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.
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.
