A Lausanne court prohibited today further distribution of an anti-Semitic book, and ordered copies not yet sold impounded by authorities.
The court acted after the Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities lodged a complaint with authorities that “The Past, the Present and the Jewish Question, ” by Dr.J.A. Mathes, of Vevy, was a violation of the Swiss Civil Code, and demanded that it be banned. The book contains lengthy quotations from the Protocols of the Elders of Sion and other anti-Semitic libels, refers to Jewish “ritual murder, ” and blames the Jews for the outbreak of both World Wars.
The author is a well-known doctor in Vevey and a very wealthy man who financed publication of his own book. About 500 copies of the 4, 000 published last November have been sold. It was the first anti-Semitic book published in Switzerland in more than 20 years.
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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.
