним") and was titled "Plots against Humanity". The author described his meeting with a lady (Yuliana Glinka, as it is known now) who, after telling him about her mystical revelations, implored him to get familiar with the documents later known as theProtocols; but after reading some excerpts, Menshikov became quite skeptical about their origin and did not publish them.[40]
Krushevan and Nilus editions
TheProtocols were published at the earliest, in serialized form, from August 28 to September 7 (O.S.) 1903, inZnamya, a Saint Petersburg daily newspaper, underPavel Krushevan. Krushevan had initiated theKishinev pogrom four months earlier.[28]
In 1905, Sergei Nilus published the full text of theProtocols inChapter XII, the final chapter (pp. 305–417), of the second edition (or third, according to some sources) of his book,Velikoe v malom i antikhrist, which translates as "The Great within the Small and the Antichrist". He claimed it was the work of theFirst Zionist Congress, held in 1897 inBasel, Switzerland.[29] When it was pointed out that the First Zionist Congress had been open to the public and was attended by many non-Jews, Nilus changed his story, saying the Protocols were the work of the 1902–03 meetings of the Elders, but contradicting his own prior statement that he had received his copy in 1901:
In 1901, I succeeded through an acquaintance of mine (the late Court Marshal Alexei Nikolayevich Sukotin of Chernigov) in getting a manuscript that exposed with unusual perfection and clarity the course and development of the secret Jewish Freemasonic conspiracy, which would bring this wicked world to its inevitable end. The person who gave me this manuscript guaranteed it to be a faithful translation of the original documents that were stolen by a woman from one of the highest and most influential leaders of the Freemasons at a secret meeting somewhere in France—the beloved nest of Freemasonic conspiracy.[41]
Stolypin's fraud investigation, 1905
A subsequent secret investigation ordered byPyotr Stolypin, the newly appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers, came to the conclusion that theProtocols first appeared in Paris in antisemitic circles around 1897–98.[42] WhenNicholas II learned of the results of this investigation, he requested, "The Protocols should be confiscated, a good cause cannot be defended by dirty means."[43] Despite the order, or because of the "good cause", numerous reprints proliferated.[28] Nicholas later read theProtocols to his family during their imprisonment.[44]
The Protocols in the West
In January 1920,Eyre & Spottiswoode published the first English translation ofThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Britain.[45] According to a letter written by art historian Robert Hobart Cust, the pamphlet had been translated, prepared, and paid for byGeorge Shanks[46] and their mutual friend, Major Edward Griffiths George Burdon, who was serving as Secretary of theUnited Russia Societies Association at that time.[47] In an edition ofLord Alfred Douglas’Plain English journal dated January 1921,[48] it is claimed that Shanks, a former officer in the Royal Navy Air Service and the Russian Government Committee in Kingsway, London,[49] had found post-war employment in the Chief Whip's Office at 12 Downing Street, before being offered a position as Personal Secretary to SirPhilip Sassoon, at that time serving as Private Secretary to British Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George in Britain's Coalition Government.
A 1934 edition by the Patriotic Publishing Company of Chicago
In the United States,The Protocols are to be understood in the context of theFirst Red Scare (1917–20). The text was purportedly brought to the United States by a Russian Army officer in 1917; it was translated into English byNatalie de Bogory (personal assistant ofHarris A. Houghton, an officer of theDepartment of War) in June 1918,[50] and Russian expatriateBoris Brasol soon circulated it in American government circles, specifically diplomatic and military, in typescript form,[51] a copy of which is archived by theHoover Institute.[52]
On October 27 and 28, 1919, thePhiladelphiaPublic Ledger published excerpts of an English language translation as the "Red Bible," deleting all references to the purported Jewish authorship and re-casting the document as aBolshevikmanifesto.[53] The author of the articles was the paper'scorrespondent at the time,Carl W. Ackerman, who later became the head of the journalism department atColumbia University.[54][52]
In 1923, there appeared an anonymously edited pamphlet by theBritons Publishing Society, a successor toThe Britons, an entity created and headed byHenry Hamilton Beamish. This imprint was allegedly a translation by Victor E. Marsden, who had died in October 1920.[52]
On May 8, 1920, an article[55] inThe Times followed German translation and appealed for an inquiry into what it called an "uncanny note of prophecy". In the leader (editorial) titled "The Jewish Peril, a Disturbing Pamphlet: Call for Inquiry",Wickham Steed wrote aboutThe Protocols:
What are these 'Protocols'? Are they authentic? If so, what malevolent assembly concocted these plans and gloated over their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in part fulfilled, in part so far gone in the way of fulfillment?[56]
Steed retracted his endorsement ofThe Protocols after they were exposed as a forgery.[57]
United States
Title page of 1920 edition from Boston
For nearly two years starting in 1920, the American industrialistHenry Ford published in a newspaper he owned—The Dearborn Independent—a series of antisemitic articles that quoted liberally from the Protocols.[58] The actual author of the articles is generally believed to have been the newspaper's editorWilliam J. Cameron.[58] During 1922, the circulation of the Dearborn Independent grew to almost 270,000 paid copies.[59] Ford later published a compilation of the articles in book form as "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem".[58] In 1921, Ford cited evidence of a Jewish threat: "The only statement I care to make about theProtocols is that they fit in with what is going on. They are 16 years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time."[60] Robert A. Rosenbaum wrote that "In 1927, bowing to legal and economic pressure, Ford issued a retraction and apology—while disclaiming personal responsibility—for the anti-Semitic articles and closed theDearborn Independent".[61] Ford was an admirer ofNazi Germany.[62]
In 1934, an anonymous editor expanded the compilation with "Text and Commentary" (pp 136–141). The production of this uncredited compilation was a 300-page book, an inauthentic expanded edition of the twelfth chapter of Nilus's 1905 book on the coming of theanti-Christ. It consists of substantial liftings of excerpts of articles from Ford's antisemitic periodicalThe Dearborn Independent. This 1934 text circulates most widely in the English-speaking world, as well as on the internet. The "Text and Commentary" concludes witha comment onChaim Weizmann's October 6, 1920, remark at a banquet: "A beneficent protection which God has instituted in the life of the Jew is that He has dispersed him all over the world". Marsden, who was dead by then, is credited with the following assertion:
It proves that the Learned Elders exist. It proves that Dr. Weizmann knows all about them. It proves that the desire for a "National Home" in Palestine is only camouflage and an infinitesimal part of the Jew's real object. It proves that the Jews of the world have no intention of settling in Palestine or any separate country, and that their annual prayer that they may all meet "Next Year in Jerusalem" is merely a piece of their characteristic make-believe. It also demonstrates that the Jews are now a world menace, and that the Aryan races will have to domicile them permanently out of Europe.[63]
The Times exposes a forgery, 1921
The Times exposed theProtocols as a forgery on August 16–18, 1921.
In 1920–1921, the history of the concepts found in theProtocols was traced back to the works of Goedsche andJacques Crétineau-Joly byLucien Wolf (an English Jewish journalist), and published in London in August 1921. Then an exposé occurred in the series of articles inThe Times by itsConstantinople reporter,Philip Graves, who discovered the plagiarism from the work ofMaurice Joly.[15]
According to writer Peter Grose,Allen Dulles, who was in Constantinople developing relationships in post-Ottoman political structures, discovered "the source" of the documentation and ultimately provided him toThe Times. Grose writes thatThe Times extended a loan to the source, a Russian émigré who refused to be identified, with the understanding the loan would not be repaid.[64] Colin Holmes, a lecturer in economic history atSheffield University, identified the émigré as Mikhail Raslovlev, a self-identified antisemite, who gave the information to Graves so as not to "give a weapon of any kind to the Jews, whose friend I have never been."[65]
In the first article of Graves' series, titled "A Literary Forgery", the editors ofThe Times wrote, "our Constantinople Correspondent presents for the first time conclusive proof that the document is in the main a clumsy plagiarism. He has forwarded us a copy of the French book from which the plagiarism is made."[15] In the same year, an entire book[66] documenting the hoax was published in the United States byHerman Bernstein. Despite this widespread and extensive debunking, theProtocols continued to be regarded as important factual evidence by antisemites. Dulles, a successful lawyer and career diplomat, attempted to persuade theUS State Department to publicly denounce the forgery, but without success.[67]
The selling of theProtocols (edited by German antisemiteTheodor Fritsch) by theNational Front during a political meeting in the Casino of Bern on June 13, 1933,[f] led to theBerne Trial in theAmtsgericht (district court) ofBern, the capital ofSwitzerland, on October 29, 1934. The plaintiffs (the Swiss Jewish Association and the Jewish Community of Bern) were represented by Hans Matti andGeorges Brunschvig, helped by Emil Raas. Working on behalf of the defense was German antisemitic propagandistUlrich Fleischhauer. On May 19, 1935, two defendants (Theodore Fischer and Silvio Schnell) were convicted of violating a Bernese statute prohibiting the distribution of "immoral, obscene or brutalizing" texts[68] while three other defendants were acquitted. The court declared theProtocols to be forgeries, plagiarisms, and obscene literature. Judge Walter Meyer, a Christian who had not previously heard of theProtocols, said in conclusion,
I hope the time will come when nobody will be able to understand how in 1935 nearly a dozen sane and responsible men were able for two weeks to mock the intellect of the Bern court discussing the authenticity of the so-called Protocols, the very Protocols that, harmful as they have been and will be, are nothing but laughable nonsense.[28]
Vladimir Burtsev, a Russian émigré, anti-Bolshevik andanti-Fascist who exposed numerousOkhranaagents provocateurs in the early 1900s, served as a witness at the Berne Trial. In 1938 in Paris he published a book,The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Proved Forgery, based on his testimony.
On November 1, 1937, the defendants appealed the verdict to theObergericht (Cantonal Supreme Court) of Bern. A panel of three judges acquitted them, holding that theProtocols, while false, did not violate the statute at issue because they were "political publications" and not "immoral (obscene) publications (Schundliteratur)" in the strict sense of the law.[68] The presiding judge's opinion stated, though, that the forgery of theProtocols was not questionable and expressed regret that the law did not provide adequate protection for Jews from this sort of literature. The court refused to impose the fees of defense of the acquitted defendants to the plaintiffs, and the acquitted Theodor Fischer had to pay 100 Fr. to the total state costs of the trial (Fr. 28,000) that were eventually paid by thecanton of Bern.[69] This decision gave grounds for later allegations that the appeal court "confirmed authenticity of the Protocols" which is contrary to the facts.
Protocols of Zion, confiscated by the Basel police on complaint of the Jews Dreyfus-Brodsky and Marcus Cohn, 1933, in the collection of theJewish Museum of Switzerland
Evidence presented at the trial, which strongly influenced later accounts up to the present, was that theProtocols were originally written in French by agents of the Tzarist secret police (the Okhrana).[39] However, this version has been questioned by several modern scholars.[39] Michael Hagemeister discovered that the primary witness Alexandre du Chayla had previously written in support of theblood libel, had received four thousand Swiss francs for his testimony, and was secretly doubted even by the plaintiffs.[38] Charles Ruud and Sergei Stepanov concluded that there is no substantial evidence of Okhrana involvement and strong circumstantial evidence against it.[70]
Basel Trial
A similar trial in Switzerland took place inBasel.[71] The SwissFrontists Alfred Zander and Eduard Rüegsegger distributed theProtocols (edited by the German Gottfried zur Beek) in Switzerland. Jules Dreyfus-Brodsky and Marcus Cohen sued them for insult to Jewish honour. At the same time, chief rabbiMarcus Ehrenpreis of Stockholm (who also witnessed at the Berne Trial) sued Alfred Zander who contended that Ehrenpreis himself had said that theProtocols were authentic (referring to the foreword of the edition of theProtocols by the German antisemite Theodor Fritsch). On June 5, 1936, these proceedings ended with a settlement.[g]
Finland
The first Finnish edition of theProtocols was published in Swedish in 1919. In 1920, theProtocols were published in Finnish as "The Jewish Secret Program“. Four additional editions of the Swedish edition were quickly published, and the Finnish edition was re-released in 1933 under the title "The Scourge of Nations“. Another edition of theProtocols was published by the Nazi groupBlue Cross in 1943. TheParty of Finnish Labor also published their edition of theProtocols translated by party secretary Taavi Vanhanen.[73][74][75]
TheState Police had copies of theProtocols in its libraries available to those wishing to read them, along with other antisemitic books. It is unknown if theProtocols was officially considered legitimate, but the chief of the State Police Ossi Holmström subscribed to theJudeo-Bolshevik conspiracy theory.[76]
According to historianNorman Cohn,[77] the assassins of German Jewish politicianWalther Rathenau (1867–1922) were convinced that Rathenau was a literal "Elder of Zion".
It seems likelyAdolf Hitler first became aware of theProtocols after hearing about it from ethnic Germanwhite émigrés, such asAlfred Rosenberg andMax Erwin von Scheubner-Richter.[78] Rosenberg and Scheubner-Richter were also members of the earlyAufbau Vereinigung counterrevolutionary group, which according to historian Michael Kellogg, influenced the Nazis in promulgating aProtocols-like myth.[79]
... [The Protocols] are based on a forgery, theFrankfurter Zeitung moans [ ] every week ... [which is] the best proof that they are authentic ... the important thing is that with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims.[80]
TheProtocols also became a part of the Nazi propaganda effort to justify persecution of the Jews. InThe Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933–1945,Nora Levin states that "Hitler used the Protocols as a manual in his war to exterminate the Jews":
Despite conclusive proof that theProtocols were a gross forgery, they had sensational popularity and large sales in the 1920s and 1930s. They were translated into every language of Europe and sold widely in Arab lands, the US, and England. But it was in Germany after World War I that they had their greatest success. There they were used to explain all of the disasters that had befallen the country: the defeat in the war, the hunger, the destructive inflation.[81]
Hitler did not mention the Protocols in his speeches after his defense of it inMein Kampf.[39][82] "Distillations of the text appeared in German classrooms, indoctrinated theHitler Youth, and invaded the USSR along with German soldiers."[1] Nazi Propaganda MinisterJoseph Goebbels proclaimed: "The Zionist Protocols are as up-to-date today as they were the day they were first published."[83]
Richard S. Levy criticizes the claim that theProtocols had a large effect on Hitler's thinking, writing that it is based mostly on suspect testimony and lacks hard evidence.[39] Randall Bytwerk agrees, writing that most leading Nazis did not believe it was genuine despite having an "inner truth" suitable for propaganda.[82]
Publication of theProtocols was stopped in Germany in 1939 for unknown reasons.[84] An edition that was ready for printing was blocked by censorship laws.[85]
German-language publications
Having fled Ukraine in 1918–19,Piotr Shabelsky-Bork brought theProtocols to Ludwig Müller von Hausen who then published them in German.[86] Under the pseudonym Gottfried zur Beek he produced the first and "by far the most important"[87] German translation. It appeared in January 1920 as a part of a larger antisemitic tract[88] dated 1919. AfterThe Times discussed the book respectfully in May 1920 it became a bestseller. Alfred Rosenberg's 1923 analysis[89] "gave a forgery a huge boost".[83]
Italy
Fascist politicianGiovanni Preziosi published the first Italian edition of theProtocols in 1921.[90] The book however had little impact until the mid-1930s. A new 1937 edition had a much higher impact, and three further editions in the following months sold 60,000 copies total.[91] The fifth edition had an introduction byJulius Evola, which argued around the issue of forgery, stating: "The problem of the authenticity of this document is secondary and has to be replaced by the much more serious and essential problem of its truthfulness".[92]
Neither governments nor political leaders in most parts of the world have referred to theProtocols sinceWorld War II. The exception to this is the Middle East, where a large number ofArab and Muslim regimes and leaders have endorsed them as authentic, including endorsements from PresidentsGamal Abdel Nasser andAnwar Sadat ofEgypt, PresidentAbdul Salam Arif ofIraq,[93] KingFaisal ofSaudi Arabia, and ColonelMuammar al-Gaddafi ofLibya.[94][95] A translation made by an Arab Christian appeared inCairo in 1927 or 1928, this time as a book. The first translation by an Arab Muslim was also published in Cairo, but only in 1951.[94]
TheProtocols have continued to circulate in the Middle East and have exerted influence on political and polemical literature in the Arab world. Between 1965 and 1967 alone, approximately 50 Arabic-language books on political subjects were either based on theProtocols or quoted from them. References to the text also appeared in official or semi-official contexts in later decades; in 1980,Hazem Nuseibeh, then Jordan’s permanent representative to theUnited Nations, referred to theProtocols as an authentic document, and in 1987 the Iranian Embassy in Brazil distributed copies of the text, presenting it as a document of historical significance.[96]
However, figures within the region have publicly asserted thatThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery such as former Grand Mufti of EgyptAli Gomaa, who made an official court complaint concerning a publisher who falsely put his name on an introduction to its Arabic translation.[102]
TheProtocols continue to be widely available around the world, particularly on the Internet. The work is widely considered influential in the development of other conspiracy theories,[citation needed] and reappears repeatedly in contemporary conspiracy literature. Notions derived from theProtocols include claims that the "Jews" depicted in the Protocols are a cover for theIlluminati,[34]Freemasons, thePriory of Sion or, in the opinion ofDavid Icke, "extra-dimensional entities".[107] In his bookAnd the truth shall set you free (1995), Icke asserted that theProtocols are genuine and accurate.[108] Similarities have been noticed between theProtocols and theEurabia conspiracy theory.[109][110][111]
Adaptations
Print
Masami Uno's bookIf You Understand Judea You Can Comprehend the World: 1990 Scenario for the 'Final Economic War' became popular in Japan around 1987 and was based upon theProtocols.[112]
Television
In 2001–2002,Arab Radio and Television produced a 30-part television miniseries entitledHorseman Without a Horse, starring prominent Egyptian actorMohamed Sobhi, which contains dramatizations of theProtocols. The United States and Israel criticized Egypt for airing the program.[113]Ash-Shatat (Arabic: الشتاتThe Diaspora) is a 29-part Syrian television series produced in 2003 by a private Syrian film company and was based in part on theProtocols. Syrian national television declined to air the program.Ash-Shatat was shown on Lebanon'sAl-Manar, before being dropped.[114] The series was shown in Iran in 2004, and in Jordan during October 2005 on Al-Mamnou, a Jordanian satellite network.[115]
^Also known asThe Protocols of Zion,The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion (Протоколы собраний ученых сионских мудрецов,Protokoly Sobraniy Uchenykh Sionskikh Mudretsov) orThe Program of Jewish World Conquest (Программа завоевания мира евреями,Programma Zavoyevaniya Mira Yevreyami).
^This complex relationship was originally exposed byGraves 1921. The exposé has since been elaborated in many sources.
^Jacobs analyses the Marsden English translation. Some other less common imprints have more or less than 24 protocols.
^The main speaker was the former chief of the Swiss General StaffEmil Sonderegger.
^Zander had to withdraw his contention and the stock of the incriminatedProtocols were destroyed by order of the court. Zander had to pay the fees of this Basel Trial.[72]
References
Citations
^abcdSegel, Binjamin (1995).A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Translated by Levy, Richard S. University of Nebraska Press. p. 30.ISBN0803242433.
^Bein, Alex (1990),The Jewish question: biography of a world problem, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, p. 339,ISBN978-0-8386-3252-9
^abCohn, Norman (1966),Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elder of Zion, New York: Harper & Row, pp. 32–36.
^abFreund, Charles Paul (February 2000),"Forging Protocols",Reason Magazine, archived fromthe original on January 4, 2013, retrievedSeptember 28, 2008.
^abSkuratovsky, Vadim (2001),The Question of the Authorship of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion', Kiev: Judaica Institute,ISBN978-966-7273-12-5.
^De Michelis, Cesare.The Non-Existent Manuscript. pp. passim.
^abHagemeister 2008, pp. 83–95: "How can we explain that when it comes to the origins and dissemination of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the rules of careful historical research are so completely ignored and we are regularly served up stories"
^abcdeRichard S. Levy (2014). "Setting the Record Straight Regarding 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion': A Fool's Errand?". In William C. Donahue; Martha B. Helfer (eds.).Nexus – Essays in German Jewish Studies. Vol. 2. Camden House. pp. 43–61.
^Karasova, T; Chernyakhovsky, D,Afterword (in Russian) inCohn, Norman,Warrant for Genocide (in Russian) (translated ed.).
^Richard Breitman et al. (2005). OSS Knowledge of the Holocaust. In: U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. pp. 11–44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511618178.006 [Accessed 20 April 2016]. p. 25
^Hanski, Jari: Juutalaisviha Suomessa 1918–1944, s. 207–214. Helsingissä: Ajatus kirjat, 2006. ISBN 978-951-207-041-1
^Taylor, Andrew: Kirjat jotka muuttivat maailmaa, s. 250–251. (Books that changed the world: The 50 most influential books in human history, 2008.) Suomentanut Simo Liikanen. Helsinki: Ajatus, 2010. ISBN 978-951-20-8144-8
^Nummelin, Juri (toim.): Oikeiston vihapuhetta: 1900-1950. Turku: Savukeidas, 2014. ISBN 978-952-268-105-8.
^Karcher, Nicola; Markus, Lundström (2022).NORDIC FASCISM FRAGMENTS OF AN ENTANGLED HISTORY. Routledge. p. 55.ISBN9781032040301.
^"Hamas Covenant". Yale. 1988. RetrievedMay 27, 2010.Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from theNile to theEuphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.
^Schoenberg, Harris O. "Demonization in Durban: The World Conference Against Racism." The American Jewish Year Book 102 (2002): 85–111. Accessed October 27, 2020.http://www.jstor.org/stable/23604538.
^Bayefsky, Anne. "THE UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM: A RACIST ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE." Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law) 96 (2002): 65–74. Accessed October 27, 2020.http://www.jstor.org/stable/25659754.
^Fasismia, terrorismia vai nallipyssynatsien leikkiä? Julkinen keskustelu Isänmaallisen Kansanrintaman toiminnasta loppuvuodesta 1977 Piipponen, Marko ; Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja kauppatieteiden tiedekunta, Historia- ja maantieteiden laitos ; Faculty of Social Sciences and Business, Department of Geographical and Historical Sciences
^Bangstad, Sindre (2022). "Western Islamophobia: The origins of a concept".Routledge Handbook of Islam in the West (2nd ed.). Routledge.ISBN978-0-429-26586-0.The "Eurabia" theory is a conspiracy theory directly analogous to the twentieth-century antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
^Meer, Nasar (2014).Key Concepts in Race and Ethnicity (Third ed.). Sage Publications Ltd. pp. 70–74.These assessments have led Matt Carr (2011, p. 14) to note the ways in which 'Eurabia bears many of the essential features of the invented antisemitic tract, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in its presentation of European Muslims as agents in a conspiracy of world domination.
Hagemeister, Michael (2006). Brinks, Jan Herman; Rock, Stella; Timms, Edward (eds.).Nationalist Myths and Modern Media. Contested Identities in the Age of Globalization. London/New York: Bloomsbury. pp. 243–255.
Hagemeister, Michael (2011). "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in court: The Bern trials, 1933–1937". In Webman, Esther (ed.).The Global Impact of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. London, New York:Routledge. pp. 241–253.
Hagemeister, Michael (2022).The Perennial Conspiracy Theory — Reflections on the History of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Routledge.ISBN978-1-032-06015-6.
Jacobs, Steven Leonard; Weitzman, Mark (2003).Dismantling the Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. KTAV Publishing House.ISBN978-0-88125-785-4.
Kellogg, Michael (2005).The Russian Roots of Nazism White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917–1945.Cambridge University Press.
Lüthi, Urs (1992).Der Mythos von der Weltverschwörung: die Hetze der Schweizer Frontisten gegen Juden und Freimaurer, am Beispiel des Berner Prozesses um die 'Protokolle der Weisen von Zion' (in German). Basel/Frankfurt am Main: Helbing & Lichtenhahn.ISBN978-3-7190-1197-0.OCLC30002662.
Petrovsky-Shtern, Yohanan (2011). "The enemy of humanity: The Protocols paradigm in nineteenth-century Russian Mentality". In Webman, Esther (ed.).The Global Impact of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. A century-old myth. London & New York:Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-59892-7.
Fox, Frank (1997). "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Shadowy world of Elie de Cyon".East European Jewish Affairs.27 (1):3–22.doi:10.1080/13501679708577838.
Goldberg, Isaac (1936).The so-called "Protocols of the Elders of Zion": a Definitive Exposure of One of the Most Malicious Lies in History. Girard,KS:E. Haldeman-Julius.
Kiš, Danilo (1989). "The Book of Kings and Fools".The Encyclopedia of the Dead. Faber & Faber.
Landes, Richard; Katz, Steven, eds. (2012).Paranoid Apocalypse: A Hundred-Year Retrospective on 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. New York: New York University Press.
Shibuya, Eric (2007). "The Struggle with Violent Right-Wing Extremist Groups in the United States". In Forest, James (ed.).Countering terrorism and insurgency in the 21st century. Greenwood.
Sykes, Christopher. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"History Today (Feb 1967), Vol. 17 Issue 2, pp. 81–88
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