The Berne Cantonal, Court has held that while the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” discredited record of a purported Jewish plot for world domination, is not immoral within the meaning of the cantonal law, it is “vile” and “inciting.” The court made public the text of its decision last Nov. I cancelling fines meted out to two Nazis and overruling their conviction under Article 14 of the Cantonal Code for distributing copies of the “Protocols.”
“However, attacks such as contained in these writings are particularly vile,” the decision asserted, “not only because they attack Jewish beliefs or certain Jewish attitudes, but because they are directed against a race. Because the court recognizes the inciting character of the writings distributed by the accused, it refuses to award them damages, despite the acquittal.”
The “Protocols” cannot be considered as immoral literature in the strict sense of the cantonal penal code, the court held, because the law applies only to literature tending to corrupt morals.
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