The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the notorious documents upon which anti-Semites all over the world base their anti-Jewish allegations, was termed in the court here today by Dr. Arthur Baumgarten, an expert, as nothing but a forgery and “thrashy literature.”
Dr. Baumgarten was the first expert called by the court to appear at the “Protocols” trial which was resumed today after a lapse of six months. The trial is a continuation of a court hearing held here last October at which prominent Jewish and non-Jewish personalities testified that the “Protocols” constitute an anti-Semitic forgery. This forgery has been established also by the London Times.
NAZI OBJECTION OVERRULED
At the reopening of the trial today, the Nazi lawyers made strong but vain effort to have the trial again postponed. Led by Col. Ulrich Fleischhauer, the chief Nazi “expert” who was brought from Germany to appear for the defendants, who are being sued by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Switzerland for spreading the “Protocols,” the Nazi advocates asked the court to postpone the trial on technical grounds.
The entire session today was devoted to the testimony delivered by Dr. Arthur Baumgarten, an expert for the plaintiffs. Dr. Baumgarten reviewed the history of the “Protocols” and pointed out the discrepancies existing in the different versions. He gave proofs that the “Protocols” were composed in France by an agent of the Czarist Russian government which was looking for an excuse to justify its anti-Jewish pogroms.
EXPERT’S TESTIMONY
From a literary viewpoint, the “Protocols” are definitely “trashy literature,” Dr. Baumgarten testified.
Under the existing laws in Switzerland the publishers, who are now being sued by the Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities for libel, were obligated to inform their readers of all facts concern-
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
