The ‘protocols’ Exposed

The Truth About the Protocols of Zion. By Herman Bernstein. 397 pp. $3. Covici, Friede.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Greatest Life in History. By Benjamin W. Segal. 97 pp. $0.50. Bloch.

Jewish and non-Jewish readers in the United States have recently been intrigued by the trial which opened in Berne, Switzerland, at which Jewish leaders accused the Swiss Nazi party and the editor of a Nazi paper of spreading malicious propaganda against Jews and of asserting that the so-called “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” constitute the best proof of their contention that the Jews nurtured a secret aim to dominate the world.

What are these intriguing so-called “Protocols”? Why have they become the basis of anti-Jewish propaganda? Who is the author of this forged document?

Herman Bernstein, in his book “The Truth About ‘The Protocols of Zion,’ ” gives a complete expose of the notorious forgery. He reproduces the original of the “Dialogues in Hell” by the French journalist Maurice Joly, together with an exact translation of the “Protocols” as they appeared in Czarist Russia, and shows where the notorious “Protocols” originated. He proves that “Protocols,” which the anti-Semites the world over describe as a Jewish document, are nothing else than a poor re-write done by Czarist agents in Russia from M. Joly’s pamphlet in order to stir up greater anti-Semitism among the Russian population and to justify the anti-Jewish pogrom policy of the Czarist government.

The fact that the “Protocols” are nothing more than a palpable forgery was first brought out in 1921, by the London Times, through its Constantinople correspondent who made a special study of this subject. Mr. Bernstein, too, brought out this fact in 1921 in a book entitled, “The History of a Lie.”

The present publication by Mr. Bernstein is, however, a final and complete study of the subject. It is of great value to Jewish history as well as to everyone who is interested in fighting anti-Semitism.

The appearance of Mr. Bernstein’s book on the eve of the resumption of the trial in Berne makes this volume very timely. At no time was such a book more necessary than now when the Nazis in Germany are flooding the world with anti-Semitic literature based on the lie called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Mr. Bernstein’s book is a direct challenge to the book which Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler’s right hand man, has published on the same subject and which is now considered the Bible of anti-Semitism.

“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” by Benjamin W. Segel, is another book exposing the forgery. It is an English translation of Mr. Segel’s larger work, in German, on the “Protocols.” It furnishes irrefutable proof of the falseness of the “Protocols” and presents the facts in a very popular way. It is not as comprehensive as the volume of Mr. Bernstein, but it gives a good summary of the “Protocols” and presents a fine critical analysis of the perfidious and awkward fabrication of the “documents.” As a brief survey of the whole forgery it deserves the attention of every Jew and non-Jew interested in the study of the “Protocols.”