An Appraisal of the Protocols of Zion 9780231878029

Citation preview

An Appraisal

of

the

P R O T O C O L S OF ZION

An Appraisal of the

P R O T O C O L S OF ZION By J O H N S. C U R T I S S

New York : Morningside

Heights

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 1

9

42

PRESS

COPYRIGHT C O L U M B I A Foreign

agents:

House,

London,

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY

1942 PRESS,

I'KLSS,

E.C. 4, E n g l a n d , a n d

B.

NEW

Y O R K

Humphrey

Milford,

I. B u i l d i n g ,

Nicol

B o m b a y , India Manufactured

in the

United

States

of

America

Amen

Road,

FOREWORD

are published, under the auspices and sponsorship of the group of American historians whose names appear below, the results of a careful and objective investigation into the history and credibility of the famous —or infamous—"Protocols of the Elders of Zion." These "Protocols," it is generally known, have been repeatedly cited and drawn upon, during the past thirty years, to prove the existence of a sinister and world-wide Jewish " p l o t " against Christians and Gentiles, and hence to stimulate and justify "anti-Semitic" movements in one country after another, most strikingly in Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany, and latterly even in the United States. There has been, of course, a good deal of resulting polemical literature about the Protocols, how they actually came into existence, when and where they were first published, and whether they are really what they purport to be. But while some of this literature is valuable and revealing, none of it has emanated from, or been sponsored by, professional historians. Yet the basic problem of the Protocols—the problem of their authenHEREWITH

F O R E W O R D

deity—is obviously an historical one, to be solved by rigorous application of historical methods. T h e present study is historical. It has been made by Dr. J o h n Shelton Curtiss, a trained and competent historical scholar, who comes of old Yankee stock and who is especially qualified for this particular task by reason of his excellent command of European languages (including Russian) and of his previous research experience in the history of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century—the very place and time at which the Protocols first appeared in print. Dr. Curtiss's study has been read and checked in manuscript by the whole group of sponsoring historians, and these individually accept and endorse his findings as completely destructive of the historicity of the Protocols and as establishing beyond doubt the fact that they are rank and pernicious forgeries. CARL L. BECKER,

Professor of History in Cornell Uni-

versity and Former President of the

American

Historical Association F . MALCOLM

Professor of History in Duke

CARROLL,

University SIDNEY

B.

FAY,

Professor of History in Harvard Uni-

versity DIXON RYAN WALTER

P.

FOX, HALL,

President of Union College Dodge Professor of History in

Princeton University nvi]

F O R E W O R D

RALPH V. HARLOW, Professor of History in Syracuse University CARI.TON J .

H . HAYES, S e t h L o w P r o f e s s o r o f

His-

tory in Columbia University WILLIAM L. LANGER, Coolidge Professor of History in Harvard University DANA G. MUNRO, Director of School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University ALLAN NEVINS, Professor of History in Columbia University THAD W .

RIKF.R, P r o f e s s o r o f H i s t o r y in t h e

Uni-

versity of T e x a s CEROID T . ROBINSON, Professor of Russian History in Columbia University BERNADOTTE E . SCHMITT, P r o f e s s o r o f M o d e r n

tory in the University of Chicago

His-

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

needed material for the present study—most of it printed in Russian, French, and German—the resources of several libraries have been utilized. Through the kindness of the British Museum it was possible to obtain a photostatic copy of the work by Sergei Nilus, Velikoe v Malom ( " T h e Great in the Little"), upon which almost all published versions of the Protocols are based. Other valuable source material was found in the library of Columbia University and in the extensive collection of foreign books in the New York Public Library. In addition, assistance was given by the Library of Congress and several other learned institutions, including the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Warm thanks are extended to all these libraries and also to numerous persons who answered queries, supplied bibliographical information, or performed other services. IN

ORDER TO OBTAIN

JOHN

Hyde Park, N. Y. February, 1942.

SHELTON

CURTISS

CONTENTS

FOREWORD,

BY

SPONSORING

1.

THE

CONTENTS

2.

THE

EXPLANATIONS

3.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL

4.

A

5.

THE

VISIT

TO

BERN

APPENDIX:

OF

THE

PROTOCOLS THE

SPONSORS

EVIDENCE

V 1 14 32

NILUS

6l

TRIALS

73

PARALLELS

DIALOGUES

OF

HISTORIANS

AND

THE

FROM

THE

PROTOCOLS

95

BIBLIOGRAPHY

107

INDEX

113

Chapter

One

T H E C O N T E N T S OF T H E PROTOCOLS

o

HISTORIAN

dealing with the twentieth century

can fail to treat the phenomenon of anti-Jewish agitation, which in recent years has spread so widely over the world. T h e anti-Semitic movement has not been confined to the T h i r d Reich; it has manifested itself in other leading European countries, in the United States and even in certain Arab lands and in Japan. T h i s being the case, it is certainly pertinent to study the Protocols of Zion, a composition that has played a large part in the growth of the anti-Semitic movement. This work has been published in numerous editions in most of the important languages of the world, including Polish, Finnish, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic. 1 It has been the cause of famous lawsuits in Switzerland and South Africa, and has produced much impassioned writing. T h e Protocols of Zion have arrayed thousands and perhaps millions of people in «See B i b l i o g r a p h y , pp.

107-10.

C O

CONTENTS

OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

opposing camps. In view of these facts, its importance must be acknowledged. It should be stated, however, that this is not the first study of its kind. T h e r e have been a number of others, some of them of great merit. 2 Indeed, many of the facts presented below and some of the lines of reasoning followed are not original with the author of this study, but have been suggested or presented earlier by students of the question. B u t while this study may be somewhat lacking in originality, it is one of the few

analyses

of this kind which, in the j u d g m e n t of the author, attempts to treat the subject without apologetics for either side and with the impartiality of a historian. It may h e l p to remove misconceptions. T h e author is a descendant of an Anglo-Saxon family that has been in A m e r i c a since the earliest colonial days. T h e Protocols of Zion were first published in Russia early in the twentieth century. 1 Most of the numerous later editions of this work have been taken from the second edition of a book by a religious mystic, Sergei Nilus. It is entitled Velikoe

v Malom

Vozmozhnost';

i Antikhrist, Zapiski

kok

Blizkaia

Politicheskaia

slavnago

( " T h e Great in the Little and Antichrist as a

Pravo-

Near Political Possibility; Notes of an O r t h o d o x Person"). T h e second edition, which the author declared See B i b l i o g r a p h y , p p . 110-11. In t h e n e w s p a p e r '/.tiamia ( " T h e B a n n e r " ) , p u b l i s h e d at Kishinev by P. A . K r u s h e v a n , A u g . 28-Sept. 7, 1903. T h i s was a p p a r e n t l y the first t i m e they w e r e p r i n t e d . See p. 20 If. b e l o w . 2

3

C*]

CONTENTS

OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

was the first to include the Protocols, was published in Tsarskoe Selo, near St. Petersburg, in

1905. T w o

more editions of this work, both of which contained the Protocols, were published in 1911 and 1917. 4 A n o t h e r version of the Protocols was given by G . B u t m i in the third edition of his book, Vragi Chelovecheskago

Roda

("Enemies of the H u m a n Race"), pub-

lished at St. Petersburg in

1906, and in the fourth

edition in 1907. A s none of the many writers on the subject claims to have seen a first or a second edition of Butmi's book and no copies of the early editions exist in this country, it is impossible to say whether

the

Protocols were included in the earlier editions.

The

third edition was labeled "revised and enlarged," and Butmi did not specifically say that the Protocols had been included in the earlier editions. Hence it is not at all impossible that Butmi printed the Protocols for the first time in 1906, although, like Nilus, he maintained that he had received the manuscript in 1901. T h e Protocols as given by N i l u s and by Butmi differ * O n e translator of t h e Protocols, R o g e r L a r a b e l i n , in his b o o k "Protocols" des Sages de Sion (Paris, 1933), asserts that he used a n o t h e r e d i t i o n , p u b l i s h e d i n 1912. T h i s is, h o w e v e r , impossible. T h e 1917 e d i t i o n was d e s i g n a t e d as t h e f o u r t h . If there h a d been a n e d i t i o n in 1912 in a d d i t i o n to those of 1901, 1905, a n d 1 9 1 1 , t h e 1917 e d i t i o n w o u l d h a v e b e e n t h e fifth e d i t i o n , not the f o u r t h . M o r e o v e r , Knizhnaia Letqpis' ( " T h e B o o k C h r o n i c l e " ) , official p u b l i c a t i o n of t h e C h i e f A d m i n i s t r a t i o n of t h e A f f a i r s of t h e Press of the I m p e r i a l R u s s i a n G o v e r n m e n t , w h i c h listed all b o o k s p u b l i s h e d , d i d not i n c l u d e a n y book by N i l u s in 1912. F o r t h e f o u r t h e d i t i o n , see Knizhnaia Letopis', item No. 2684, F e b r u a r y , 1917;

[33

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

in some particulars. Nilus presented twenty-four Protocols, while Butmi had twenty-seven. Nevertheless, with minor exceptions the texts of the two versions were identical, and in spite of a considerable difference in the order in which the parts were presented it is evident that both men were reproducing the same document. And so, inasmuch as Nilus's edition of the Protocols probably came out before that of Butmi, and is, moreover, the version which has been reproduced in most subsequent editions, it is chiefly that version which will be studied in these pages. 5 According to Nilus the Protocols embody the secret plans of Jewish leaders, called Wise Men or Elders of Zion, to enslave the whole world. These plans, he adds, were read in 1897 before a secret conclave of the leaders of Zion. T h e plans were stolen from the Jews, and in time they were taken to Russia, where Nilus translated and published them. 6 All these allegations, of course, deserve careful study, but before this is undertaken, it is desirable to see what the Protocols are. 6 Thanks to the kindness of the British Museum, the author has been able to use a photostat of Nilus's first edition of the Protocols as well as his Introduction and Epilogue (S. Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, i Anlikhrist, kak Blizkaia Politicheskaia Vozmozhnost': Zapiski Pravoslavnago ["The Great in the Little and Antichrist as a Near Political Possibility; Notes of an Orthodox Person"], 2d ed., revised and enlarged. Tsarskoe Selo, 1905. T h e number given it by the British Museum is C. 37. e. 31. P. 30679). As far as can be determined this is the first time that the original edition of the Protocols published by Nilus has been available to scholars in the United States. «Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, 2d ed., pp. 321-24.

n o

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

In Nilus's edition there are twenty-four Protocols, varying in length, of which the first nine explain the alleged methods of the Jews in gaining world dominion, while the others set forth the plans for the new world order to be established after the empire of Israel became a reality. In the first Protocol the Elder explains to his colleagues that violence, terror, and the exploitation of the baser instincts of the Gentiles—"Goyim" 7 is the term used throughout the Protocols—are the means for success. By the power of gold and the disruptive influence of liberalism, which brings in its train class struggle and impotence, the leaders of Zion, according to the Protocols, hope to subject all mankind to their power, after having prepared the way by stupefying the Christian youth through immorality and by stirring up revolt. T h e second Protocol explains the role of the intellectuals among the Gentiles and of "our press," whose function is to confuse the minds of the people. In the third Protocol the speaker tells of the progress of the "Symbolic Snake," the emblem of world J e w r y , which is soon to hold all Europe tight in its coils. T h i s result will come to pass because constitutions exist in most states, paralyzing the power of the kings and permitting babblers, in the name of the rights of the people, to destroy the last vestiges of effective government. When the resulting chaos has reached its climax, con7 T h e Hebrew word goyim (plural of goy) means literally " n a t i o n s " and is used to denote Gentiles in contradistinction to Jews.

C53

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

ditions will be further aggravated by an economic crisis, which will bring mobs of angry men into the streets seeking vengeance against their supposed enemies—not, however, the alleged real culprits, the Jews. In time the misery of the people will be so great that they will turn for help to "that King-Despot of the blood of Zion, whom we are preparing for the world." In the following Protocol the speaker describes the role of Freemasonry as the invisible machinery to be used in furthering the aims of Zion. Necessary steps in achieving these aims are the undermining of all (nonJewish) religion and the inculcation of a materialist spirit, a thirst for speculative wealth, in the breasts of the Gentiles. Only then will the lower classes of the Gentiles follow the guidance of the Jewish leaders against the Gentile intellectuals. T h e fifth Protocol declares that the danger of opposition on the part of the Goyim has been warded off by confusing their minds, by playing upon national hatreds, and by discouraging individual initiative, so that in the end the Gentiles will gladly offer political power to the leaders of the Jews. Financial manipulation is the topic of the sixth Protocol. T h e alleged Jewish spokesman outlines the creation of great monopolies, presumably to be owned by Jews, the crushing of the nobility, and the encouragement of speculation, which will result in the ruin of the richer Gentiles and their decline to the level of the [6J

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

proletariat. T h e burden of the seventh Protocol is that, pari passu, the governments of the world will be embroiled in intrigues and diplomatic crises, with the threat of American, Chinese, or Japanese cannon always in the background. T h e eighth Protocol portrays the advantages to be derived from legal subtlety and insistence upon the observance of legal form. T h e plotters will prepare their rise to power by surrounding themselves with Gentile bankers, industrialists, and capitalists, aided by shady politicians made subservient by fear of exposure. Finally, the ninth Protocol warns against identical application of these methods to all lands and adds to them one more ingredient, "allengulfing terror." Here is found the threat that if the Gentiles rise up to throw off their Jewish oppressors, the latter will use the subway systems of the world's capitals to blow up these cities and the governmental organizations therein. T h u s do the Protocols explain the methods of enslaving the world. T h e remaining sections of this document deal with the future order of things to be established after the Jews have the whole world at their feet. T h e tenth, starting with the proposition that the people are content with outward appearances and dearly love an audacious bit of rascality, describes the sham form of democracy to be set up. An important factor is a president elected by universal manhood suffrage and provided with wide powers. His ability to challenge the

m

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

domination of Zion, however, will be limited by the fact that the latter will insure that the presidential office will be held only by men who have in their past "some dark, undiscovered affair, some 'Panama' or other." T h e legislature will be merely a puppet, without the power to introduce bills, to interpellate the government, or to challenge the authority of the ministers. T h e eleventh Protocol continues this line of thought. Here is described the function of the Council of State, the instrument of the ruler, by which laws and decrees are to be promulgated. Mention is also made of stringent measures to curtail the civil liberties—freedom of speech, of the press, of association, and the like. This abridgment of the liberties of the people will be made as a temporary measure, to be ended when the enemies of the people have been subdued, but later on it will turn out to be permanent. In order to avoid outbursts of popular wrath, the Gentiles are to be pacified by their fellows who have been skillfully enticed into Masonic lodges. T h e subject of the press is dealt with in the twelfth Protocol. Hostile publications are to be curbed, not by outright suppression, but by a heavy stamp tax, deposits of guarantees, and fines. Only in rare cases will it prove necessary to suppress opposition organs. Furthermore, a multitude of newspapers supported by the government will present the news as the new masters desire. Polemics will appear from time to time in order to create the

1*1

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

impression of an active opposition, but such disputes will be about trivial matters and will not touch vital points. Thus, especially in the provinces, public opinion will be controlled in the interests of the leaders of Zion, and opposition will be stifled. Indeed, the public will not be disturbed by the subservience of the press, for attention will be distracted by a series of fads and amusements carefully fostered by the controlled journals, while the liberals will be encouraged to waste their time on fruitless Utopian schemes (thirteenth Protocol). T h e fourteenth Protocol deals with the religious problem. Before the establishment of the Jewish world empire, the aid of atheism must be sought in order to undermine the authority of the existing religions. Only after all other forms of belief have been swept away will it be possible for the Jewish leaders to establish the supremacy of the Jewish religion. T h i s section also declares that the successes of the new world empire instituted by the Jews must be contrasted with the political weakness and mistakes of the Gentiles in such manner that the Jewish leaders will enjoy great prestige. T h e fifteenth Protocol is concerned with the methods to be used before the taking of power and those which will be practiced after the event. In the first category is the encouragement of Masonic lodges, to be controlled by an international organization under the guidance of Jews or their agents, the secret international police. These lodges will enroll the revolutionary ele-

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

ments among Gentiles, whose plots will be utilized by the Jewish leaders for their own ends. If any of the Masons show signs of suspicion and protest against the role for which they have been cast, they must be secretly executed in such fashion that it will appear that they have died from natural causes. Another factor aiding the success of the Jewish efforts will be the weakening of the laws by means of liberal interpretations dictated by the Jewish counsellors of judges and administrators. All will be changed, however, after the realm of Israel has been established. T h e laws will then be simplified and made clear and understandable, and the judges will be required to enforce them justly, but without indulgence for the criminals. Liberalism will be rooted out of the administration, and a stern, paternal regime will be established, demanding unquestioning obedience from its subjects. In order to insure the stability of the new regime many changes will be necessary, as explained in the succeeding sections. T h e sixteenth Protocol describes the new system of education. T h e universities will cease to teach political science, which encourages the young to busy themselves with questions of politics. T h e classics and ancient history are likewise to be removed from the curriculum. Instead, the young will be given training closely corresponding to the particular station in life for which each is destined. Independence of thought is to be strongly discouraged. T h e professions

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

are also to be dealt with, as explained in the seventeenth Protocol. All lawyers are to be made officers of the State, having only formal relations with the clients to whom they will be assigned. T h e influence of the Christian clergy is to be smashed, and "the Jewish Emperor will be the real Pope of the Universe." T h e rising profession will be that of the secret police, drawn f r o m wide circles of the populace. Indeed, it will be made a State obligation for all to denounce opponents of the regime. If, however, plots do arise, they will be dealt with according to the methods outlined in the eighteenth Protocol. T h e plotters will be watched by the police rather than arrested, for it is desirable that the ruler should appear among his subjects without fear and without obvious precautions against enemies. Only if the suspicions of the police regarding political offenders appear well-grounded will swift and secret action be taken. In the nineteenth Protocol this strategy is developed still further. Constructive proposals for improving the condition of the people will be favorably received and if they appear desirable carried out. For those who carry on seditious agitation, however, there will be shame, not noble martyrdom. T h e y will be treated as are thieves, murderers, and other vile criminals. T h e financial program of the new regime is the subject of the next two Protocols, the twentieth and the twenty-first. T h e rich will be heavily taxed, while the

[>•]

C O N T E N T S OF T H E

PROTOCOLS

poor will be relieved of the tax burden. Full accounting will be made for the expenditure of State funds. Suggested financial innovations include a universal tax on the transfer of property or money and the issuing of large sums of currency based on the size of the population rather than on the gold standard. In this way large government loans will be avoided and a free circulation of money achieved. Instead of bond issues, defaults, and conversions, the new government will meet the problem of credit by establishing huge institutions to buy vast quantities of industrial securities, which will enable it to control the credit of the whole world. Protocols twenty-two and twenty-three also portray the blessings of the alleged reign of Israel. T h e Jewish leaders will prove to mankind that they are benefactors who can restore true well-being and happiness and bring the good results of efficient, powerful rule. Morals will be improved, and the interests of the small man furthered by the stimulation of small-scale industry. All violence and injustice will be done away with, and so happy will be the peoples of the earth that they will be moved to rejoice at their good fortune in having such rulers. As for the ruler himself (the subject of the twentyfourth and last Protocol), he will be carefully selected from among the scions of the House of David. H e will be carefully trained for his great task of world dominion, but if he should show signs of incapacity, the

C O N T E N T S OF T H E P R O T O C O L S Elders will be empowered to set him aside in favor of another heir better fitted for the post. Once installed on the throne, the king must endear himself to his people by talking with them in the marketplaces and by sacrificing his personal desires for the good of his subjects. Thus will the alleged Kingdom of Zion endure.

Chapter

Two

THE E X P L A N A T I O N S OF T H E SPONSORS

O

NE of the first facts that strikes the historian reading this momentous document is that neither of

its sponsors, N i l u s or B u t m i , presents evidence as to the identity of the Elders of Zion who are alleged to have heard these words or of h i m who uttered them. N o facsimiles or photostats are submitted; no signatures are offered for consideration. Indeed, both N i l u s and Butmi say that what they used was not the original, but a copy made by someone else and transmitted by devious ways to them. 8 W h y the secret agents who, it is alleged, obtained access to the Protocols by stealth were content with making a copy of this document when the original would have been far more convincing and w h e n

it

could have been stolen with far less labor than that involved in copying so many pages, the authors do not tell us, although it is a question of vital interest. 8 N i l u s , Velikoe v Malom, 2d ed., p p . 321-22; G . B u t m i , Vragi Chelovecheskago, 3d ed. (St. P e t e r s b u r g , 1906), p. v.

Cm H

Roda

EXPLANATIONS

OF T H E

SPONSORS

A t the very b e g i n n i n g of t h e study of this d o c u m e n t , then, the h i s t o r i a n is faced w i t h facts that raise g r a v e d o u b t s . H e finds that he is d e a l i n g , n o t w i t h a reprod u c t i o n of an o r i g i n a l m a n u s c r i p t , c o m p l e t e w i t h sign a t u r e s w h i c h m i g h t be v e r i f i e d , b u t w i t h the p r i n t e d t e x t of a t r a n s l a t i o n of a c o p y of a s u p p o s e d d o c u m e n t . M o r e o v e r , a c c o r d i n g to b o t h N i l u s a n d B u t m i t h e c o p y passed t h r o u g h several hands b e f o r e b e i n g

published.

E v e n if the honesty a n d g o o d faith of the e d i t o r s w h o p u b l i s h e d it be g r a n t e d — a n a s s u m p t i o n w h i c h t h e historian is n o t p e r m i t t e d to m a k e — i t is c e r t a i n l y

within

the r e a l m of possibility that those w h o s u p p l i e d the copy n e v e r saw any real P r o t o c o l s of Z i o n b u t m a d e t h e m u p o u t of w h o l e c l o t h , a n d that N i l u s a n d B u t m i w e r e the victims of i m p o s t o r s or the tools of s o m e o n e else. T h e s e possibilities are sufficiently e v i d e n t to a r o u s e d o u b t s as to the a u t h e n t i c i t y of the P r o t o c o l s . N i l u s h i m s e l f seems to h a v e r e c o g n i z e d this w e a k n e s s of his o f f e r i n g , f o r a p a r a g r a p h in his i n t r o d u c t i o n to the

Protocols

words:

discusses

the

point

in

the

following

9

W e may, perhaps, be criticized, and justly, because of the apocryphal nature of the document submitted. But, if it were possible to show its authenticity by documents or by the testimony of trustworthy witnesses, if it were possible to disclose the persons standing at the head of the worldwide plot and holding its bloody threads in their hands, t> N i l u s , Velikue

v Malom,

2d e d . , p . 3 2 3 .

E X P L A N A T I O N S OF T H E

SPONSORS

then by those very acts "the secret of iniquity" would be broken, and it must remain unbroken until its incarnation in the "son of destruction." In the complexity of the contemporary criminal and worldly process direct proof cannot be sought, satisfaction must be obtained from indirect proofs, and with these, it seems, the attention of the sorrowing Christian observer is sufficiently satiated. For "him having ears to hear" what is given in the present work as an evident fact, with the aim of arousing the attentive to watch and to be on guard, is enough. T h u s Nilus admits that he cannot bring proof that the Protocols are an authentic Jewish document. Moreover, he adds, the state of the world at the time he writes is enough to show the extent of the alleged Jewish plot, so that on these grounds the Protocols must be regarded as genuine. Arguments of much the same nature were also advanced by Butmi. H e wrote:

10

These Protocols, being secret, were obtained with great difficulty, in fragmentary form, and translated into Russian on December 9, 1901. It would be almost impossible to gain access a second time to the secret vaults where they are hidden, and hence they cannot be validated with exact indications as to the place, day, month, and year where and when they were drawn up. T h e reader, somewhat acquainted with the secrets of Freemasonry, from the general character of the criminal intent set forth in the Protocols will draw his own conclusions about their authenticity and from certain details will suppose with considerable justice that the said Protocols 10 Butmi,

Vragi Roda Chelovecheskago,

3d ed., pp. v-vi.

EXPLANATIONS

OF T H E

SPONSORS

were abstracted from the papers of a Masonic lodge of the Egyptian Ritual, or "Mizraim," joined chiefly by Jews... . l l i i A rite of Mizraim (Misraïm) existed within the history of Freemasonry, but it came to be regarded as spurious and unauthorized. T h e history of the rite is as follows: It originated in Milan, in 1805, its chief promoter being a certain Lechangeur, who had been refused admission to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It was introduced into France in 1813-14, largely with the help of the Bedarride brothers, one of whom (Marc) published a two-volume work on it at Paris, in 1845, under the title De l'ordre de Misraim. T h e order was, however, refused recognition by the main French Masonic authority, the Grand Oriente de France, and its degrees were considered illegal. (A. G. Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Philadelphia, 1886). In 188ï the Rite of Misraim was recognized by the Grand Oriente, but eight years later (September 9, 1890) relations were broken off. This proved a serious blow to the rite, which succumbed in 1892. Only the Mother Lodge, L'Arc-en-Ciel, continued to survive. Efforts to revive similar rites were attempted in 1900, without success, and again in 1920 (Albert Lantoine, Histoire de la franc-maçonneries française chei-elle, Paris, 1927). Very similar to it was the Rite of Memphis, started at Montauban, France, in 1815 by Matthieu Marconis de Negre and Samuel Honis of Cairo. It suspended activities in 1816, the archives being entrusted to Marconis who was Grand Hierophant. He revived it in 1838 in Brussels and Paris as the Grand Lodge Osiris (Bulletin, Grand Oriente de France, Nov., 1862, pp. 419-20). T h e statutes were published on Jan. 1 1 , 1839, and in 1839-40 a lodge called Chevaliers de Palestine was established at Marseilles. In 1844 (Feb. 25) the Prefect of Police of Paris requested the lodge to cease its labors, and on May 24, 1844, it did so (Ibid.). It was then transferred to London, but was there condemned. In 1862 the Grand Oriente de France agreed to grant it limited recognition on condition that Marconis relinquish command. In 1870 it formally adopted the Oriente rite. On Feb. 24, 1870, Thevenot, Chief of the Secretariat of the Grand Oriente in France wrote to Drumond of Portland, Maine, saying: "Bro. Marconis died in 1869; we hope he will have no successor, and that the Rite of Memphis will trouble us no longer. Already it has entirely disappeared from France." (Proceedings of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, North Jurisdiction, Feb. 24, 1870). On Oct. 7, 1871, and again on Oct. 19, 1872, the Grand Oriente once more repudiated it and an agreement was reached between English and Welsh Orders, etc., on April 1213, 1871, to bar its members ( T h e Master Mason, VI, No. 10, Oct., 1929).

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But the above indicated silence concerning the time and place of the drawing up of the Protocols might arouse doubt about the genuineness of the documents in a reader entirely unacquainted with the loathesomeness of the Masonic teaching. However, the shameless boasting, the scorn for all mankind, and also the unrestraint in choice of means for attaining an end, which stand out from every line of the Protocols, that is, qualities which in such measure are common only to Jews, will convince the attentive reader that these documents could not have been forged, but a r e . . . a real expression of Jewish strivings—to dominate all nations. Moreover, everything which the Jews, before our eyes, are doing in Russia fully confirms their criminal program expressed in the said Protocols. T h i s argument is based upon a theory with which many Gentiles will differ—namely, that shameless boasting, scorn for the rest of humanity, and unscrupulousness in attaining ends are traits which in exaggerated form are c o m m o n only to Jews. B u t even if this doubtful hypothesis be granted for the sake of argument and Jews be regarded as arrogant and ruthless, this does not prove the existence of a Jewish plot to dominate the world. Surely arrogance and unscrupulousness in choosing methods have been known to other peoples—neither the British, with the " W h i t e Man's B u r d e n , " nor our own people, acting in the name of "Manifest Destiny," have been guiltless in this respect, to say nothing of C'8]

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those who uphold the theories of racial superiority advanced by the Third Reich; yet such views and such methods are not prima facie evidence of plotting by the nations mentioned to gain world supremacy. So, too, with Jews. Even if they as a whole were animated by a feeling of being the people chosen of God and by a lack of moral restraint in choosing means to the end, it would not necessarily mean that the end in view is nothing less than domination over all the peoples of the globe and that a plot to realize this goal has been formed by Jewish leaders. It should be added that those who uphold the validity of the Protocols often base their case on the grounds of "plausibility." They state, as Butmi has done, that the Protocols agree with what they believe the Jewish character to be, or, in other instances, that the present world situation resembles the one that the Elders allegedly planned and prophesied. For the historian who strives for objectivity, however, this is unconvincing; it does not demonstrate the existence of a Jewish plot to seize the world at any time since 1897 (or before, for that matter). And even if after Nilus wrote these lines there had been an attempt on the part of Jews to seize dominion, that would not prove that the plot had been prepared long in advance, as the Protocols declare. All the rules of historical evidence deny the validity of this type of reasoning. Another question not satisfactorily answered by those C 19 ü

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who published the Protocols is how the manuscript reached their hands. N o t that there is a lack of explanations; there is, in fact, an overabundance of them. N o t only did the editors and translators who published versions based on those of Nilus or Butmi offer a number of different accounts to explain how the Protocols were first obtained, but even the two men who claimed to have used an original manuscript copy offered several conflicting statements in accounting for their possession of this document. Moreover, while most students of the question refer to the Nilus edition of 1905 as the first appearance of the Protocols in print, this was actually not the first time they had been printed. It has been shown in recent years that the Protocols first appeared in abbreviated form in 1903 in the newspaper

Znamia

( " T h e Banner") published by the reactionary Krushevan, in Kishinev, shortly after the great pogrom of that year. 12 Krushevan entitled the Protocols " A Plan for the 12

"Paul Krushevan, a well-known Russian anti-Semitic leader, was elected deputy in the State Duma, and was a contributor to and publisher of the newspapers Bessarabets and Znamia ( " T h e Banner") in Kishinev. In the issues of August 28 to September 7, 1903, he printed a bad and abbreviated translation of the Protocols, which the author George Butmi had placed at his disposition. Nilus was very angry at this premature publication, which was moreover a distorted form. T h e 'Welt-Dienst' [a National Socialist information bureau at Erfurt, later at Frankfurt-am-Main] possesses a memorandum of the Duma member Nikolai E. Markov [a noted reactionary] on the above matter." H. J . von Freyenwald, Der Berner Prozess um die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion, Akten und Gutachten (Erfurt, 1939), p. 6 i . See also ibid., pp. 7 and 183. In the pogrom at Kishinev in April, 1903, according to government figures, 45 persons were killed, 71 were injured, and 350 suffered minor injuries; 700 houses and 600 shops

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Conquest of the World by the Jews," but, significantly enough, in his remarks prefacing the Protocols he admitted that he could not vouch for their authenticity and that they might be merely apocryphal. 13 Thus, as far as can be determined it was not until the publication of the second edition of Nilus's book that the Protocols were presented as genuine evidence proving the existence of a vast Jewish plot. In introducing the Protocols in 1905 Nilus declared that they had come into his possession in 1901. He asserted that they were.a true copy of original documents "stolen by a woman from one of the most influential and most highly initiated leaders of Freemasonry, after one of the secret meetings of the 'initiated' in France, that nest of Masonic conspiracy." 14 In another place in the same book Nilus stated: "These Protocols were stealthily removed (or stolen) from a whole book of Protocols. All this was obtained by my correspondent from the secret vaults of the Zionist headquarters, which are at present situated in France." 15 Notice should be taken of the disagreement shown here. In one place the in the Jewish quarter of the city were demolished. T h e disorders lasted two days. V. I. Gurko, Features and Figures of the Past (Stanford University Press, 1939), p. 246. " V. L. Burtsev, "Protokoly Sionskikh Mudretsov" Dokazannyi Podlog (Paris, 1938), pp. 125-26; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Oct. 30, 1934. T h e Introduction and Epilogue to the Protocols from Znamia are given in S. VAsz, Das Hemer Fehlurteil (Erfurt, 1935), pp. 77-78. 1« Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, 2d ed., p. 322. is Ibid., p. 394.

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a u t h o r asserts t h a t t h e Protocols w e r e stolen f r o m a l e a d i n g M a s o n a f t e r a secret M a s o n i c m e e t i n g , a n d i n t h e o t h e r h e d e c l a r e s t h a t they w e r e abstracted f r o m the v a u l t s of t h e Z i o n i s t O r g a n i z a t i o n . 1 8 W h i c h of

these

stories is to b e b e l i e v e d ? I n the 1 9 1 1 e d i t i o n N i l u s gave the same t w o expla/ t nations, m e r e l y a d d i n g to the first t h e n a m e of a f r i e n d , A l e x e i S u k h o t i n , w h o h a d r e c e i v e d the P r o t o c o l s f r o m the w o m a n w h o a c c o m p l i s h e d the t h e f t f r o m t h e M a sonic leader. In t h e e d i t i o n p u b l i s h e d early i n

1917,

h o w e v e r , a n e w e l a b o r a t i o n was o f f e r e d . N i l u s w r o t e :

17

... only now have I learned authoritatively from Jewish sources that these Protocols are nothing else than a strategic plan for the conquest of the world, putting it under the yoke of Israel, the struggle against God, a plan worked out by the leaders of the Jewish people during the many centuries of dispersion, and finally presented to the C o u n c i l of Elders by " T h e Prince of the Exile," T h e o d o r Herzl, at the time of the first Zionist Congress, summoned by him at Basel in August, 1897. Nilus

added

that

the d o c u m e n t s

had reached

his

h a n d s i n 1901, d u r i n g w h i c h year, he said, H e r z l h a d c o m p l a i n e d i n Z i o n i s t circulars that c e r t a i n c o n f i d e n t i a l 1 9 The Headquarters of the Zionist Organization were in fact, located at Vienna, until the death of Theodor Herzl in 1904. They were then moved successively to Cologne and Berlin. In xgi8 they were transferred to London, and in 1935 to Jerusalem. At no time were they located in Paris. Vallentine's Jewish Encyclopaedia (London, 1938), pp. 688-93. " The Protocols and World Revolution (Boston, igao), pp. 6-7.

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information had been given "undesirable publicity" in several places. Unfortunately, Nilus does not tell where these Zionist circulars are to be found, and he offers no evidence to prove that the confidential information which is alleged to have leaked out had anything to do with the Protocols. A n added complication is injected by the fact that the heading for the twelfth section of Nilus's 1905 edition gives the years 1902-3 as those of the sessions of the Wise Men of Zion. T h e heading is printed in the following form: 18 12.

ANTICHRIST As a Near Political Possibility. (Protocols of the Sessions of the Wise Men of Zion). 1902-1903.

Why the years 1902 and 1903 are given here, when elsewhere Nilus names 1901 as the year when he received the manuscript, is a mystery. It only adds to the general confusion that surrounds the origin of the Protocols. Not only did Nilus present several different explanations in accounting for the Protocols, only the last of which was sufficiently definite to permit of an attempt at verification; to make matters worse, Butmi, is Nilus, Velikoe v Malom,

2d ed., p. 305.

n 23 a

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who printed the Protocols in 1906, if not before, adds to the confusion. In what is presented in Butmi's edition as the explanation of the "translator," it is stated that they were taken from the secret vaults of the Zionist Central Headquarters 19 and were signed "by the representatives of Zion (do not confuse them with the representatives of the Zionist m o v e m e n t ) . . . . " 20 T h i s explanation is not accepted by Butmi, however, for he comments: In his statement the translator vainly asks us not to confuse the teachings of the Zionist Wise Men of Masonry with the representatives of the Zionist movement, i. e., Zionism founded by Dr. Herzl in 1896. Actually, in Russia the Zionist-Masons in their activity directed against Church and State have found natural allies in Judaism, in particular in "Zionism." Butmi added that the aim of achieving a national Jewish home in Palestine was only a pretext and that the Zionists were really a revolutionary organization. " T h u s , Jewish Zionism, acting in Russia under the protection of the Russian Masons in agreement with the English Masons, is a well-organized traitorous agency, spread over all Russia and always hostile to Russia, but friendly to English foreign policy." 21 Butmi, Vragi Roda Chelovecheskago, 3d ed., p. v. 20 Ibid., p. 84. 2 1 Ibid., p. 109. On J u n e 24, 1903, V. K. Pleve, Minister of Internal Affairs, ordered the Department of Police to pursue energetic measures to arrest Zionist propaganda, claiming that it was now deviating from

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T h u s Butmi asks his readers to disregard the comment of his translator, as there is no real difference between the leaders of Zion who composed the Protocols, and Dr. Herzl and his followers, who were ostensibly working to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Butmi's position respecting the origin of the Protocols is thus close to that of Nilus as set forth in his last edition, published in 1917, namely, that the Protocols were actually read by Herzl at the Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897. Inasmuch as this final explanation of Nilus, which by implication is given support by Butmi, is the most definite and the only one that links the Protocols with specific Jewish leaders, it appears to be the one most necessary of careful study. Before this is done, however, two more statements concerning the origin of the Protocols must be considered. A French author, W . Creutz, alleges that a certain Bernstein, who according to him, was an editor of the Detroit Free Press, at one time declared in the presence of William [William J.] Cameron, associate of Henry Ford, that he had read the Protocols in a Hebrew ediits original purpose of promoting a Jewish settlement in Palestine. In conscquence of this order, Zionist meetings were forbidden, Jewish Colonial T r u s t shares were not to b e sold, and collections for the Jewish National Fund were prohibited. T h e following month, however, as a result of an interview with T h e o d o r Herzl, Pleve agreed to permit Zionism to continue on condition that it confine itself to the question of Palestine and eschew propaganda for general Jewish nationalism. Cf. Jewish Encyclopedia, X I I , 672; see also the testimony of B. J. Nikolaevsky, pp. 84 ff., below.

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tion in Odessa in 1895. 2 2 Creutz, however, fails to name the source of his information, and its credibility is gravely affected by a letter of Douglas D. Martin, managing editor of the Detroit Free Press, which bears the date of January 13, 1 9 4 1 . Mr. Martin declares:

"The

Free Press has never had any editor by the name of Bernstein." Another person who claimed to have seen the Protocols before the date of the Basel Congress was a Russian

nobleman,

Philip

Petrovich

Stepanov,

who

emigrated to Yugoslavia in 1 9 1 7 . In 1927 he made the following affidavit:

23

In 1895 the neighbor to my estate in the province of T u l a , the retired Major Alexei Nikolaievich Sukhotin, gave me a hand-written copy of " T h e Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion." He told me that a lady known to him (he did not mention her name) then living in Paris, had found them in the home of a friend of hers (apparently a Jew), and, before leaving Paris, had, unbeknown to him, translated them secretly and brought a single copy of this translation to Russia, and had given that copy to him, Sukhotin. At first I printed one hundred copies of it on a hectograph, but this edition proved difficult to read, and I decided to print it in some printing establishment or other, without indicating the time, city, or printer; I was helped in this by Arkadii Ippolitovich Kelepkovskii, at that time 22 W. Creutz, Les Protocoles des Sages de Siori; leur (Brunoy, 1934), p. 10. 23 L . Fry, Waters Flowing Eastward, 2d edition (Paris, 1 0 0 - 1 0 1 . A facsimile of the affidavit is given.

authenticité 1933),

pp.

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officer on special mission under Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich; he had them printed at the provincial printing press; this was in 1897. S. A. Nilus reprinted these protocols in full in his book with his own commentaries. Philip Petrovich Stepanov, former Procurator of the Moscow Synod Office; Chamberlain, Privy Councillor, and, at the time of that edition, Chief of the district route service (in Orel) of the Moscow-Kursk Railway. Signature by the hand of a member of the colony of Russian refugees at Staryi and Novyi Futog (Kor.S.X.S.). Witnessed at Staryi Futog, October 17, 1927. President of the Board of the Colony Prince Vladimir Golitsin Here is interesting testimony. In many respects it corresponds with the explanations given by Nilus in his 1905 and 1 9 1 1 editions. T h e name of Sukhotin is brought in, and mention is made in both instances of a woman who obtained a copy of the Protocols by stealth from the house of a man, presumably a J e w . Stepanov's account, however, is no more definite in its details than were those of Nilus's earlier editions. T h e name of the woman and the supposed J e w are not given, and there is no proof that the Protocols were in any way linked with Zionists or other Jewish leaders. Indeed, of all those who claim close knowledge of the origins of the Protocols, only Nilus in his 1 9 1 7 edition, and B u t m i by inference, attempt to connect the Protocols with a definite group of Jewish leaders. Thus, in spite of the interesting nature of the stateC27 3

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ments m a d e by C r e u t z a n d Stepanov, attention be

concentrated

on

the

explanations

of

must

Nilus

B u t m i w h o published the Protocols. T h e

and

authenticity

of t h e P r o t o c o l s c a n b e c o n s i d e r e d as e s t a b l i s h e d if t h e i r statements

can

successfully

undergo

careful

scrutiny.

T h e w o r d of these t w o m e n is t h e o n l y l i n k b e t w e e n t h e Protocols a n d the Zionist or o t h e r specific Jewish leaders. I t m u s t b e said, h o w e v e r , t h a t n e i t h e r of these m e n c a n be

regarded

consecrates People,"

24

as

an

his b o o k

unimpeachable

witness.

to the

of

"Union

the

Butmi Russian

a reactionary organization extremely hostile

t o J e w s a n d d e e p l y i m p l i c a t e d i n t h e p o g r o m s o f 1905 and

1906.

Moreover,

in

introducing

the

Protocols,

B u t m i m a d e such s w e e p i n g statements that grave d o u b t is cast u p o n his r e l i a b i l i t y . F o r e x a m p l e : T h e m a j o r i t y of the j u d i c i a l and administrative posts in France are held by Jews . . . so that the French n a t i o n is actually ruled by Jews. M o r e o v e r . . . two-thirds of all real estate in France has passed into the hands of the Jews, a n d the once great French people is in Jewish b o n d a g e to such a degree that the Jewish government of France persecutes officers w h o attend Christian Churches. . . F u r t h e r m o r e , B u t m i d e v o t e s c o n s i d e r a b l e space t o the l e g e n d of t h e " S y m b o l i c S n a k e . " T h i s asserts t h a t t h e - 4 T h e U n i o n of t h e R u s s i a n P e o p l e was an o r g a n i z a t i o n formed in O c t o b e r , 1905, tor p u r p o s e s of c o u n t e r - r e v o l u t i o n . It was headed by D r . A . I. D u b r o v i n . Its " f i g h t i n g b a n d s " k n o w n as " B l a c k H u n d r e d s " e n g a g e d in terrorism against radicals, liberals, a n d Jews. See J. S. Curtiss, Church and State in Russia ( N e w Y o r k , 1940), p p . 272-75. 2 5 B u t m i , Vragi Roda Chelovecheskago, 3d ed., p p . iii-iv.

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Jewish plan for world conquest was first elaborated by Solomon in 929 B.C. and that the center of Jewish power —symbolized by the head of the Snake—has gradually moved to encircle Europe, stopping at Athens in the days of Pericles, Rome in the Augustin period, and subsequently at Madrid, Paris, London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa. Only the last move—to Constantinople and Jerusalem—has not been made, and with the return of the head of the serpent to Jerusalem the conquest of the world will be complete. 26 Nilus also makes statements that may arouse doubt in the minds of his readers as to the correctness of his testimony. He appears to have been greatly exercised over the possibility of the coming of Antichrist. He found cause for alarm in visions mentioned in letters of A. P. Tolstoi, former Over Procurator of the Most Holy Synod, and in The Legend of Antichrist, written by Vladimir Soloviev. 27 T h e Protocols, however, were 2« ibid., p p . 84-88. 27 N i l u s , Velikoe v Malom, 2d ed., p p . 316-19. S o l o v i e v w a s a f a m o u s p h i l o s o p h e r w h o w a s b o r n in 1853 a n d d i e d in 1900. H e l e c t u r e d o n p h i l o s o p h y i n t h e U n i v e r s i t i e s of M o s c o w a n d St. P e t e r s b u r g . H i s w o r k s i n c l u d e The Religious Basis of Life (1885), The Justification of Good; Moral Philosophy (1897), Law and Morality; Sketches from Applied Ethics (1897), The Spiritual Bases of Life (1897). C f . Bol'shaia Entsiklopedia ( " T h e L a r g e E n c y c l o p e d i a " ) , X V I I , 645. H i s " L e g e n d of A n t i c h r i s t " is o n e o f t h e t h r e e stories in Tri Raskaza ( " T h r e e Discussions"), in w h i c h a m o n k reads a m a n u s c r i p t t e l l i n g of t h e f u t u r e of t h e w o r l d conquest by a M o n g o l i a n i n v a s i o n , a n d t h e l i b e r a t i o n of E u r o p e , w h i c h q u i c k l y falls i n t o the p o w e r of a d i c t a t o r w h o t u r n s out to be A n t i christ. t * 9 l

E X P L A N A T I O N S O F T H E SPONSORS the final verification in Nilus's eyes of the imminence of Antichrist, for he saw there the plans of the ungodly to conquer the earth. T h e writings of Nilus contain much more to convince the reader of the author's mystic trend of thought. He, too, presented the story of the "Symbolic Snake." 28 Moreover, in his third edition Nilus adduced further evidence to show the approach of Antichrist. Here is to be found a lengthy discussion of his "symbol," which was none other than the six-pointed star, used by the Russian Masons of the time of Alexander I. This symbol was itself made up of two symbolic triangles, one of which, inverted, with the point down, was a Masonic sign standing for the Devil and Antichrist. A triangle on its base, with the point up, was a symbol of the Trinity, often used by the Church. From these triangles also, Nilus added, was derived the mystic number 666. He went on to express alarm over the fact that the inverted triangle, the symbol of the Devil, was on all the new Russian railroad cars, while the second, or godly sign, together with a cross and the Russian national emblem, was to be found on the rubber galoshes used in Russia. (The largest rubber factory in Russia was called Trigol'nik [Triangle].) "Under the sign of the Devil we perform our journeys, while we trample on and press into the mud the Name of God and the Cross of Our Lord, not to mention the emblem of the Rus2« Nilus, op. cit., p p . 395-97.

C30H

E X P L A N A T I O N S OF T H E SPONSORS sian Empire." 29 Not content with this evidence, Nilus turned to Edouard Drumont's 30 La France juive for additional proof of the machinations of Jewry. From Drumont he obtained a picture of Antichrist—the king of a pack of playing cards. In a footnote Nilus explained, "This figure, besides being known to the books of the Cabal and those of magic, is also known from Hungarian playing cards that are used in the game of 'tarot.' It is a sly trick of the Devil to hide his wicked ends in an obvious place." 31 Passages like those cited above suggest that neither Nilus nor Butmi are at all dependable in their statements. Nevertheless, all important subsequent reprints and translations of the Protocols are based on the versions published by Nilus and Butmi. Consequently the statement of Nilus, which Butmi by implication supports, that the Protocols were drawn up by Zionist leaders and were read at the Zionist Congress of 1897, deserves careful study. 2» S. Nilus, Bliz Griadushchii Antikhrist (Moscow, 1911), pp. 140-47. It is interesting to note that Nilus did not refer to the fact that the sixpointed star used by the Masons in Russia is the same symbol known in Jewish lore. so Concerning Drumont see note 61, below, si Nilus, Bliz Griadushchii Antikhrist, p. 155.

Chapter

Three

CIRCUMSTANTIAL

EVIDENCE

W

HEN a careful analysis of the content of the Protocols is made, however, doubtful passages are found, which arouse suspicion that the Protocols were not read at the Zionist Congress of 1897 at which Theodor Herzl officiated.82 For example, in the tenth

3 2 T h e first Zionist Congress was convened on the personal initiative of Dr. T h e o d o r Herzl, a Jewish journalist of Vienna, and took place at Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. It was originally intended to hold it at Munich, but hostility of the local rabbinate prevented this—a clear proof that the Congress was in no sense an "official" body representing all Jewry. T h e Westernized portion of the Jewish world was highly unsympathetic to this movement, which was, in effect, an expression of the desires of the lowly Jews of Eastern Europe. Only small groups of "Westerners" were in attendance at the Basel Congress, and the great Jewish benevolent organizations of Europe and America, such as the Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, took no part in the meeting. Indeed, even the Zionist group in England, called Chovevei Zion ("Lovers of Zion"), took no part in the proceedings. T h e 204 delegates w h o attended came from smaller societies, which were in sympathy with the movement, not from the large Jewish organizations. T h e whole movement was at the time in strong disfavor in both Orthodox and R e f o r m Jewish circles, and several attacks on it were published—notably by L a u r i e Magnus and Lucien Wolf in England and by L u d w i g Geiger in Germany. T h e Reform rabbinate in America also voiced vigorous protests. T h e CongTess drew up the "official" Zionist program, which was fully e x p o u n d e d by Herzl

[ 3 2 H

CIRCUMSTANTIAL

EVIDENCE

Protocol there is a passage that apparently contains a reference to an event that occurred after the Zionist Congress of 1897.

l

he explanation of the method to

be used in setting up puppet governments to do the work of the Jewish masters, the following lines are found:

33

" . . . we shall arrange elections in favor of such

presidents as have in their past some dark, undiscovered affair, some 'Panama' or o t h e r . . . " T h i s passage is of great significance, for in France a president was elected who was accused of complicity in the Panama scandal— Emile Loubet, chosen February 18, 1899, "whom the people of Paris, on his return from Versailles [after the in the Contemporary Review, 1897, pp. 587-600. T h e sessions were open to the public, and several prominent non-Jews attended, among them being Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, the Rev. W. H. Hechler, chaplain of the British Embassy at Vienna, Baron Maxim Manteuffel, member of a famous Prussian family, and Colonel Count Bentinck, a prominent British diplomat. Shortly before the Congress, on J u l y ¡¡3, 1897, the Jewish Chronicle of London published a letter on the subject from Herzl in which he said: "Several persons imagine that the outcome of the Congress will be the formation of an International Fraternal Board, and they fear that they may be accused of want of patriotism. I was the first to raise my voice against such a proposal. What I desire is the very opposite of a Union or Society which has anything secret about it. I want publicity, full, pure and thorough publicity. T h e object of the Congress is not to create an International Group, but to bring about international discussion which, in my view, sooner or later, in some form or other, must lead to the solution of the Jewish question. Whoever wants to understand me, will understand this plain statement. Whoever does not, will not." There was no Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization before the First Congress of 1897, when it was elected. From that date until the death of Herzl in 1904 its seat was in Vienna. It was then moved successively to Cologne and Berlin. In 1918 it was transferred to London, and in 1935 to Jerusalem. Vallentine's Jewish Encyclopaedia, pp. 688-93. as Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, 2d ed., p. 353.

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election] greeted with cries of 'Panama, Panama.' " " A n d the author of the passage quoted, a professor of the University of Strasbourg and a member of the Jesuit Order, adds: " W h o is the serious reader who would not conclude that the passage of the Protocols was written after this date? But the Zionist Congress of Basel, where the Protocols were supposed to have been read, dates from the month of August, 1897."

88

T h e sequence of these events is interesting. T h e Zionist Congress met in 1897. It is alleged that at it the Protocols were read, containing a prophecy of the elec« P. Charles, Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion (Paris, 1958), pp. 2728. T h e Panama Canal Company was organized by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, but soon got into financial difficulties, caused by extravagance, poor management, and corruption. In 1885 Cornelius Herz, an adventurer of Jewish origin, proposed to the management of the company that he be commissioned to obtain authorization from the French Parliament for the company to issue bonds. T h e company accepted the proposal, and Herz turned the work of lobbying over to Baron Jacques Reinach, another Jew. Reinach found large numbers of the legislators who were willing to accept his bribes—10.} names were listed by the investigating committee which delved into the affair, and probably there were others as well. Herz took advantage of the plot to blackmail Reinach, whom he finally hounded to death. In 1892 the scandal became public, and finally a parliamentary investigation began, but the officials of the company who had sanctioned the bribery received light punishments. Only 10 of the 104 legislators under suspicion were brought to trial, and all were acquitted save one. T h e affair was made much of by the royalist faction, which stressed the complicity of the Jewish agents, hoping thereby to discredit the republican regime. Cf. W. C. Buthman, The Rise of Integral Nationalism in France (New York, 1939), pp. 47-54. Emile Loubet, premier in 189a, was forced to resign as a result of charges that he had been negligent in permitting the guilty to escape punishment. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, X I V , 407. 35 Charles, Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion. See pp. 76 (f. below for testimony that the Protocols were written after 1897. I

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tion of a president besmirched with the scandal of "some Panama or other." Then, fully eighteen months later, the French National Assembly elected a president who was charged by some with guilt in connection with the Panama affair. Whether, as Father Charles believes, this passage was actually written after Loubet's election, not before the Zionist Congress, or whether the authors of the Protocols used the word "Panama" as a generic term for corruption, cannot here be decided. If the former is the correct explanation, the Protocols, which according to Nilus and Butmi were obtained as a whole, not at several different times, could not have been read at the Zionist Congress. If, on the other hand, the term "Panama" was used merely to exemplify the sort of corruption that would make docile puppets out of future presidents, it could have been written before August, 1897, as the Panama scandal was widely known as early as 1892. Apparently there is no way to solve the mystery, and it must remain one of the items that raise doubts concerning the explanations of Nilus and Butmi. T o those familiar with Jewish habits of thought a very striking thing about the Protocols is that only once is mention made of the Bible, the most weighty influence on Jewish thought. This in itself is enough to arouse suspicion. Furthermore, while the Protocols do contain one quotation from the Old Testament, it is made in a form that a Jew would probably not use. At C 35 3

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the Basel Congress the language used was largely German, yet in the Protocols the Biblical quotation Per me reges regnant" (Through me kings reign) is in Latin, and as Father Charles points out, was taken from the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used by the Catholic Church.' 7 Would Jews so zealous for their national culture use a quotation from a Latin edition of the Old Testament? Certainly they would be more likely to use a Hebrew edition than the Bible of the Catholic Church. There are still other reasons to doubt that the Protocols were read at secret sessions held during the Zionist Congress at Basel, as Nilus contends. T h e published announcement stated that the Basel Congress was summoned with a very limited end in view—to discuss the possibilities of establishing a homeland for the Jews of the world. T h e invitations to the Congress, photostats of which have been published, declared that all sessions and all debates would be completely public, and pledged that no government, and particularly not that of Russia, would have cause for complaint because of what was said or done there. This obligation appears to have been scrupulously observed; at any rate no government ever protested that its interests had been harmed by the Zionist Congress, and no one ever proved 3« Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, 2d edition, p. 341. T h e quotation is from Proverbs 8:15. Charles, Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion, p. 27.

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that a secret session was held. 8 8 A n d yet N i l u s insists that the Zionist leaders m e t in secret session l o n g e n o u g h to read sixty-nine pages of Protocols. H o w a n d w h e r e i n the little city of Basel the leaders of the Zionist m o v e m e n t m a n a g e d t o e l u d e observers for so l o n g is a question n o t easy to answer. In a d d i t i o n to the points already raised, there are other reasons to d o u b t that the Protocols o r i g i n a t e d at a Jewish m e e t i n g . F o r it m u s t b e b o r n e in m i n d

that

allegedly they w e r e n o t i n t e n d e d for mass c o n s u m p t i o n , as was H i t l e r ' s Mein

Kampf,

b u t w e r e to serve as a secret

plan of c a m p a i g n f o r m e n w h o are p i c t u r e d as c l a i m i n g a c u n n i n g s u p e r i o r to that of all o t h e r m e n . N o n e t h e less, there are to b e f o u n d several inconsistencies a n d statements of d o u b t f u l validity, w h i c h cause the r e a d e r to d o u b t that m e n of m o r e than average

intelligence

w o u l d have s u b s c r i b e d to such statements. F o r e x a m p l e , the p l a n calls f o r t h e d e l i b e r a t e c r e a t i o n of chaos in the w o r l d , so that the leaders of the J e w s m a y step in a n d seize p o w e r . Y e t e l s e w h e r e in the P r o t o c o l s the s p e a k e r boasts that the J e w s already o w n most of the g o l d of the w o r l d a n d m u c h o t h e r property—industries,

news-

papers, real estate, a n d the like. In a p e r i o d of c o n f u s i o n it w o u l d t h e r e f o r e b e e x c e e d i n g l y difficult for J e w s to a v o i d s u f f e r i n g great loss, side b y side w i t h the G e n t i l e s . A n d h o w c o u l d they b e sure that they w o u l d b e a b l e to gain p o w e r as a r e s u l t of the chaotic conditions? Per38 ¡bid., p. 19. C 37 3

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haps the period of disorder might end with the rise of a dictator from among the Gentiles, animated by hostility to Jews—and then the last state of the Jews would be worse than the first. Similarly, the Protocols speak of the deliberate discrediting of Christianity and the promotion of atheism, in order that the Jewish faith might be established as the only creed. Here, too, the risks would be great. It would probably be difficult to prevent the atheists from striking at Judaism as well as Christianity, and there appears no reason to think that the faith of the Jews would succeed throughout the world if Christianity fell. These possibilities, which would most certainly be clear to the hypothetical leaders of Zion, are sufficiently dire to arouse doubts whether Jewish leaders would ever formulate such plans. One of the financial devices ascribed to the Elders was something of a novelty. This was the scheme for abandoning the gold standard, which according to the Protocols had proved to be "ruin for the States which adopted it," and for replacing it with currency based upon "the value of labor power, whether the [monetary] unit be of paper or of wood. We shall make the issue of money in accordance with the normal requirements of each subject, adding to the quantity with every newborn person and reducing it with every death." 89 This, of course, is a marked departure from the ways of ortho3» Nilus,

Velikoe v Malom,

ï d ed., p. 384.

i & l

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dox public finance—a remarkable step for Jews who are portrayed as boasting that "in our hands is the greatest power of our day—gold: in two days we can procure from our vaults any quantity we please." 40 It is another of the inconsistencies which characterize this text. T h e Protocols have much to say about State debts, which "hang like a sword of Damocles over the heads of rulers, who, instead of taking from their subjects by a temporary tax, come begging with outstretched palm to ask alms of our bankers." T h e evils of treasury deficits are outlined in detail. A budget is drawn up by the government of an unfortunate State, but after six months the funds are exhausted. A deficiency appropriation is then made, but it is only enough to last for three months, so that a liquidation budget is required. T h e costs of government increase by 50 percent a year. " T h e ensuing period of loans has . . . brought all the Goyim states to bankruptcy." 4 1 This statement, however, does not present a true picture of the condition of public finance in the world at the time of the first Zionist Congress, when the Protocols were allegedly read. A few countries, like Italy, Spain, and Portugal, were in financial straits, but the great powers and many lesser ones were far from bankruptcy. Consequently it is questionable whether intelligent leaders planning a campaign for Weltmacht would have presented such an analysis of the world situation. «0 Ibid., p. 390.

« Ibid., p. 385.

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T h e Protocols contain several other passages that present inaccurate pictures of the state of affairs o n the eve of the Basel Congress. In several of the Protocols, for e x a m p l e , the speaker rejoices at the disorder that the Jews are alleged to have created in the G e n t i l e states. In the n i n t h it is stated: 4 2 From us proceeds all-engulfing terror. In our service we have persons of all opinions, all doctrines: monarchist restorationists, demagogues, socialists, communists, and Utopians of all kinds. W e have harnessed them all to the task: each of them for his part is undermining the last remnants of authority, is trying to overthrow all established order. By these actions all states are put to torture: they exhort to tranquility, are ready for the sake of peace to make sacrifices to all; but we shall not give them peace until they openly, with submission, recognize our international Super-Government. T h e same boast is made in different f o r m in other places in the Protocols. In the third it is stated:

43

. . . we have stirred up all energetic persons, we have armed all parties, we have made authority the target of all ambitions. Of the States we have made arenas where disorders take p l a c e . . . . A little more, and disorders and bankruptcy will appear everywhere. A n o t h e r Protocol speaks o f 4 4 . . . the senseless forces, moved by instinct, and not by reason, *- Ibid., Ibid.,

p p . 347-48. T h e italics are in the o r i g i n a l . p. 333. ** Ibid., p. 392.

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by brutishness and not by human qualities. These forces now triumph in manifestations of plundering and all sorts of violence, under the mask of the principles of freedom and rights. They have destroyed all forms of social order, so that upon them may be erected the throne of the Jewish Emperor... These passages, however, do not present a true picture of the world in 1897, when these words allegedly were uttered. At that time, except for disorders in Spain and Cuba and a GrecO-Turkish war, the world was fairly calm. On June 20 of that year Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee amid great pomp and rejoicing, and in August, President Felix Faure of France paid a solemn visit to the Tsar in St. Petersburg. In Austria, Belgium, and Holland elections were held with little disorder, and in the United States the McKinley administration began in an atmosphere of growing harmony and prosperity. Indeed, so poorly do these passages fit the actual state of affairs on the eve of the Zionist Congress that it is doubtful whether they could emanate from serious and intelligent men such as the leaders of the Zionist movement. Another method of keeping control of the governments of Europe was set forth in the seventh Protocol. Here the leader is made to say, "we shall show our strength to one of them by violent deeds, i.e., terror, and to all, if we allow the possibility of a general uprising against us, we shall respond with American or C40

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Chinese or Japanese cannon." 46 In 1897, the year given by Nilus as the one when the Protocols were read to the Zionist leaders, this threat was an absurdity, for at that time no European power had much respect for the armed forces of these three countries. T h e victory of Japan over China in 1894 was taken lightly by the military and naval men of Europe, and the war strength of the United States was not high in 1897. There are other sections that arouse doubt concerning the integrity and the knowledge of the real authors of the Protocols. T h e first contains these words: "In ancient times we were the first to cry among the people the words, 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.'"" This slogan did not, however, originate in antiquity, or with the Jews, but was coined by Antoine François Momoro, a Frenchman.47 T h e third Protocol contains the sentence, "Remember the French Revolution, to which we gave the name 'Great'; the secrets of its preparation are well known to us, for it was wholly the work of our hands." 48 No intelligent and sincere Jew would have Ibid., p. 345. T h e italics are in the original. Ibid., pp. 3*9-50. Momoro was born in Besançon in 1756, and during the revolutionary period he became a member of the radical Cordelier Club. He took part in the attack on the Tuileries on August 10, 179s, and soon after was named member of the administrative commission of the city of Paris. "Being charged with the organization of the public festivals, he it was who spread everywhere the beautiful motto 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' which he had originated as early as 1791..." Pierre Larousse, éd., Grande Dictionnaire universel du XIX-e siècle (Paris, 1866-90, 17 vols, in 18), XI, 33. Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, sd éd., p. 336. 45

48

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made this claim, for he would know that at the time of the French Revolution the handful of Jews in France did not enjoy political rights and had little or no part in the Revolution. T h e leaders of the revolutionary movement, Mirabeau, Si£y£s, Lafayette, Barnave, Roland, Condorcet, Marat, Carnot, Robespierre, and Danton, were all Frenchmen, without a single Jew among them. This statement in the Protocols, far from having been written by a Jew, appears to have been penned by someone who hoped to stir u p antagonism against the Jews. T h e passages cited in the preceding section are far from being positive proof that the Zionists did not write the Protocols, but they do raise questions in the mind of the reader. Would the Zionists have subscribed to such statements? Arguments of this nature are sometimes used by intelligent persons who seek to confuse the minds of masses of ignorant men; but this was not the alleged purpose of the Protocols. T h e Protocols are presented by Nilus as a secret plan to be followed by brilliant and crafty leaders, and yet this plan contains several passages that cannot be accepted by intelligent minds. Hence the question arises: were the Protocols written by those to whom they are ascribed, or were they, perhaps, written by others with a far different purpose in mind? Suspicions of this sort are reinforced by other pertinent facts. It is not necessary to depend upon probability alone in deciding that the Protocols were

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written by enemies of the Jews, for there is much evidence to indicate how they originated. In 1921 Philip P. Graves, Constantinople correspondent of The Times, of London, was presented with a book which the donor, a Russian landowner, had bought from a former officer of the Okhrana, the political police of the defunct Russian Empire. Mr. Graves was at once struck by the similarity of numerous passages in the book and the Protocols of Zion, which had just created a sensation in Great Britain and France." In fact, he became convinced that the little volume, which was without its title page, was the basis for the Protocols, which he now believed to be a flagrant plagiarism. On his return to London he was able to discover the title of the book and the author's name. It turned out to be Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu; ou la Politique de Machiavel au XIX siècle ("Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu; or, the Politics of Machiavelli in the Nineteenth Century"). T h e author, who had described himself on the title page as "un contemporain," was Maurice Joly, a lawyer of Paris, and the book was published in Brussels in 1865. 48 The Times, August 16-18, i g s i . T w o English editions of the Protocols had appeared a few months before, the first anonymously, published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, under the title The Jewish Peril, and the second, a translation by V. E. Marsden, late Morning Post Russian correspondent, published by the Britons Publishing Society. T h e Morning Post had carried a series of articles endorsing the main theme of the Protocols, a n d even The Times had published an editorial in which it was suggested that the charges merited investigation. T h e subject was therefore of interest when Graves's articles appeared.

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T h e Dialogue aux enfers, as the title suggests, consists of imaginary conversations or dialogues in the afterworld between the respective authors of The Prince and The Spirit of the Laws, with Machiavelli explaining his up-to-date political theories, and Montesquieu professing shocked surprise. As Joly later declared in a pamphlet, his motive for this work was to discredit the Second Empire of Napoleon III. In Machiavelli it is easy to discern Napoleon, while from the mouth of Montesquieu speak the liberals and the democrats who were scandalized by the cynical opportunism of Napoleon. Joly declared: "I hoped to have my book published in France; but the printer Bourdier, to whom I explained that it was a translation from an English author named MacPherson, recognized Napoleon at the end of three dialogues. He refused to proceed with the printing." 50 Joly was not to be deterred by this failure, however. His Dialogue was soon published anonymously in Brussels. Unfortunately for him, however, the French police soon penetrated the cover of his anonymity, and he was arrested, and on April 25, 1865, sentenced to a fifteen-month imprisonment and a fine of three hundred francs. On April 26, 1865, the newspaper Le Droit so M. Joly, Maurice Joly, son passé, sa programme exposes par luimême, quoted in H . Bernstein, The Truth about "The Protocols of Zion" (New York, 1935), pp. 15-16. T h e strongly anti-Semitic R o g e r Lambelin cites the same evidence in his article, "Maurice Joly et les 'Protocoles,'" La Revue hebdomadaire (Paris, Dec. 17, 1921), p. 313. Lambelin admits that Joly was not a Jew.

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published a lengthy extract from the decision of the court, in the following words:

61

. . . in a dialogue between Machiavelli and Montesquieu the author begins by opposing the political principles developed in the writings of these famous men, then establishes a general thesis that the dreadful despotism taught by Machiavelli in his treatise, The Prince, has succeeded, by artifice and evil ways, in imposing itself on modern society... . This work is neither an abstract and speculative criticism nor a political argument inspired by a sincere spirit [for] the author charges the French Government with having, through shameful means, hypocritical ways, and perfidious contrivances, led the public astray, degraded the character of the nation, and corrupted its m o r a l s . . . as the writer himself describes it in the last page but one of his book, [he] composed "this gathering of monstrous things before which the mind recoils in fright, this work that only hell itself could accomplish." For these reasons Maurice Joly, having committed the crime of inciting hatred and contempt against the Government, is sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment, 300 francs fine, and confiscation of the copies of the Dialogue in Hell. In Joly's book Machiavelli explains to Montesquieu his reasons for coming to prefer despotism to republican government. H e expounds his theories—that the mass of the people are politically weak and inert and easily 6 1 Bernstein, The Truth about "The Protocols of Zion," Lambelin, "Protocoles" des Sages de Sion, p. 312.

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ruled by a strong man; but if they are aroused, their capacity for senseless violence is unlimited. Hence a powerful ruler is a necessity, and if he screens his despotism by a sham observance of legal forms, his dictatorship will be welcomed by many. T h e press will be subject to stringent regulation, and opponents of the regime will be dealt with by the agents of the police. Neither financial problems nor the power of the Church are insurmountable obstacles for the skillful ruler, who will win the plaudits of the people by social prestige and the glories of war. W h e n one compares the Dialogue of Joly with the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion as published by Nilus, the similarities between them readily become evident. Although there are twenty-five Dialogues and twenty-four Protocols, and although not all of the latter resemble the Dialogues bearing the corresponding numbers, the order in which the subjects are treated is very similar. Moreover, in passage after passage the phrasing of the Protocols and the Dialogues is almost identical. There are so many of these similar passages, paragraphs, and even pages that it is impossible to quote them all. T h e following excerpts, taken from Joly's Dialogues and from the second (1905) edition of Nilus's Velikoe v Malom are, however, sufficient to show that the latter work is largely a plagiary. 52 52 Additional examples of parallelism have been placed in an Appendix.

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DIALOGUES

PROTOCOLS

. . . you do not know the unfathomable cowardice of humanity . . . servile in the face of force, pitiless in the face of weakness, implacable before blunders, indulgent before crimes, incapable of supporting the contrariness of a liberal regime, and patient to the point of martyrdom before all the violence of bold despotism, breaking thrones in its moments of anger, and giving itself masters whom it pardons for violations the least of which would have caused it to decapitate twenty constitutional kings.—p. 43

T h e unfathomable meanness of the Goyim peoples, crawling before force, merciless to weakness, without pity for mistakes and indulgent toward crimes, not willing to endure the contradictions of a free order, enduring to martyrdom before the violence of a bold despotism —this is what aids our independence. From contemporary premier-dictators they tolerate and endure abuses, for the least of which they would have beheaded twenty k i n g s . - p . 337

A f t e r having covered Italy with blood, Sylla could reappear in Italy as a private individual; no one touched a hair on his head.—p. 199

Remember the instance where Italy, drenched in blood, did not touch a hair of Silla's head, w h o had shed that blood: Silla in the eyes of the people was deified by his p o w e r . . .—p. 366

M A C H I A V E L L I : . . . I shall count on a devoted organ in each opinion, each party; I shall have an aristocratic

O u r newspapers will have all possible tendencies—aristocratic, republican, revolutionary, even anarchistic—as »H

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DIALOGUES continued organ in the aristocratic party, a republican organ in the republican party, a revolutionary organ in the revolutionary party; an anarchist organ, if necessary, in the anarchist party. Like the god Vishnu, my press will have a hundred arms, and these arms will stretch out their hands to all possible shades of opinion over the whole surface of the country . - p . 141

PROTOCOLS continued long, of course, as the constitution exists.. . . They, like the Indian god Vishnu, will have a hundred hands, of which each will feel the pulse of some one of the opinions of society.—p. 360

M O N T E S Q U I E U : Now I understand the apologue of the god Vishnu; you have a hundred arms, like the Hindu idol, and each of your fingers touches a spring, —p. 207

Our empire will be an apologue of the god Vishnu, in whom is found its personification—in our hundred hands will be the springs of the social machine.—p. 377

T h e last two quotations f r o m the Protocols and the parallel quotations f r o m Joly's Dialogues contain comparisons unusual enough to make it plain that the latter was the source f r o m which the author of the Protocols derived much of his inspiration. It is i m p r o b a b l e that two authors, writing independently of each other, w o u l d have used such an unusual simile in the very same way,

[49]

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and not once, but twice. The following passages also suggest the fact of plagiary, although in somewhat less striking fashion. (The italics are in the original.) DIALOGUES

PROTOCOLS

It is written: Per me reges regnant. W h i c h means literally: G o d makes kings.— p. 63

"Per M e reges r e g n a n t through M e kings rule." And by the prophets it was said to us that we were chosen by God Himself to rule over the whole earth.—p. 341

. . . I would institute . . . huge financial monopolies, reservoirs of the public wealth, on which the fate of all private fortunes would so closely depend that they w o u l d be swallowed up the day after any political catastrophe. Y o u are an economist, Montesquieu, weigh the value of this combination.—p. 75

W e shall soon begin to establish huge m o n o p o l i e s reservoirs of colossal riches, on which even the great fortunes of the Goyim will depend to such an extent that they will go to the bottom together with the credit of the States on the day after a political catastrophe.. . . Y o u gentlemen economists here present, figure out the significance of such a combination!—p. 343

In modern times, the aristocracy as a political force has disappeared; but the landed bourgeoisie is still an element of dangerous resistance to governments, because

The aristocracy of the Goyim as a political force have died —we no longer have to consider them; but they are dangerous for us as owners of land who can maintain

n

>3

CIRCUMSTANTIAL DIALOGUES continued it is independent in itself; it may be necessary to impoverish it or even ruin it completely. It is enough, for this purpose, to increase the charges that weigh on landed property, to maintain agriculture in a state of relative inferiority, to favor commerce and industry excessively, and above all, speculation . . .—p. 76

EVIDENCE

PROTOCOLS continued an independent existence on their own resources. Hence we must at all costs deprive them of their land. For this end the best means lies in increasing the taxes on l a n d in the indebtedness of the land. These measures will maintain landownership in a state of unconditional depression. . . . At the same time we must energetically protect trade and manufacturing, and especially speculation . . . - p . 343

T h e measures to be e m p l o y e d against the press, as elaborated in the Protocols, bear a close resemblance to those of N a p o l e o n I I I as sketched in Joly's Dialogue.

As

these cover several pages, it will not be advisable to reproduce the parallels fully, but a few passages are sufficient to indicate the similarity. DIALOGUES

PROTOCOLS

. . . the press has the faculty of making itself hated, since it is solely at the service of violent, selfish and exclusive passions; since it disparages through prejudice, since it is mercenary, since it is un-

It [the newspaper press] serves to excite and inflame the passions needed by us, or serves egoistic party feeling. It is empty, unfair, untruthful, and the majority of people do not at all un-

C5i 1

CIRCUMSTANTIAL DIALOGUES continued just, since it is without generosity and without patriotism; and, last but not least, since you will never be able to make the masses of a country understand of what value it may be.—p. 125

MACHIAVELLI: I shall reach all newspapers, present or future, by fiscal measures which will, when needed, speedily check all publicity enterprises; I shall subject political journals to what you nowadays call a stamp tax and a guarantee deposit. T h e business of the press will soon become so unprofitable, thanks to the high level of the tax, that no one would go into it without deliberation. M O N T E S Q U I E U : T h e remedy is insufficient, since political parties spare no expense. M A C H I A V E L L I : . . . I have something with which to close their mouths: here 15*1

EVIDENCE

PROTOCOLS continued derstand what ends it serves. W e shall saddle and bridle it with a tight rein, and shall do the same with the rest of the press, for what sense would there be to relieve ourselves of the attacks of the press if we remained the target for brochures and books. W e shall turn . . . the product of publicity, expensive because of the necessity of censoring it, into a source of income for our State: we shall tax it with a special stamp impost and with fees for establishing organs of the press or printing establishments, which should guarantee our government from all attacks from the press. . . . In truth, the party newspapers may not spare money, but we shall close them at the second attack upon u s . - p . 357

CIRCUMSTANTIAL DIALOGUES continued come the repressive measures.. .—p. 129

EVIDENCE PROTOCOLS

continued

T w o convictions in one year will automatically bring about the suspension of the paper.—p. 132 . . . I shall oblige those who wish to practice the profession of printer, editor, or librarian to secure a seal, that is, an authorization, which the government may always withdraw, either directly or by decisions of the courts.—p. 135

Everyone who wishes to become a publisher, librarian, or printer, will be obliged to obtain a license established for this work, which, in the event of transgression, will be immediately revoked.—p. 358

Another close parallel is to be seen in the sections dealing with financial plans. Here, as was done in the case of the passages on the press, only a few typical quotations will be given. DIALOGUES

PROTOCOLS

Just what is your annually voted budget? Nothing but a provisional regulation, an estimate of the principal financial developments. The situation is never definite until after the completion of expenditures made neces-

We shall indicate the necessity of reforms as a consequence of the disorderly muddle to which the financial disorders of the Goyim have fallen. The first lack of order which we shall show lies in the fact that they be-

C53 1

CIRCUMSTANTIAL DIALOGUES continued sary during the course of the year. In your budgets one finds I know not how many types of a p p r o p r i a t i o n s which correspond to all possible eventualities: complementary, supplementary, extraordinary, t e m p o r a r y , exceptional appropriations. And each one of these appropriations by itself forms a distinct budget. Now this is how things work out: the general budget, the one which is voted at the beginning of the year, comes to a total amount of, let us say, 800 millions. When half of the year is gone, the financial facts already no longer correspond to the first estimates; so what is called a rectifying budget is presented to the Chambers, and this budget adds 100 millions, 150 millions to the original figure. Then comes the supplementary budget: it adds 50 or 60 millions; finally comes the liquidation budget which adds 15, 20, or

ll

EVIDENCE

PROTOCOLS continued gin with designating the simple budget, which grows from year to year for the following reasons: this budget is stretched until the middle of the year; then they demand a corrective budget, which is spent in three months, after which they ask a supplementary budget, and all this ends with a liquidation budget. And as the budget of the year following is framed according to the sum of the general total, the yearly departure from the norm amounts to 50 percent a year, so that the yearly budget is tripled within ten years. Thanks to such methods, which are permitted by the carelessness of the Goyim States, their treasuries have been emptied.—p.

385

CIRCUMSTANTIAL DIALOGUES

continued

EVIDENCE PROTOCOLS

continued

30 millions. In short, in the general reckoning, the total of the difference amounts to one-third of the estimated expenditures. It is upon this last figure that the legislative vote of the Chamber falls as a form of confirmation. In this way, at the end of ten years the budget may have been doubled and tripled.—p. 246 How are loans made? By the issue of bonds containing an obligation on the part of the government to pay a yearly interest proportionate to the capital which has been deposited. If the loan is at 5 percent, for instance, the State, at the end of twenty years, has paid a sum equal to the capital borrowed; at the end of 40 years, a double amount; at the end of 60 years, a triple amount, and yet it always remains debtor for the total of the same amount.—p. 250 . . I would

not want

the

A loan is an issue of government notes having an interest obligation in proportion to the sum of the capital of the loan. If the loan pays five percent, then in twenty years the State will needlessly pay out in interest a sum equal to the loan received; in forty years it will pay out a double amount, in sixty, a threefold amount, and the loan will still remain an unpaid debt.—p. 386

We shall replace the bourses

C 55 3

CIRCUMSTANTIAL

EVIDENCE

DIALOGUES continued credit of my State to depend upon the fears of a few tallow merchants; I would dominate the Exchange by the E x c h a n g e . . . . I would have gigantic establishments of credit instituted, apparently for the purpose of lending money to industry, but whose real function would be to uphold the government bonds. Capable of placing 400 to 500 millions of shares on the market or of draining the market to the same extent, these financial monopolies would always be masters of the Exchange.—p. 269

PROTOCOLS continued by grandiose State credit institutions, the function of which will be to fix the prices of industrial securities in accordance with governmental considerations. These institutions will be able to throw on the market five hundred millions of industrial securities in one day or to purchase the same quantity. Thus, all industrial enterprises will depend on us. You can figure out what power we shall provide for ourselves through this!— P- 39°

There are other ways [of reducing the public debt]: there is what is called conversion. . . . This has to do with the debt which is called consolidated, that is, the one that accrues from the issue of loans. One says to the bondholders of the State, for instance: up till now I have paid you 5 percent on your money; that was the rate of

Later there comes the time of conversions, but they reduce the payment of interest, and do not cover the debt, and besides they cannot be done without the consent of the bondholders: in the declaration of conversion it is proposed to return their money to those who are not willing to convert their bonds. If all expressed their

tl

CIRCUMSTANTIAL DIALOGUES continued interest on your bonds. From now on I expect to pay no more than 4 or 4\/2 percent. Agree to this request or be reimbursed for the capital which you loaned me. . . . Without a doubt it will be returned if requested; but very few will bother about that; security holders have their habits; their funds are placed, they have confidence in the State; they prefer a smaller income and a certain investment. If everyone demanded his money it is evident that the treasury would be in a fix. T h a t never happens, and in this way one gets rid of a debt of several hundred millions, —pp. 266-67

EVIDENCE

PROTOCOLS continued unwillingness and demanded their money back, then the governments would be caught on their own hooks and would declare themselves unable to pay the money offered. Fortunately the subjects of the Goyim governments, who are ignorant of financial matters, always prefer losses on exchange and a reduction of their interest to the risk of new investments, which fact has more than once given these governments the chance to throw off liabilities to the amount of several millions. - P - 389

T h e s e passages, w h i c h occur in the twentieth

and

twenty-first Dialogues and in the corresponding Protocols, are the last in w h i c h close similarity is to be observed. T h e four r e m a i n i n g Dialogues deal with the remodeling of Paris, the b u i l d i n g of apartments for workers, wars, court life, etiquette, and the like, and have no counterparts in the Protocols. Even

[571]

without

CIRCUMSTANTIAL

EVIDENCE

examples of parallelism in the later sections, however, it seems probable that the Dialogues of Joly were the quarry where much of the material for the Protocols of Zion was obtained. Indeed, according to the testimony of Dr. Arthur Baumgarten, professor of criminal law at the University of Basel, expert witness at the Bern trials in 1934-35 (of which more later), 176 passages of the Protocols, located on fifty pages, were based upon Joly. 68 It is significant that some of the leading anti-Semitic writers admit that the Protocols were largely drawn from the Dialogue in Hell of Joly, adding that this in no way weakens their case against the Jews, as Joly himself, while a French Catholic, was allegedly descended from a family of Spanish Jews, was a Mason and a revolutionary, and was on very good terms with the Jewish leader Adolphe Cremieux. Joly, according to two of these writers, was really portraying the plans of Zion in the guise of an attack on Napoleon III. 54 Joly, 53 V . L . B u r t s e v , "Prolokoly Sionskikh Mudretsov" Dokazannyi Podlog (Paris, 1938), p. 144. A r t h u r B a u m g a r l e n , professor Ordinarius of legal philosophy a n d criminal law at the University of B a s e l , studied law a n d p h i l o s o p h y at the universities of T u b i n g e n , G e n e v a , L e i p z i g , a n d B e r l i n ; he received his doctorate at B e r l i n in 1909. H e t a u g h t as professor at G e n e v a , C o l o g n e , Basel, a n d F r a n k f u r t - a m - M a i n . A l t h o u g h not a J e w , B a u m g a r t e n left G e r m a n y u p o n Hitler's rise to p o w e r in 1953, a n d since that time he has been at the University of B a s e l . H e has p u b l i s h e d a n u m b e r of legal treatises, a m o n g them Die Wissenschaft vom Recht und ihre Methode, 2 vols., ( T ü b i n g e n , 1920-22). « U . F l e i s c h h a u e r , Gerichts-Gutachten zum Berner Prozess ( E r f u r t , 1935), p p . 14 ff.; R . L a m b e l i n , " M a u r i c e J o l y et les 'Protocoles,' " La Revue hebdomadaire, Dec. 1 7 , 1 9 2 1 , p p . 3 1 2 ff.

[58 3

CIRCUMSTANTIAL

EVIDENCE

in his autobiography, did say that his family was of Spanish origin, b u t made no mention of Jewish blood. His portrait, along with his Masonic and revolutionary connections, furnishes the chief evidence of his alleged Jewish origin, according to Colonel Fleischhauer, a leading Nazi "authority" on Jewish affairs. T h e latter is convinced that Joly's thin, dark countenance R o m a n nose are proof that he was a

and

Jew. 55

Even if Joly were as Jewish as Abraham, however, it w o u l d be hard to find in the Dialogue

anything b u t a

clever attack on the Second Empire. T h e court that condemned Joly to fine and imprisonment because of his book apparently saw it in that light. A n d , judging by probabilities, it would be strange if the Jews would run the risk of publishing their secret plans for all to read. W h e n secrecy is so essential to the success of such a plan, why make it public, trusting that no Gentile will penetrate the disguise in which it is veiled? T h e most likely explanation of Joly's book is that offered by the author—that he wrote it to attack Napoleon

III.

Later this book probably came into the hands of persons who found that it could be adapted to their needs. While

the Dialogue

is apparently

the source

for

m u c h of the Protocols, the latter contain other elements not to be found in Joly's satire. Joly makes no mention of a Jewish plot and refers to the Jews in only one 55 Fleischhauer, loc. cit. For observations on the weakness of evidence of this sort, see C. S. Coon, The Races of Europe (New York,

'939)-

C 59 3

CIRCUMSTANTIAL

EVIDENCE

place, and then in a somewhat disparaging fashion. H e speaks of "cold and disillusioned societies . . . that have no other stimulant than material satisfactions, that have no other cult but that of gold, whose mercantile customs compete with those of the Jews, whom they have taken as models." 56 58

Joly, Dialogue

aux

enfers,

p. 47.

Chapter

Four

A VISIT TO

NILUS

were drawn in part from Joly, but this neither proves nor disproves that they embody a Zionist plot to enslave the world. T h e student of the question must consider two hypotheses. Either this plot was a genuine plan of Jews, or, if not, it was invented by an enemy of Israel. It is not possible to show that the sections of the Protocols dealing with the Jewish plot were copied almost word for word from some other book. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the hypothesis of a Jewish intrigue to get control of the world had been brought forward long before the Protocols made their appearance. One of the earliest proponents of this theory was Gougenot des Mousseaux, who expounded it in 1869." He employed two of the favorite arguments of the anti-Semites, namely, that the Jews controlled the world's gold and that they dominated the press. "Sovereign master and lord of gold, the Jew . . . is then lord and master of the powers of the HE PROTOCOLS

" H . R . Gougenot des Mousseaux, Le Juif, le judaisme et la judaisation des peuples chrétiens (Paris, 1869).

C61 ]

A VISIT T O

NILUS

earth. In other terms, gold possesses the world, and the Jew possesses gold."

58

A n o t h e r passage reads, " A second

power figures at the head of those that have become auxiliaries of the Jew, and this power is the press."

68

N o evidence is presented to substantiate these statements; the reader is asked to accept them without proof. T h e theory of a world-wide Jewish plot was developed still further by another French author, A b b é E. A . Chabauty, whose book Les Juifs nos maîtres

published

in Paris in 1882, contains the outlines of the alleged Jewish plot of the Protocols. A b b é C h a b a u t y declares that the Jews are the chief promoters of revolution in Europe; moreover, by using their wealth they have insinuated themselves into positions of power as lawyers, judges, financiers, and newspaper men. 60 Thus it will not be difficult for them to transform all the countries of Europe into anti-Christian republics, to attain, by means of war and alliances, the fusion of all these republics into one, and, finally, to swallow them all in their own republic. T h e n Europe will be transformed into that worldwide republic which all secret societies, the vassals and the slaves of the Jews, preach and desire. . . . They will transfer their center of action and their capital to Jerusalem. Having at their head one of the members of the Messianistic families descended . . . from David, the great Patriarch of Masonry and at the same time the Supreme Ruler of the nation, Israel will openly rule the world. This will be the absolute 58 Ibid., p. 350. 59 Ibid., p. 358. co Pages 180-81, quoted in Iu. Delevskii, Protokoly Sionskikh sov (Berlin, 1923), pp. 51-52.

Mudret-

A VISIT TO

NILUS

and complete Empire of the Jews, and soon after that, doubtless the kingdom of Antichrist. Another French anti-Semite who repeated these charges was Edouard Drumont, whose book La France « juive attracted wide attention in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The following passages from this book bear such close resemblance to the corresponding passages from the Protocols that it might well be that La France juive, as well as Joly's Dialogue, served as a source for the Protocols. 81 LA FRANCE

PROTOCOLS

JUIVE

The Masons relieved themselves of the only enemy whom they had seriously to fear in this lightminded and corrupt society: the Jesuits. - I , 251

Only the Jesuits might have been equal to us in this, but we have been able to discredit them in the eyes of the senseless crowd.. .—p. 340

The prostitute serves Israel in her fashion; she performs

.. . their youth has grown stupid from classicism and

si T h e quotations from La France juive were cited from Delevskii, ibid., pp. 54-55- Edouard Drumont, a noted French royalist and antiSemitic writer, in 1886 published La France juive, denouncing the great republican leader Léon Gambetta as a Jew and a friend of Jewish financiers. La dernière Bataille (Paris, 1890) dealt with the Panama scandal, which he charged to Ferdinand de Lesseps and the Rothschilds. In 1896 he published a more specific denunciation of those implicated in the Panama affair—De l'or, de la boue, du sang. This was followed by La Tyrannie maçonnique (Paris, 1889). Some of Drumont's strongest blows were struck through the medium of his newspaper, La Libre Parole, founded in 1892. Cf. W. C. Buthman, The Rise of Integral Nationalism in France, pp. 41 ff.

ifisl

A VISIT TO LA FRANCE JURVX continued, a special mission, seducing and leading into dishonor the sons of our aristocracy. She is the best tool of Jewish politics.—I, 89

NILUS

PROTOCOLS continued from early vice, to which they were incited by our agents—tutors, lackeys, and governesses in rich homes, and clerks and the like and our women in the places of public entertainment. T o the number of the latter group I add the so-called "society ladies," their voluntary disciples in vice and extravagance—p. 329

Another writer whose work may have served as inspiration for the Protocols is the obscure German novelist, Hermann Goedsche, who wrote under the pen name Sir John Retcliffe. In his novel Biarritz, published in 1868, there was included a chapter entitled " T h e Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of the Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel." T h i s was an account of a fictitious secret meeting of the leaders of the twelve tribes (the ten lost tribes being represented, in spite of their disappearance from the ken of man more than two thousand years ago). T h e meeting was also attended by the Devil, who interjected cynical asides from time to time. Each of the representatives, of the Tribes spoke forth in turn, to tell by what means the Jewish nation should gain power and supremacy over all other nations on the globe. Speculation, promotion

A VISIT T O

NILUS

of atheism, pacifism, control of the press, domination of the key positions of government and the professions, monopolization of the land—these were the means that the elders advocated to accomplish these aims."2 T h i s chapter was published in Russia in 1872, first in a magazine, and then in pamphlet form. 63 Later this

fictional

presentation was rewritten by Goedsche as an authentic speech by a rabbi. In Butmi's Enemies

of the

Human

Race it is included as evidence to prove that the Protocols are really a Jewish plot. Butmi added the following explanation:

64

Toward the end of the last century there appeared in London a book by J. Retcliffe entitled A Review of Political and Historical Events during the Past Ten Years. This work was translated into French. T h e French periodical p r e s s . . . reproduced . . . an intensely interesting formal speech (from the Hebrew), most edifying for Russia, delivered by one of the Rabbis, the authenticity of which speech is vouched for by the above-mentioned a u t h o r . . . . T h e speech relates to the time of the Sanhedrin (Synedrion) of 1869. N o such Sanhedrin, 8 5 incidentally, ever took place, al82 H. Goedsche, Biarritz (Berlin, 1868 [?]), pp. 130-81. T h i s book was also published under the titles To Sedan; Biarritz-Rome-Gaeta and Düppel und Biarritz. •s A facsimile and translation of the title page of this pamphlet is reproduced as A p p e n d i x I in H. Bernstein, The Truth about "The Protocols of Zion" (New York, 1935). «< Butmi, Vragi Roda Chelovecheskago, 3d ed., p. 94. «5 According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Sanhedrin, the great council of the ancient Jews, ceased to exist with the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 A.D. Catholic Encyclopedia, XIII, 444-45. Napoleon

C65 3

A VISIT T O

NILUS

though a local Jewish synod met at Leipzig in 1869.98 T h u s Butmi uses a speech first published as fiction as proof that the Protocols are genuine. T h e "Rabbi's Speech," however, does appear important, as it may well have served as a source of inspiration for those who composed the Protocols, for it contains many of the ideas found therein. Another likely source of some of the ideas which were embodied in the Protocols was " T h e Legend of Antichrist," from Vladimir Soloviev's Tri Razgovora ("Three Discussions"). 87 Nilus was greatly exercised by the possibility of the advent of Antichrist, and went to great lengths to demonstrate its imminence. In so doing he referred specifically to Soloviev as a leading authority on the subject. 68 Moreover, some of the ideas expressed by Soloviev in his tale about Antichrist resemble closely those of the Protocols. According to the famous philosopher, Europe would one day be conquered by an Asiatic conspiracy, led, however, by Mongols, not by Jews. T h e summoned a "Sanhedrin" in 1807, but it held only a few sessions and then disbanded. It did not meet again in the nineteenth or in the twentieth century, so that there was no Sanhedrin of 1869. 80 A. Kober, History of the Jews of Cologne (Philadelphia, 1940), p. 228. 6 7 Cf. L. W . Eshleman, " T h e T r u t h about the Protocols," Living Age, Dec., 1934, pp. 290-99. Eshleman advances the theory that the Protocols were drawn quite as much from this work of Soloviev and from Pobedonostsev's Moskovskii Sbornik (published in English, as Memoirs of a Russian Statesman) as from Joly. T h i s seems improbable, however, as it is impossible to find passages that have been taken almost word for word from Soloviev and Pobedonostsev. «8 Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, 2d ed., pp. 316 ff.

C66]

A VISIT T O

NILUS

subjection of Europe, as in the Protocols, was to be aided by Chinese and Japanese cannon. 8 8 In time, however—so Soloviev prophesied—the

peoples of

Europe

w o u l d regain their independence, as a result of a widespread plot initiated by many secret Masonic organizations. A f t e r the M o n g o l yoke had been thrown off, "the rulers of general European politics, w h o b e l o n g to the mighty brotherhood of Free Masons," w o u l d feel that the world must be brought under one central authority. Consequently would

"an

unknown

member

of

the

order"

be elected President of the U n i t e d States of

Europe for life, and soon after this he w o u l d receive the title R o m a n Emperor. 7 0 Finally, Soloviev's legend pictures the emperor of the w o r l d as m o v i n g his capital to Jerusalem and asking full control over the Christian religion as well as over civil affairs, 71 in which respect it closely resembles the Protocols. W h e n one seeks works that may have served as sources for the Protocols, attention is d r a w n to one

unusual

place in the twentieth section, where it is stated that the gold standard is "ruin for the States that have

adopted

it," and that " u n d e r us [after the formation of the Jewish empire] there must be introduced the standard of the value of labor power, whether the unit be of paper Nilus, ibid., p. 345; V. S. Soloviev, Tri Razgovora o Voine, Progresse i Kontse Vsemirnoi Istorii, 4th ed. (St. Petersburg, 1904), pp. 152-56. 70 ¡bid., pp. 156-68. 71 ¡bid., pp. 173 79-

A VISIT TO

NILUS

or of wood. We shall make the issue of money in accordance with the normal requirements of each subject, adding to the quantity with every newborn person and reducing it with every death." 72 T h i s unorthodox program, however, is not so unique as it appears at first glance, for views of this sort were fairly common among the conservatives in Russia in whose society Nilus and Butmi lived. Indeed, Butmi himself was author of several bimetallist tracts, in which he inveighed against the gold standard and praised a more abundant currency." Inasmuch as there is some evidence to the effect that the Protocols were fabricated by Russian reactionaries (as will be shown later), this fact is not without interest. It should be emphasized that it is not possible to cite parallel passages to show that the Protocols were plagiarized from the works of Gougenot des Mousseaux, Chabauty, and Soloviev. It does appear significant, however, that many of the ideas present in the Protocols are to be found in these non-Jewish works. When the Protocols were first published, in 1903, these ideas had already been formulated. T h e present discussion of the origin of the Protocols would not be complete without presentation of certain additional evidence from Russian sources dealing with this topic. T h e first piece of evidence is the testimony of Nilus, Velikoe v Malom, 2d ed., p. 384. G. V. Butmi, K Voprosu o Denezhnoi a n d similar works.

C

68

H

Rejorme

(Odessa,

1897),

A VISIT T O

NILUS

C o u n t A . M . du Chayla, a Frenchman who spent many years in Russia. M. du Chayla furnished his testimony to

the editors

of Poslednyia

Novosti

("The

Latest

News"), a newspaper published in Paris by the famous historian, Pavel Miliukov. T h e editors of the newspaper printed a brief biography of M. du Chayla, from which the following facts are taken:

74

M . du Chayla spent the year 1909 at the Optyna Pustyn', a famous Orthodox monastery, whither he had gone to study the inner life of the Russian Church. In 1910, having accepted the Orthodox faith, he entered the St. Petersburg Religious Academy, where he completed a four-year course. A t the outbreak of the war he entered the Russian Army and served as commander of an advance transport detachment of the 101st Infantry Division, receiving all four medals of the Order of St. George. Later he served with an armored car division and then in the staff of the 8th Army, until the Bolshevik R e v o l u t i o n of 1917. In 1918 he joined the staff of the anti-Bolshevik Don Army, where he served for two years. D u Chayla testified that when he went to the Optyna Pustyn' in 1909 he made the acquaintance of Nilus, w h o showed him the manuscript of the Protocols. It was written in French, in several handwritings, but the grammar and the phrasing seemed to indicate that it was not the work of Frenchmen. Nilus explained to him that he had "4 Poslednyia

Novosti,

May

12, 1921.

A VISIT TO

NILUS

received the manuscript from a "Mme K.," who in igog was living in the same house with Nilus and his wife. Mme K. had obtained the manuscript in Paris from the hands of General Rachkovskii, 75 who "had removed the manuscript from the archives of the Freemasons." Du Chayla asked if this was not the same General Rachkovskii who was head of the Russian secret police in Paris. "Nilus was surprised and even somewhat displeased by my question; he replied in a vague manner, but emphasized strongly that Rachkovskii fought courageously against Freemasonry and Satanic sects." 78 At a subsequent meeting of Nilus and Du Chayla the question of the Protocols was again raised. T h e trial of Lopukhin, director of the Department of Police, and the disclosures made, led Du Chayla to ask Nilus if he was sure that General Rachkovskii had not been taken in by some "Azev" (a notorious agent provocateur) 77 and if he was not mistaken in accepting the T5 P. I. Rachkovskii (1853-1911), held important positions in the political police outside Russia, 1885-1902, chiefly in Paris, where he used unscrupulous methods in combating Russian revolutionaries living in France. In 1902 the hostility of Pleve, Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, forced him to resign his post. He served as Vice-director of the Department of Police during the Revolution of 1905, but left political life in 1906. Gurko, Features and Figures of the Past, p. 664; memorandum concerning Rachkovskii found in the papers of Pleve, Byloe (Moscow, Feb., 1918), pp. 78-80. 76 Poslednyia Novosti, May 12, 1921. Azev was a secret agent of the Russian police w h o succeeded in becoming a member of the inner circle of the terroristic group of the Socialist Revolutionary party in Russia. H e was guilty of extreme

C 7° H

A VISIT TO

NILUS

Protocols of Zion so implicitly. Nilus answered as follows:

78

You know, my favorite citation from St. Paul is " T h e will of God is accomplished through human weakness." Let us suppose that the Protocols are false, but is it not possible that God should make use of them in order to expose the iniquity that is already approaching? Did not the Ass of Balaam utter prophecy! For the sake of our faith God can transform the bones of a dog into sacred relics; He can also make the announcement of truth come out of the mouth of a liar. Unfortunately Du Chayla failed to explain in his article how it was that he was able to remember these exact words used in a conversation held twelve years before. He then went on to add that Nilus was very much concerned over the Young T u r k Revolution of 1908-9, as the Legend of the Symbolic Snake had foretold that the next move of the Serpent would be to Constantinople. Nilus even asked the monks of the monastery to pray for the deposed sultan, A b d u l Hamid, but they refused. 79 duplicity. On the one hand he informed the government concerning the secrets of the revolutionists and was instrumental in having many of them sent to Siberia; on the other, he participated in terrorist plots which resulted in the assassination of Pleve, J u l y 15, 1904, and Grand Duke Sergei, Feb. 4, 1905. In 1908 his machinations were exposed by Burtsev. T h e disclosures of Burtsev were confirmed by the testimony of the head of the Police Department, A. A. Lopukhin. See Boris Nikolaevsky, Azef, the Spy (Garden City, 1934). 7» Poslednyia Novosti, May 12, 1921. " Ibid.

C 7 0

A VISIT TO

NILUS

In the 1 9 1 7 edition of his book Nilus explained that the manuscript of the Protocols had been given to him by Alexei Nikolaievich Sukhotin, a nobleman. T h i s statement apparently contradicts the explanation of Nilus, as reported by Du Chayla—that Nilus had obtained the manuscript from a Mme K., who had obtained it from Rachkovskii. Du Chayla explains the discrepancy as follows: 80 I am far from thinking that A. N. Sukhotin is to be regarded as a myth, but I am convinced that he was not more than an intermediary or courier, who personally handed to S. A. Nilus the precious manuscript that he had received in Paris from Natalia Afanasievna [Mme K.]. In Nilus's book, because of the above-explained considerations of a personal character, Sukhotin was a shield, hiding Natalia Afanasievna from the reader. Certain features of Du Chayla's testimony are worthy of especial attention. He actually saw Nilus's manuscript and heard Nilus state that it came from Rachkovskii in Paris. Moreover, Nilus admitted that there was a possibility that it was not an authentic document, although he refused to concede that that fact might lessen its significance. T h e mention of Rachkovskii is of great importance, as it supports later testimony concerning Rachkovskii's part in the origin of the Protocols. so Ibid., May 13, 1921.

[7* 3

Chapter THE

BERN

T

Five TRIALS

important testimony was produced in connection with the Bern trials of 1934-35. A law suit was brought by Jews of Switzerland against Theodor Fischer, former Führer of the Swiss National Socialists and editor of the newspaper Der Eidgenosse ("The Confederate"), and Silvio Schnell, chief of the National Front of Switzerland (closely allied with the National Socialists), in which it was charged that these men, by circulating the Protocols of Zion, had been guilty of violating the Bern law against improper literature (Schundliteratur). T h e defendants sought to avoid the question whether the Protocols were genuine, merely claiming that they were not improper literature as legally defined, while the plaintiffs endeavored to show that the Protocols were both improper literature and a forgery, and hence banned by the law. If the defendants possessed weighty evidence of the authenticity of the Protocols, they were guilty of a serious strategic error in refusing to argue the question of authenticity, HE NEXT

C 73 3

T H E BERN T R I A L S for the Bern case attracted wide attention throughout the world. It appears that this refusal was caused by lack of such evidence and the general weakness of the case for authenticity. Inasmuch as the defendants made their case upon narrow, legal grounds rather than upon the broader grounds of the authenticity of the Protocols, they produced no witnesses to testify to their knowledge of the Protocols before their publication in Russia, while the plaintiffs produced a number of widely known Russians to testify that the Protocols were a forgery. Prominent among the witnesses for the plaintiffs were the writer Nikolaevsky and the historians Svatikov and Miliukov. 81 There were also Philip Graves, the correBoris Nikolaevsky was a member of the Social Democratic party in Russia. After the Revolution of March, 1917, he became head of the commission for the investigation of the archives of the Department of Police. In 1921 he was arrested, and he spent a year in prison, after which he was permitted to leave Russia for exile. He has written a number of articles and edited six volumes on the history of the Social Democratic movement in Russia. His works include Asew: die Geschichte eines Verrats (Berlin, 193s), and, in collaboration with Otto Maenchen-Helfen, Karl Marx: Man and Fighter (Philadelphia, 1936). S. G. Svatikov published his thesis for the doctorate at Heidelberg in 1904: Entwürfe der Aenderung der russischen Staatsverfassung, zur Entwicklung der Konstitutionellen Ideen in Russland (1730-1819). He also published the following works: Obshchestvennoe Dvizhenie v Rossii 1700-1895 ( " T h e Social Movement in Russia, 1700-1895"), (Rostov-onDon, 1905), and Rostov-na-Donu v 30-kh i 40-kh gg. XIX veka ("Rostovon-Don in the 30's and 40's of the Nineteenth Century"), (St. Petersburg 1912). Before the Revolution of March, 1917, Svatikov was a professor on the juridical faculty of St. Petersburg University. Under the Provisional Government in the spring of 1917 he held an important post in the Police Department in Petrograd, but resigned when his proposal to arrest the Bolshevik leaders Lenin and Trotsky was rejected.

[743

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Times who had discovered the simi-

larity between Joly's book and the Protocols, and Du Chayla, whose disclosures have already been mentioned. T h e witness who was able to present the most extensive testimony, however, was Vladimir Burtsev, for many years an editor of the historical journal Byloe

("The

Past"), and after the Revolution of November,

1917,

editor of the Paris Russian newspaper Obshchee

Delo

( " T h e Common Cause"). Much of his testimony presented in court was subsequently included in his book "Protokoly

Sionskikh

Mudretsov"

Dokazannyi

Podlog

(" ' T h e Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion' a Proven Forgery"), in addition to further details that were not presented at the trial. In 1920, Burtsev relates, he met in Paris, A . A . LopuCf. H. J . von Freyenwald, Der Berner Prozess um die Protokole der Weisen von Zion, Acten und Gutachten (Erfurt, 193g), pp. 68-69. N. Miliukov was professor of history at the University of Moscow, 1886-95, a n d ' n >897-98 he was professor of history and archaeology at the University of Sofia. He was leader of the liberal Cadet (Constitutional Democratic) party from 1906 to 1917, and took active part in the T h i r d and Fourth Dumas. In February, 1917, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government, but resigned in May. He was an active opponent of the Bolsheviks during the civil-war period, and afterward went to Paris, where he became editor of Poslednyia Novosti. He has published a number of important works on Russian history, among them being Gosudarstvennoe Khoziaistvo v Rossii v Pervoi Chetverti XVIII Stoletii i Rejorma Petra Velikago ("State Economy in Russia in the First Quarter of the Eighteenth Century and the Reform of Peter the Great"), (St. Petersburg, 189s), Ocherki po Istorii Russkoi Kultury ("Sketches on the History of Russian Culture"), 3 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1905-13), History of the Second Russian Revolution (London, 1921-22), Russia's Catastrophe (London, 1922), and Russia Today and Tomorrow (London, 1922).

l7bl

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k h i n , w h o was d i r e c t o r of the R u s s i a n D e p a r t m e n t of Police from Pleve,

1902 to 1905, most i n t i m a t e assistant of

M i n i s t e r of

Internal

Affairs, and one

of

the

l e a d i n g anti-Semites in R u s s i a n g o v e r n m e n t circles. B o t h Burtsev and escaped

L o p u k h i n were e m i g r e e s w h o

f r o m the

Bolsheviks, a n d

had

they t a l k e d

just freely

a b o u t matters that o n c e w o u l d have b e e n State secrets. Burtsev asked L o p u k h i n his o p i n i o n of the Protocols. H e answered:

82

. . . that he could only marvel that all were still busy over that question, when their forgery for a long time had been no secret to anyone in governmental spheres, as he well knew when he was head of the political police and when he, because of his position, could not fail to know the truth about the "Protocols." According to his words, Rachkovskii and his agents fabricated them abroad. He spoke of Rachkovskii as a most malicious provocator, capable of any provocation whatsoever. T h e force of L o p u k h i n ' s statement, h o w e v e r , is r e d u c e d by his assertion that e v e r y o n e i n official R u s s i a n circles k n e w that the Protocols were a forgery, for others of Burtsev's i n f o r m a n t s stated that many R u s s i a n officials m a i n t a i n e d that the Protocols w e r e g e n u i n e . O n e significant piece of e v i d e n c e i n t r o d u c e d by B u r 82 V. L. Burtsev, "Protokoly Sionskikh Mudretsov" Dokazannyi Podlog, p. 75. Burtsev's testimony b e f o r e the court was to t h e same effect. H . J. v o n F r e y e n w a l d , Der Berner Prozess . . . p p . 91 ff. T h i s is a transcript of t h e court proceedings a n d testimony, a p p a r e n t l y u n a b r i d g e d , a c c o m p a n i e d by c o m m e n t s of t h e N a t i o n a l Socialist e d i t o r .

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tsev was a letter that he had received from General P. G. Kurlov, who successively held the posts of Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs, Chief of Gendarmes, and director of the Department of Police. Kurlov wrote: 83 I am deeply convinced that the "Protocols of Zion" were fabricated, but this fabrication does not relate to the time of Rachkovskii, but very much earlier... . All material on this question refers to the time when Orzhevskii was Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs. [He held office until 1894.] . . . Rachkovskii gave me to understand that the "Protocols" were fabricated, and said that he would report in detail concerning them on his return from the country, where he was going for one day. He went to the country, but he died, and I never again succeeded in talking about the matter with him or with anyone else. I am firmly convinced that the "Protocols" were forged, although many of my colleagues repeatedly insisted to me that they were not. Not all of Burtsev's acquaintances believed that the Protocols were a forgery, however, for he relates that a certain N., formerly a prosecuting attorney, insisted that the Protocols were genuine and promised to furnish proof. N. declared that he had known Nilus personally and was convinced by his evidence. N.'s evidence was never presented, however. Burtsev adds that this posi83 Burtsev, "Protokoly Siorukikh Mudretsov" Dokazannyi Podlog, pp. 95-96. This in part corroborates, in part contradicts Du Chayla's testimony about Rachkovskii's connection with the Protocols. Du Chayla did not state when they were written.

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tion was frequently taken by former members of Imperial regime. Burtsev says that none of those maintained the genuineness of the Protocols ever nished evidence that was worthy of attention or gested where to find such evidence. 84

the who fursug-

Another well-known person with whom Burtsev discussed the Protocols was I. F. Manuilov-Manasevich, who knew Rachkovskii, Lopukhin, and other members of the Department of Police. In 1 9 1 6 he was private secretary to Boris Sturmer, President of the Council of Ministers. He had a very poor reputation in Petrograd, even having been brought to trial as a party to a scheme to defraud the government. Nevertheless, his testimony concerning the Protocols is important in spite of his reputation. Both before and after the Revolution he talked freely with Burtsev concerning this subject. Burtsev reports the conversation as follows: 85 When our talk turned to the topic of the "Protocols of Zion," he always spoke as though the fact that they were forged was one about which there could not be two opinions. Moreover, more than once he laughingly said that only idiots could believe in these "Protocols" and that not one self-respecting political figure ever permitted himself to speak of them as authentic. He invariably declared his conviction—even long before the Revolution, when there could be no mention of a change of regime—that the government would never decide to recognize the "Protocols" as genuine and would not make use of them for its ends. And actually 8« Ibid., pp. 96-97.

85

[783

Ibid., pp. 76-77.

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the Tsarist government never used them itself and did not permit any of its agents to make use of them. Burtsev obtained another interesting sidelight on the Protocols in Petrograd, where he was arrested by the Bolsheviks soon after the overthrow of the Provisional G o v e r n m e n t . For several months he shared a cell with S. P. Beletskii, w h o had at different times held the posts of Director of the D e p a r t m e n t of Police and Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs from 1910 to 1916. Both men talked freely. Burtsev writes that he knew Beletskii had had m u c h to do with the ritual m u r d e r trial of Beilis in 1913, 88 and hence asked him whether the Department of Police had planned to make use of the Protocols d u r i n g the trial. L a u g h i n g l y Beletskii answered:

87

"Well, no. Although several persons proposed to us that we use them, we very well knew that that certainly would have meant spoiling the whole business. Why, that was an 88 Mendel Beilis, a Jew, was clerk in a brick factory in Kiev. In 1915 he was accused of the murder of (he boy Andrei Iushchinskii, allegedly for the purpose of obtaining h u m a n blood for use in a Jewish ritual. T h e prosecution could bring no direct evidence implicating Beilis in the murder, but strenuous efforts were made to show that the killing of Iushchinskii was a Jewish ritual murder, and the reactionaries attempted to arouse feeling against the Jews. D u r i n g the trial the Jews of Kiev lived in expectation of a pogrom. Beilis was acquitted of the charges, however, and the pogrom did not occur. T h e case excited much interest abroad, and questions concerning it were asked in the Congress of the United States. 8 7 Burtsev, "Protokoly Sionskikh Mudretsov" Dokazannyi Podlog, pp. 78 79; Freyenwald, Der Bemer Prozess um die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion, p. 92.

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evident forgery. W e couldn't involve ourselves in scandal. Could we come out in court with such documents?" "You do not doubt that this was a forgery?" I asked. "Of course not!" Beletskii answered me. "If we had thought it likely that it was not a forgery, would we not have used it at the Beilis trial—and after it?" Burtsev was permitted by the court to use his notes, which explains how he was able to r e m e m b e r the exact words of a conversation that had taken place at least sixteen years before. Burtsev's testimony reached its climax w h e n he related what he had learned from General K . I. Globachev, C o m m a n d a n t of the St. Petersburg division of the Okhrana,

the

Tsar's political

formed Burtsev

police.

Globachev

that the Protocols had been

in-

forged

somewhere outside Russia between the years 1896 and 1900. W h e n the T s a r had finally read them, he made marginal comments to the effect that the R e v o l u t i o n of 1905 had been staged by leaders of Zion. A protest was made by some of his advisers, however, and they obtained permission to have an inquiry made into the Protocols. It was established that the Protocols were a forgery, and Rachkovskii, w h e n taxed with it, did not deny the fact, but claimed that such methods were necessary. T h e T s a r thereupon issued orders that a pure cause must not be defended with foul means. 88 88 F r e y e n w a l d , op cit., p p . 93-94. In his b o o k o n the Protocols, B u r tsev e x p l a i n s t h e m a t t e r m o r e in d e t a i l , in some respects c o n t r a d i c t i n g his testimony in c o u r t . In the b o o k h e states t h a t h e received this

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T h i s was not the last to be heard of the disclosures which

Burtsev ascribed

to Globachev.

According

to

Burtsev, some of the G e r m a n anti-Semites were much concerned at the effect of the testimony that Nicholas II had been convinced that the Protocols were forged, and attempted to discredit Burtsev's evidence. Pressure was brought to bear on Globachev's brother in Berlin, and he in turn induced Globachev to write a letter to the Russian

newspaper

Vozrozhdenie

("Regeneration"),

stating that he had never given testimony to any agent concerning the Tsar's views on the Protocols, and had never spoken to Burtsev about them. O n e of the defendants in the Bern case thereupon charged Burtsev with perjury. Burtsev defended himself vigorously. H e maintained that the translation of his words had been incorrect and that hence the stenographic account of the trial was erroneous. Fortunately for him, he was able to produce a letter from G l o b a c h e v in which the latter information from Globachev, not directly, but through the kindness of a mutual friend, K.., who had received the information from Globachev. Burtsev cites the comments written on the Protocols by Nicholas II, who was deeply impressed by them. T h e T s a r wrote, " W h a t depth of thought!" " W h a t foresight!" " W h a t exact fulfillment of their program!" " O u r year 1905 was certainly under the stage-management of the Elders!" " T h e r e can be no d o u b t of their authenticity!" " T h e destructive hand of Jewry is seen everywhere!" Burtsev, op. cit., pp. 98106. T h i s information was apparently contained in the memorandum concerning the information received from Globachev, which was transmitted to Burtsev by K. T h i s testimony and that of Kurlov on p. 77 above does not invalidate the theory advanced earlier in this study (p. 35) that while the Protocols as a whole were probably written before the Zionist Congress in 1897, certain passages may have been added at a later date. C81

3

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spoke of discussing the matter with their mutual friend K. and mentioned talking to Burtsev concerning it. Consequently the Bern court acquitted Burtsev of the charges against him and ordered the defendants to pay the costs of the perjury action.89 This episode has certain confusing features. As reported in the stenographic account of the trial, Burtsev's original testimony in court was that he had received his information direct from Globachev. In his book, however, he explained that he obtained his facts through an intermediary, K. Finally, in answer to the charge of perjury, he produced a letter from Globachev indicating that the latter had both talked of the matter to Burtsev, and discussed it with K. If this letter had not been brought fonvard, it would be difficult to credit Burtsev's testimony. Further important testimony was given before the court by Professor S. G. Svatikov, who was sent by the Provisional Government of Russia in 1917 to wind up the affairs of the Russian political police in Paris. In Paris he made the acquaintance of Henri Bint, once an agent of Rachkovskii; Bint at that time was in charge of the Russian police headquarters in Paris. Bint told Svatikov of a series of forgeries and provocations that he had undertaken for Rachkovskii. Of these the compo8» Burtsev, Freyenwald, considerably acquitted of

ibid., pp. 137-39; Neue 7Mrcher Zeitung, M a y 1 1 , 1935; Der Berner Prozess . . . p. 94 n. T h e latter version differs from that of Burtsev, but does not deny that Burtsev was perjury.

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sition of the Protocols was the latest, completed at some time before Rachkovskii left his post in Paris in 1902. Bint even recalled that the Protocols were forged either the year before or the year following the Paris Exposition of 1900; thus they originated in 1899 or 1901. In this work Bint acted chiefly as paymaster, with a writer, Golovinskii, serving as the chief fabricator of the Protocols. Golovinskii, according to Bint, performed this task in the Bibliothèque Nationale, using the Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu, by Joly, as his model. 90 It should be noted, however, that Freyenwald cites General Alexander Spiridovich, of the Okhrana, who declared that Bint was not important enough to know Rachkovskii's secrets, and Rachkovskii's son, who stated that he knew all his father's agents in Paris and that among them there was no one named Golovinskii." 1 On the other hand, Burtsev, in his testimony, declared that both Lopukhin and Beletskii told him that Golovinskii and Rachkovskii had forged the Protocols." 2 Professor Svatikov also appeared before the court to confirm the authenticity of the photostats of a number of documents sent to the court by the Central Historical Archive in Moscow. Svatikov stated that he had handled several of these documents in 1 9 1 7 , when he was an official of the Provisional Government. One piece of evidence that he summarized for the court was the first 00 Freyenwald, Der Berner Prozess . . . pp. 72-75. Ibid., pp. 72-75. footnotes. » 2 Ibid., pp. 91-92.

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printed version of the Protocols—the August-September, 1903, issues of Znamia, the newspaper of Krushevan, which contained the Protocols, presented as a supposed work of Jews, although its authenticity was not guaranteed by the editors. Another contained the minutes of the session of the Moscow Censorship Committee devoted to Nilus's book containing the Protocols. T h e member of the Committee who reported to the group concerning the manuscript advised that it be banned, as it was a forgery, a lie, and might create disturbances among the people. Nilus's wife, a former lady-in-waiting at court, was able to use her influence to have the book approved in spite of this opposition. Nevertheless, the member who had originally protested reported to his superior that several members of the Committee shared his opinion that this work was a dangerous forgery. 93 Another noted Russian to testify at the Bern trial was B. I. Nikolaevsky, well known as an historian of the Russian revolutionary movement. He testified that Dr. Herzl, head of the Zionist movement and the man who presided at the Zionist Congress of 1897, was received by the noted anti-Semitic Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, Pleve, in the year 1903. As a result of this interview the Zionist movement was legalized in Russia. 94 T h i s fact is of considerable significance, for 93 Ibid., pp. 182-86. y Ibid., p. 1 0 1 . According to the Jewish Encyclopedia ( X I I , 656-86), under the heading " Z i o n i s m , " the secret decree legalizing Zionism was issued J u n e 24, 1903.

[84]

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the meeting between Pleve and Herzl took place nearly two years after the date given by Nilus for his receipt of the manuscript of the Protocols and only a few weeks before the appearance of the first printed version in Znarnia. Pleve may well have known about the Protocols when he received Herzl; certainly if the Russian authorities believed in the authenticity of the Protocols, Herzl never would have been granted audience with the Minister. T h e fact that Pleve not merely received Dr. Herzl but even legalized the Zionist movement, carries with it the proof that Pleve did not know of any convincing evidence of a plot involving Herzl's organization. Professor Pavel Miliukov was another witness for the plaintiffs. This famous historian could offer no concrete evidence concerning the Protocols, but stated his opinion that no reputable historian could regard them as an authentic document. He added: " N o educated man can believe in the Protocols." 05 Perhaps never before had a trial held in a humble police court attracted such world-wide attention as did the Bern trial. T h e verdict, delivered on May 14, 1935, received much publicity. T h e Protocols were found to be largely a plagiary of Joly's book and were declared to be improper literature forbidden under Section 14 of the Bern law dealing with such literature. In consequence of this decision Theodor Fischer, the chief of the 95 Freyenwald, Der

Bemer

Prozess . . . pp.

C853

131-33.

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defendants, was ordered to pay a fine of fifty francs and ten-eighteenths of the cost of the trial, and Silvio Schnell, another leading defendant, was required to pay a fine of twenty francs and five-eighteenths of the cost. On the other hand, three lesser defendants were acquitted, and their lawyers' fees were charged to the complainants. T h i s was not the end of the case, however, for an appeal was at once taken by the defendants." T h e appeal, heard in 1937, proved less satisfactory to the complainants. T h e court of appeals confined itself to the legal principles of the case and made no attempt to decide the question of the authenticity of the Protocols. T h e verdict of the court was that while the Protocols might be considered improper literature, they were not salacious and hence not banned by the Bern law. For those who held anti-Semitic views, however, there was little comfort to be derived from this decision, for the court termed the introduction to the Protocols contained in the book of the defendants "entirely perfidious," and continued: 97 It may well be asked whether in the long run it is permissible to compel one part of the Swiss people [the Swiss Jews] to rely upon newspaper publicity and educating the people as defense against such an absolutely unwarranted and unqualified insult and besmirching [i.e., the defendants' »6 Journal de Geneve, May 16, 1935. Emil Raas and Georges Brunschvig, Vernichtung einer Fälschung (Zurich, 1938), pp. 58-59. T h e authors served as attorneys for the plaintiffs in this case.

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preface to the Protocols]. For the time being there certainly still exists no ground for fearing that the Swiss people as a whole (with the exception of some hotheads and some credulous persons) will not preserve their often tested cool judgment in this matter also. This was the last act in the drama. Since that time no important new evidence has been produced, so that nothing remains but to draw conclusions from the materials already presented. T h e conclusions are not hard to draw. T h e first important fact to be noted is that the Protocols are an anonymous work with no convincing indication that they were produced by Jewish leaders. T h e y are said to have passed through several hands—in the 1917 edition Nilus mentioned four persons, Herzl, a prominent Masonic leader, a woman who stole the Protocols, and Alexei Sukhotin—before they reached the hands of Nilus and Butmi, the men who first published them as an allegedly authentic document. It is also admitted that neither Nilus nor Butmi saw the original, but only copies. Moreover, there is a variety of conflicting stories to account for their possession of the Protocols, and Krushevan, the first publisher to print them (in abbreviated form) presented them as a document that might be apocryphal (Znamia, August 28 to September 7, 1903). Indeed, Nilus, who was the first to assert positively in print that they were authentic, H873

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admitted in his Preface and later to Du Chayla that he could not prove their authenticity. Secondly, certain passages of the Protocols are more appropriate to the world of a later date than they are to the world of 1897, when the Protocols were supposed to have been read at Basel. T h e world was hardly in a state of turmoil in 1897. It seems probable that the reference to the election of presidents with shady pasts, sullied by Panama scandals, was written after the election of Emile Loubet in 1899. And the threat to use "American or Chinese or Japanese cannon" against a recalcitrant Europe would probably not have carried much weight in 1897. Other dubious passages are to be found. T h e use of a quotation from the Vulgate, the Latin edition of the Bible used by the Catholic Church, is a suspicious circumstance. T h e difficulty of holding one or more lengthy secret sessions at which the Protocols were read during the time when the Zionists were in Basel arouses doubt. Moreover, it appears doubtful that the alleged leaders of Zion, who are pictured as boasting of their superior intelligence, would write down their plans and thus run the risk of betrayal. And would men who claimed skill in finance and in statecraft adopt plans so inept? They proposed to gain their ends by provoking crisis and revolution, trusting that in some unspecified manner their interests would not suffer and that the outcome would be as they desired. In their financial [88]

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formula the Protocols are not consistent. An abundant paper currency is to be substituted for the gold standard—surely a curious course for those who are pictured as boasting that the key to their power lay in their control of gold. Thus the explanations concerning the origins of the Protocols and the internal inconsistencies and contradictions make it appear doubtful that the Protocols are the product of Zionist leaders. This doubt is heightened by the discovery of sources from which many of the ideas contained therein were probably drawn. We have the testimony of Graves of The Times, who discovered the prototype, the Dialogue of Joly, a volume that formerly had been the property of an officer of the Russian political police. This work, written by a non-Jewish author to discredit the Second Empire of Napoleon III, is so clearly the source for a large part of the Protocols that the plagiary is undeniable. Mention should be made also of the works of anti-Semitic writers such as Gougenot des Mousseaux, Goedsche, Abbé Chabauty, and Edouard Drumont, which contain no passages corresponding word for word with parts of the Protocols, but do contain certain theories, such as those of the alleged Jewish mastery of gold and the press, the alleged identity of the Masons and the Jews, and the Jewish plot to seize control of the world, that are features of the Protocols. Russian works that perhaps helped to inspire the authors of the Protocols are Soloviev's "Legend of l*9l

T H E BERN TRIALS Antichrist," and the writings of Butrai against the gold standard. T h e importance of these possible Russian sources is increased by testimony that the Protocols were actually fabricated by members of the Russian political police in Paris, with Rachkovskii the leading figure in the enterprise. Du Chayla published his account of meeting Nilus, and seeing the manuscript of the Protocols, which Nilus himself admitted came from Rachkovskii and which he could not prove to be authentic. T h e evidence given by Vladimir Burtsev at the trial in Bern was to the effect that well-known members of Russian official life, Lopukhin, Kurlov, Beletskii, and Manuilov-Manasevich, acknowledged freely that the Protocols were a forgery, while Globachev, Commandant of the Okhrana in St. Petersburg, related that the Tsar, after his original acceptance of the Protocols, had learned that they were a forgery and had ordered their confiscation. It will be recalled, furthermore, that the Tsarist officials made no effort to use the Protocols at the Beilis trial. On the other hand, Burtsev mentioned that several of his Russian acquaintances upheld the authenticity of the Protocols, although they never furnished any supporting evidence. Moreover, Globachev tried to discredit Burtsev's testimony about the Tsar by denying that he had ever made any such statements to Burtsev. W h e n , however, an attempt was made, on the basis of Globachev's denial, to prove Burtsev guilty of perjury, he was C 9°!]

T H E BERN TRIALS able to produce a letter from Globachev, stating that the latter had given information about the Protocols to Burtsev. Further significant testimony was given by Professor Svatikov, who declared that he had even received an admission from Bint, right-hand man of Rachkovskii, that the latter and Golovinskii had written the Protocols. Thus the evidence points Rachkovskii as the leading spirit in the fabrication of the Protocols. It should be mentioned, however, that Freyenwald declares in his book that General Spiridovich, of the Okhrana, stated that Bint was too insignificant to know about Rachkovskii's secret projects and that Rachkovskii fils stated that his father never employed an agent named Golovinskii. Burtsev, on the other hand, declared that well-informed men told him that Rachkovskii and Golovinskii had forged the Protocols. Moreover, while, according to Burtsev, Kurlov admitted that the Protocols were a forgery, he believed that the fabrication had been done before Rachkovskii's time. In spite of these rebuttals and differences as to Rachkovskii's connection with the matter, the evidence gives little reason to believe that the Protocols were written by Jewish leaders. On the contrary, it is clear that the Protocols were largely plagiarized from Joly's Dialogue, and several reputable witnesses have indicated that Rachkovskii was probably the responsible person. Moreover, at the Bern trial a document sent from Moscow 1&1

T H E BERN

TRIALS

was presented, in which some of the censors of the Imperial Government recognized that the Protocols were not authentic. Consequently the court declared that the Protocols were largely a plagiary of Joly's Dialogue and condemned them as improper literature in a ringing statement. This decision appears sound. That it is supported by certain authoritative churchmen is indicated by the statements of two well-known theologians. T h e first was written in 1922 by A. Kartashev. He said: "It affords me, as an Orthodox theologian, a certain moral satisfaction that the Russian bishops (with the exception of the uneducated Nikon of Vologda) from the very beginning were unfavorable toward the publications of Nilus." 08 T h e second opinion is that of Father Charles of the Society of Jesus, who terms the Protocols "an evident forgery, the work of an ignorant and clumsy policeman . . . " and declares: " T h e proof has been given that these Protocols are a forgery, clumsily plagiarized from the satiric work of Maurice Joly and composed with the aim of rendering the Jews odious by exciting against them the unreflecting, blind passions of the mob." 00 T o these comments it is fitting to add the remarks made by Judge Meyer of the police court of Bern, when summing up the case. He said: 100 » 8 Delevskii, Protokoly Sionskikh Mudretsov, p. 8. It should be noted, however, that several of the Russian bishops were strongly anti-Semitic. os Charles, Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion, p. 29. 100 R a a s and Brunschvig, Vernichtung einer Fälschung, pp. 57-58.

C92]

THE

BERN

TRIALS

I hope that one day there will come a time when no one will any longer comprehend how in the year 1935 almost a dozen fully sensible and reasonable men could for fourteen days torment their brains before a court of Bern over the authenticity or the lack of authenticity of these so

n

PARALLELS DIALOGUES

FROM

continued

THE

DIALOGUES

PROTOCOLS

continued

of little writings that are like the appendages of journalism; on the other, I force those w h o wish to escape the tax to write long and costly compositions which scarcely sell or will rarely be read in this form.—p. 136 Since journalism is such a great force, do you know what my government will do? It will turn journalist, it will become journalism incarnate.—p. 139 I shall count the number of newspapers which represent what you call the opposition. If there are ten for the opposition, I shall have twenty for the government; if there are twenty, I shall have forty; if there are forty, I shall have eighty.—p. 140

. . . our government will become the owner of the majority of the magazines. T h e harmful influence of the private press will thus be neutralized and we shall acquire an immense influence over men's minds. . . . If we permit ten magazines, we ourselves shall establish thirty, and so on in the same raann e r . - p . 359

BIBLIOGRAPHY

i : BOOKS A N D P E R I O D I C A L S C O N T A I N I N G T H E P R I N C I P A L EDITIONS O F T H E P R O T O C O L S OF ZION

>9°3 Krushevan, P. A., in his newspaper Znamia ( " T h e Banner"). Kishinev, August 26-September 7. 1

9°5

Nilus, S. A., Velikoe v Malom I Antikhrist, Kak Blizkaia Politicheskaia Vozmozhnost'; Zapiski Pravoslavnago ( " T h e Great in the Little and Antichrist as a Near Political Possibility; Notes of an Orthodox Person"). 2d edition, revised and enlarged, Tsarskoe Selo. 1906 Butmi, G., Vragi R o d a Chelovecheskago (Enemies of the Human Race) . 3d edition, revised and enlarged, St. Petersburg. T h e dates of the first and sccond edition are unknown, and none of the writers on the subject of the Protocols has ever seen a copy. A fourth edition appeared in 1907.

1911 Nilus, S. A., Bliz Griadushchii Antikhrist (The Coming Antichrist). Moscow. A revised edition of the 1905 publication. A spurious reprint of the i g n edition, apparently produced in the Far East, is in circulation.

I

BIBLIOGRAPHY »9>7 Nilus, S. A., Bliz Est', Pri Dverekh (He is Near, At the door). Moscow. A n o t h e r revised edition of Velikoe v

Malom.

1918 Rodionov, Sionskie Protokoly ( " T h e Protocols of Zion"). A n edition published by the newspaper Chasovoi ( " T h e Sentinel"), Novocherkassk, R u s s i a . N o copies are known to be in existence. See A . du Chayla in Poslednyia Novosti (Paris), May 1 3 , 1 9 2 1 . ,

>919 Public Ledger (Philadelphia, Pa.), October 27-28. Excerpts from the Protocols a p p e a r e d in f e a t u r e articles headed: " R e d B i b l e Counsels A p p e a l to Violence," a n d " R e d s Plot to Smash W o r l d and T h e n R u l e with Universal Czar."

Beek, Gottfried Z., pseud. (Ludwig Müller von Hausen), Die Geheimnisse der Weisen von Zion. Charlottenburg. R i g h t s in this edition were acquired by the Nazi Party in 1929.

1920 T h e Jewish Peril: Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode. Jouin, Mgr. E., Le Péril judéo-maçonnique, 5 vols., Paris. V o l u m e IV is entitled " L e s Protocols de 1901 de G . B u t m i " and is translated from Butmi's " f o u r t h " edition of 1907,

Protocols and World Revolution, The; including a translation and analysis of the "Protocols of the Meetings of the Zionist Men of Wisdom." Boston, Small, Maynard. "Praemonitus Praemunitus." T h e Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion. New York, Beckwith Company. T h e frontispiece reads: " T r a n s l a t e d f r o m the Russian to the English language for the Information of All T r u e Americans and to C o n f o u n d Enemies of Democracy a n d the R e p u b l i c also to Demonstrate the Possible Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy as to World Domination by the Chosen People."

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1921 Marsden, V. E., trans., Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. London, The Britons Publishing Society. T h e translation is from the Russian of Nilus.

Fry, L., Waters Flowing Eastward. Paris. T h e translation used is Marsden's. A second edition of this work was published in 1933.

»924/5 Gohier, Urbain, Les Protocoles des Sages d'Israel. [Paris?] 1932 Protocols, Les. Barcelona, Las Sectas. Protocols de Los Jefes de Israel. Madrid, Aguilar. '933 Fritsch, Theodor, Die Zionistischen Protokolle. 13th edition. Leipzig. Lambelin, Roger, "Protocols" des Sages de Sion. Paris. "Translated directly from the Russian."

»934 Finkelstein, M., Protokollen fun die Zikney fun Sion. Warsaw. A translation of the Protocols into Yiddish.

1

935 Baratz, Leon, Une Version Ukrainienne des "Protocoles des Sages de Sion." Geneva. Reprinted from La Revue

juive

de

Genève.

Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, The. Chicago. Right Cause Publishing Co. >936 Engelhardt, E., Freiherr von, Jüdische Weltmachtpläne. Leipzig. I

10

9 3

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1937-38 Internationale Ebraica, L ' ; I Protocoli dei Savi Anziani di Sion. 3d ed. Rome. 1938 Internationale Hebraica, L ' ; Los "Protocolos" de los Sabios Ancianos de Sion. Rome. A Spanish translation from the Italian edition of 1937-8.

Ii:

WORKS WHICH A T T A C K T H E OF T H E

AUTHENTICITY

PROTOCOLS

1921 Graves, Philip, T h e T r u t h about the Protocols: A Literary Forgery. London. A series of articles reprinted from The

Times

(London).

Wolf, Lucien, T h e Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs; or, T h e T r u t h about the Forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion. New York. Bernstein, Herman, T h e History of a Lie. New York. Svatikow, jüdische

Sergei, Tribüne,

"Die Fälschung August 26.

Ratchowskys,"

Die

!

923 Delevskii, Iu., Protokoly Sionskikh Mudretsov ( " T h e Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion"). Berlin. 1924 Segel, Binjamin, Die Protokolle der Weisen kritisch beleuchtet. Berlin.

von

Zion

»934 Federbusch, Simon, Sions Vises Hemliga Protokoll I Sanningens Ljus. Helsingfors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY >935 Bernstein, Herman, T h e Truth about " T h e Protocols of Zion." New York. •938 Burtsev, Vladimir, "Protokoly Sionskikh Mudretsov" Dokazannyi Podlog (" 'The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion' a Proven Forgery"). Paris. Charles, Pierre, S.J., Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion. Reprinted from the Nouvelle Revue Théologique, Paris, January, 1938. Raas, Emil, and Georges Brunschvig, Vernichtung einer Fälschung; der Prozess um die Erfundenen "Weisen von Zion." Zurich.

Iii: WORKS W H I C H U P H O L D T H E OF T H E

AUTHENTICITY

PROTOCOLS

1920 International Jew, T h e ; the World's Foremost Problem. Dearborn, Michigan. A reprint of a series of articles appearing in the Dearborn pendent from May 22 to October 2, 1920.

Inde-

1921 Webster, Nesta H., World Revolution. London. 1922 Fry, L., L'Auteur Sionisme. Paris.

des Protocoles

Achad

Haam

et

le

'932 Machimbarrena, Juan, L a Crisis Mundial: el Oro, el Socialismo, los Judíos. San Sebastián, Spain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1933 Rosenberg, Alfred, Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die Jüdische Weltpolitik. Munich. »934 Creutz, W., Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion; leur authenticité. Brunoy, France. Maksimovich, N., Israel Triunfante: Aplicación de los Protocolos de los Sabios de Sion en la Vida de las Naciones Cristianas. Buenos Aires. «935 Fleischauer, Ulrich, Gerichts-Gutachten zum Berner Prozess. Erfurt, Germany. «936 Vász, Stephan, Das Berner Fehlurteil über die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion. Erfurt, Germany. «93» Reiterer, Arbogast, Das Judentum und die Schatten des Antichrist. Graz, Austria.

INDEX

Afanasievna, Natalia (Mme. K.), connected with Protocols, 72 Alliance Israélite Universelle, 32n Antichrist, coming of, 29-31, 66 f., 89 Anti-Semitism, see Jews Atheism, Protocols promote, 6,9,38 Azev, notorious agent provocateur.

"Banner, T h e , " see Znamia Barnave, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie, 43 Basel, Switzerland, Zionist Congress of 1897, 32 ff. Baumgarten, Arthur, testimony at Bern trials, 58 Beilis, Mendel, ritual murder trial of, 79, 90 Beletskii, S. P., testimony concerning Protocols, 79, 83, 90 Bentinck, Colonel Count, 3371 Bernstein, alleged editor of Detroit Free Press, 25, 26 Bern trials, 73-93; testimony concerning Protocols, 73 ff., verdict, 85 Biarritz (Goedsche), possible source of Protocols, 64-66 Bible, mentioned only once in Protocols, 35 Bint, Henri, testimony conccrning Protocols, 82, g i

"Black Hundreds," terrorist band, 28n Burtsev, Vladimir, 7171; testimony at Bern trials, 75-82, 83, 90, 91 Butmi, George, 2on, 35; version of Protocols, 3 f., 14, 15, ÎO; Enemies of the Human Race, 3, 65 f.; presents no evidence as to identity of Elders of Zion, 14; on authenticity of Protocols, 1618, 19, 65 f., 87; on origin of Protocols, 23-25, 27, 28; and unimpeachable witness? 28, 31, 35; significant interest in gold standard, 68, 90 Byloe, journal, 75 Cameron, W i l l i a m J., 25 Carnot, Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, 43 Central Historical Archive in Moscow, documents sent to Bern trials, 83, 91 Chabauty, A b b é E. A., theory of world-wide Jewish plot developed in Les Juifs nos maîtres, 62, 68, 89 Charles, Pierre, 36; on reference to Panama in Protocols, 35; terms Protocols a forgery, 92 Chayla, C o u n t A. M. du, testimony anent Protocols, 69-72, 75, 7711, 88, 90

n» • 3 ]

INDEX Chovevei Zion, jïn Civil liberties, stand of Protocols on, 8 " C o m m o n Cause, T h e , " newspaper, 75 Condorcet, Marquess de, 43 "Confederate, T h e , " newspaper, 73 C r é m i e u x , Adolphe, 58 Creutz, W., on origin of Protocols, 25. 28 D a m o n , Georges Jacques, 43 David, House of, role ascribed to, b\ Protocols, 12 Democracy, sham f o r m advocated by Protocols, 7 f. Detroit Free Press, 25 Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu'... (Joly), as basis for Protocols, 44-60, 6 1 , 63, 66n, 83, 85, 89, 9 1 , 92, 95-106 Droit, Le, newspaper, excerpt, 4546 Drumont, E d o u a r d , La France juive, 3 1 , 63 f., 89 Dubrovin, A. I., leader of terrorist organization, 28n Du Chayla, see Chayla, Count A. M. du Dunant, Henri, 33n Education under the Protocols, 10 Egyptian R i t u a l , see Mizraim, rite of Eidgenosse, Der, newspaper, 73 Elders of Zion, identity? 14 " E n e m i e s of the H u m a n R a c e " (Butmi), contains Protocols, 3, 65 f. Eshleman, L . W., theory about origin of Protocols, 66»

C

1

Faure, Felix, 41 Financial program advocated by Protocols, 6, 1 1 , 38, 53-57, 67, 89 Fischer, T h e o d o r , defendant in Bern trials, 73-93; f o u n d guilty, 85 Fleischauer, Colonel Ulrich, 59 Ford, H e n r y , 25 France, Panama scandal, 33-35, 6 3 « , 88 France Juive, La (Drumont), compared with Protocols, 3 1 , 63 t., 89 Freemasonry, role in Protocols, 6, 8, 9, 16 f „ 2 1 , 24, 30, 99 French Revolution, origin of slogan, " L i b e r t y , Equality, Fraternity," 42 Freyenwald, H . J . von, 83, 91 G a m b c t t a , L é o n , denounced as a Jew, 63« Geiger, L u d w i g , 32n Gentiles, see " G o y i m " Globachev, K . I., testimony concerning Protocols, 80-82, 90 Goedsche, H e r m a n n (Sir J o h n Retcliffe), Biarritz possible source of Protocols, 64-66, 89 G o l d , J e w s control world's? 61 G o l d standard, Protocols advocate abandonment of, 38, 67, 89; Butmi's interest in, 68, go Golovinskii, charged with being chief fabricator of Protocols, 83, 9i Gougenot des Mousseaux, H . R . , theory of world-wide Jewish plot, 6 1 , 68, 89 Government, form advocated by Protocols, 7 f., 10, 12. 102 f. " G o y i m , " explanation of term, 5n

43

INDEX Graves, P h i l i p P., research into origin of Protocols, 44, 89; testimony at B e r n trials, 74 " G r e a t in the Little and Antichrist as a Near Political Possibili t y . . . , T h e " (Nilus), contains Protocols, 2 Hechler, W . H., 33n Herz, Cornelius, 34n Herzl, T h e o d o r , accused of presenting Protocols to first Zionist Congress, 22, 25, 32 f., 87; founder of Zionism, 24; has Zionism legalized in Russia, 2571, 84 f. Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, 32" Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, 37 House of David, see David, House of Intellectuals, role assigned to, by Protocols, 5 Iushchinskii, Andrei, allegedly murdered for ritual purposes, 79» Jewish Peril, The (anon.) English edition ol the Protocols, 447» Jews, alleged traits, 18, 19; Zionist Congress of 1897, 32 if.; influence of B i b l e on thought, 35; Protocols a genuine plot or invented by enemy of? 6 1 ; control world's gold and dominate the press? 6 1 ; B e r n trials, 73-93; ritual murder trial of Beilis, 79; see also Protocols of Zion; Zionism J o l v , Maurice, " D i a l o g u e in Hell between Machiavelli a n d Montesquieu . . . " provides basis for Protocols, 44-60, 6 1 , 63, 66 n, 83, 85, 89, 9 1 , 92, 95-106; portrays c »

plans of Zion in guise of an attack on Napoleon III? 58-60 J o u r n a l s , see Press Juifs nos maitres, Les (Chabauty), theory of world-wide J e w i s h plot developed in, 62 K.., Mme., connection with Protocols, 70, 72 Kartashev, A., attitude toward Protocols, 92 Kelepkovskii, Arkadii Ippolitovich, 26 Kishinev pogrom, 20 Krushevan, P a u l , publishes Protocols in abbreviated form, 2n, 20, 84, 87 K u r l o v , P. G., attitude Protocols, 77, 90, 91

toward

L a f a y e t t e , Marquess de, 43 L a m b e l i n , R o g e r , translator of the Protocols, 3 « , 4571 " L a t e s t News, T h e , " newspaper, 69 L a w s and legal f o r m , Protocols' stand on, 7, 10 Lesseps, F e r d i n a n d de, 6 3 0 ; organizes P a n a m a Canal C o m p a n y , 34" Liberalism, Protocols' attitude toward, 5, 9, 10, 97 L o p u k h i n , A . A., director of police, 70, 78; connection with Protocols, 76, 83, 90 L o u b e t , E m i l e , inolved in P a n a m a scandal, 3 3 , 34n, 88 Lovers of Zion, 32n " M a c h i a v e l l i a n d Montesquieu . . . , Dialogue in Hell between" (Joly), 44-60, 6 1 , 63, 66n, 83, 85, 89. 9 ' . 92. 9 5 - ' ° 6 McKinley, William, administration, 41

51

INDEX Magnus, L a u r i e , j z n Manteuffel, M a x i m , 33*1 Manuilov-Manasevich, I. F., testimony œ n c e r n i n g Protoocls, 78, 90 Marat, J e a n P a u l , 43 Marsden, V . E „ translates Protocols into English, 44« Martin, Douglas D., s6 Masonry, see Freemasonry Memphis, R i t e of, in Freemasonry, 17 n Meyer, J u d g e , attitude toward Protocols, 92 Miliukov, Pavel, 69; testimony at B e r n trials, 74, 85 Mirabeau, Count Honoré de, 43 Mizraim, rite o f , in Freemasonry, >7 Momoro, A n t o i n e François, originates slogan of French R e v o l u tion, 42 "Montesquieu . . . , Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli a n d " (Joly), 44-60, 6 1 , 63, 66n, 83, 85, 8 9 . 9 ' . 9«- 9 5 1 0 6 Morning Post, endorses main theme of Protoocls, 4471 Moscow Censorship Committee, action on Nilus' version of Protocols, 84, 92 Napoleon I I I , E m p e r o r of France, partial origin of Protocols contained in Joly's attack upon, 4460, 89 Newspapers, see Press Nicholas I I , T s a r of Russia, convinced that Protocols were forged, 80, 81, 90 Nikolaevsky, Boris, testimony at Bern trials, 74, 84 f.

Nilus, Sergei, 2on, 35, 68, 77, 85; Velikoe v Malom i Antikhrist.. ., 2, 47, 95; version of Protocols, 2, 3 - 1 3 , 14, 15, 20, 2 1 , 27, 43; presents no evidence as to identity of Elders of Zion, 14; on authenticity of Protocols, 15, 19, 87, 88, 90; not first appearance of Protocols in print, 20; accounts of origin of Protocols, 21-23, 25, 27, 28; an unimpeachable witness? 29, 3 1 , 35, 36; on coming of Antichrist, 29-31, 66 f.; mystic trend of thought, 30; version compared with J o l y ' s Dialogue in Hell, 47-60, 95-106; D u Chayla's testimony anent Protocols, 69-7«, 75, 7771, 88, 90; Moscow Censorship Committee's action on version, 84, 92; R u s sian bishops u n f a v o r a b l e to, g2 Obshchee Delo, newspaper, 75 Orzhevskii, connection with Protocols, 77 P a n a m a Canal Company, 34« P a n a m a scandal, reference in Protocols to, 8, 33-35, 63«, 88 "Past, T h e , " journal, 75 Pleve, V . K., 70n, -jin, 76; attitude toward Zionism, 24«, 84 f. Pobedonostsev, K. P., Moskovskii Sbornik, 66n Pogrom, Kishinev, 20 Police, see Secret police Poslednyia Novosti, newspaper, 69 Press, attitude of Protocols toward the, 5, 8, 48, 5 1 - 5 3 , 106; J e w s dominate the? 61 Prince, The (Machiavelli), 43, 46 Professions, attitude of Protocols toward, 10

C» en

INDEX Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion (Nilus), compared with Joly's Dialogue in Hell, 47-60, 95-106; see also Nilus, Sergei " 'Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion' a Proven Forgery, T h e " (Burtsev), 75 Protocols of Zion, contents, 1-13; foster anti-Jewish movement, 1; first appearance, 2, go, 84, 85, 87; Nilus' version, 2, 3 ff., 14 ft., 20, 21-23, x5- 2 7 . 29-31, 35, 36, 43, 47 ff., 66 f „ 69-72, 84, 87, 88, 90, 92, 95 ff.; Butmi's version, 3 f., 14, 15, 16-18, 19, 20, 23-25, 27, 28, 3 1 , 35, 65 f „ 68, 87, 90; theory of world-wide Jewish plot, 4, 21, 6 1 ; methods of enslaving world, 5-7, 9; the new world order, 5, 7-13; attitude toward the press, 5, 8, 48, 51-53. 106; use of terror, 5, 7, 40, 41; Legend of the Symbolic Snake, 5, 28, 30, 71; role of Freemasonry, 6, 8, 9, 16 f., s i , 24, 30, 99; stand on religion, 6, 9, 38; financial program, 6, 1 1 , 38, 5357, 67, 89; form of government advocated by, 7 f., 10, 12, 102 f.; reference to Panama scandal, 8, 33'35- 63"» 88; question of authenticity, 14-31, 73 ff.; identity of Elders of Zion? 14; not a reproduction of an original manuscript, 15; validity upheld on grounds of plausibility? 19; How were they first obtained? 20; general confusion surrounds origin of, 21 ff.; theft of copy by woman, 21, *2, 26, 27, 87; drawn up by Jewish leaders and presented at Zionist Congress of '897? 3 ' - 3*-4S. 6 ' . 8 i n , 87, 88,

89, 91; Bible mentioned only once, 35; not intended for mass consumption, 37; inconsistencies and statements of doubtful validity, 37; calls for deliberate creation of chaos, 37; on state of debts, 39; inaccurate pictures of world situation, 39 f.; English editions, 440; sources, 448., 6172; written by enemies of the Jews, 44, 61; Joly's Dialogue in Hell as basis for, 47-60, 61, 63, 66n, 83, 85, 89, 91, 92, 95-106; possible influence of Chabauty's Les Juifs nos maitres, 62, 68, 89; compared with Drumont's La France juive, 63 f.; Goedsche's Biarritz possible source of, 6466; evidence from Russian sources, 68; fabricated by Russian reactionaries, 68, 90; Bern trials, 73-93; Rachkovskii leading spirit in fabrication of, 76, 77, 80, 82, 83, 90, 91; Golovinskii's share, 83, 91 "Protokoly Siorukikh Mudretsov" Dokazannyi Podlog (Burtsev), 75 Rachkovskii, General, 78; part in origin of Protocols, 70, 72, 76, 77, 80, 82, 83, 90, 91 "Regeneration," newspaper, 81 Reinach, Jacques, 34« Religion, stand of Protocols on, 6, 9. 38 Retcliffe, Sir John, pen name of Hermann Goedsche, 64 Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore, 43 Roland de la Platifcre, J e a n Marie, 43 Rothschilds, accused of complicity in Panama scandal, 63n

73

INDEX Sanhédrin, alleged to have met in 1869, 65 Schnell, Silvio, defendant in Bern trials, 73-93; found guilty, sentence, 86 Secret police, role ascribed to, by Protocols, 11 Semitism, anti-; see Jews Sergei, Grand Duke, assassination of, 7 m Siéyès, Abbé, 43 Solomon, King of Israel, alleged Jewish plan for world conquest, *9 Soloviev, Vladimir, "Legend of Antichrist" in Tri Razgovora, 29, 66 f.. 68, 89 South Africa, 1 Spiridovich, Alexander, 83, 91 Spirit of the Laws, The (Montesquieu), 45 Stepanov, Philip Petrovich, on origin of Protocols, 26 f., 28 Stunner, Boris, 78 Sukhotin, Alexei, associated with Protocols, 22, 26, 27, 72, 87 Svatikov, S. G., testimony at Bern trials, 74, 82-84, 9 1 Switzerland, Bern trials, 1, 7393 Symbolic Snake, Legend of the, 5, 28, 30, 71 Terror, use advocated in Protocols, 5. 7. 40» 4i " T h r e e Discussions," see Tri Razgovora

Times, The, London, editorial on Protocols, 44n Tolstoi, A. P., 29 Tri Razgovora (Soloviev), "Legend of Antichrist," 29, 66 f., 89 Union of the Russian People, terrorist organization, 28 Velikoe v M atom i Antikhrist... (Nilus), contains Protocols, 2; compared with Joly's Dialogue in Hell, 47-60, 95-106 Victoria, Queen of England, 41 Violence, use advocated in Protocols, 5 Fozrozhdenie, newspaper, 81 Vragi Roda Chelovecheskago (Butmi), contains Protocols, 3 Wolf, Lucien, 32n Young T u r k Revolution of igo8-g, 71 Zion, Protocols of, see Protocols of Zion Zionism, Protocols formulated by leaders of? 22, 24, 27, 31, 89; legalized in Russia, 25n, 84 Zionist Congress of 1897, Protocols not read at, 22, 32-43; all debates, transactions, etc. held publicly, 36 Znamia, newspaper, first printed version of Protocols, gn, to, 84, 85. 87