Boris Nikolajewsky, Russian historian who testified at the Berne trial that the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” are a rank forgery, took the Frankfurter Zeitung to task, in a letter published in that paper, for having distorted his testimony.
The paper quoted Nikolajewsky as having said that “a Jew stole the ‘Protocols’ from the archives of a Paris Freemason lodge and brought them to Russia.”
“This report completely distorts my evidence,” Nikolajewsky wrote.
“I am convinced that the ‘Protocols’ are a forgery. In order to prove thus, I mentioned various conjectures concerning the origin of the ‘Protocols’ put forward by those who contend that the ‘Protocols’ are genuine, and among the rest I also mentioned the particular hypothesis which in your report is ascribed to me.
“It is particularly important, because it is the latest hypothesis of those who claim that the ‘Protocols’ are genuine. In my evidence I established thoroughly that this hypothesis and, above all, the legend of the Basle Zionist Congress of 1897 as being the Conference of the ‘Elders of Zion,’ has been definitely destroyed.
“Furthermore, this hypothesis, on account of a number of details into which I went more closely, is thoroughly improbable, but it is of interest insofar as it indicates the retirement in face of the fact that the ‘Protocols’ were manufactured by the agents of the Russian political police.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
