Bernstein The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion

1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-3-7481-1049-1
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 97 Seiten

This is the history of a Lie-of a cruel and terrible Lie invented for the purpose of defaming the entire Jewish people. Given out as fiction, by a German anti-Semitic writer, involved in the Waldeck forgery case, who concealed his identity under the pen-name of an Englishman, it was gradually changed and elaborated, and finally groomed as fact. Agents of the Russian secret police department and of the unscrupulous "Black Hundreds" then utilized this fiction as the framework for the "protocols" through which they sought to crush the Jews and prop up the tottering Russian dynasty. Tsarism destroyed itself, but the agents of Tsarism, still dreaming of their past glory and of a restoration of their privileges, are at work again, both here and abroad. Out of the scrapheap of Russian autocracy, they have exhumed their old weapons and are striking at the Jews again. Upon the structure of the old myths they are striving to erect new falsehoods in order to intensify everywhere chaos and confusion and dissatisfaction so that they may attain their own dastardly and selfish ends.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bernstein, Herman

Leseproben

CHAPTER TWO THE STORY FROM WHICH THE PROTOCOLS WERE FABRICATED
The query now naturally arises, what is the origin of these much heralded “Protocols” which were published in Russia by Sergius Nilus in 1905, and a copy of which, it is triumphantly announced, is now in the British Museum?
The anti-Jewish propagandists everywhere content themselves with the “history” of the origin of the “Protocols” as given by the “Russian mystic” Sergius Nilus. But fortunately “murder will out,” and the criminals who perpetrated the stupendous forgery for the purpose of slandering the Jews have left behind clues that enable one to visualize the very process that they pursued in the perpetration of their crime.
In 1866-1870 there appeared in Berlin a series of novels entitled “Biarritz—Rome” purporting to have been written by “Sir John Retcliffe,” the pseudonym of Herman Goedsche, a German novelist with an unsavory past. To conceal his identity and to convey the impression that the antisemitism with which his writings abounded emanated from English sources, he selected “Sir John Retcliffe” as his pen-name.
According to Meyer’s Konversations Lexikon (Sixth edition, 1904, Volume VIII, page 77), Herman Goedsche was born in February, 1815, in Trachenberg, Silesia, and died on November 8, 1878, at Warmbrunn. He was employed in the postal service, but as he was implicated in the Waldeck forgery case, he left the service in 1849, and devoted himself to literary work. Under the name of “Armin” he published a number of works of fiction, but he was best known under the name of “Sir John Retcliffe,” having published a series of sensational novels describing the Crimean war, “Sebastopol,” “Rena-Sahib,” “Villafranca,” “Puebla,” “Biarritz,” in 1866. A new edition of these works appeared in Berlin in 1903-4.
Brockhaus’ Konversations Lexikon (supplement volume XVII, 1904) refers to Goedsche, the novelist, known under the name of “Sir John Retcliffe” (formerly “Armin”), as having played an infamous role in the Waldeck forgery case. He was compelled to leave the postal service, and later became a member of the staff of the Preussische Kreutz Zeitung.
The chapter of the Goedsche-Retcliffe novel which on even a cursory reading will be found to contain the very essence of the Nilus Protocols was published as a separate booklet in a Russian translation in 1872, avowedly as a work of fiction. I have found a copy of this little volume in the Russian Department of the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
An examination of this chapter, entitled “The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel,” will disclose the fact that every substantive statement contained in the Protocols and elaborated in them is to be found in the Goedsche-Retcliffe novelette.
We are thus supplied with an early draft of the so-called Protocols, which have now been given worldwide publicity by anti-Jewish propagandists, and which were first introduced to the world in the form of a clumsy piece of blood-curdling fiction of the dime-novel variety.
In substantiation of this statement I now present a translation of this chapter of the Russian version of this novel found in the Library of Congress in Washington, published in St. Petersburg nearly fifty years ago.

FOREWORD

“The description of the Jewish cemetery in Prague and the legendary story of the meeting of the representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel are borrowed from the historico-political novel by Sir John Radcliff, ‘To Sedan,’ published in the magazine edited by Nicholas Stepanovitch Lvoff.
“The contents of the legend are not the invention of Radcliff himself; rather Radcliff, with his characteristic fantastic imagination, collected various parts into one whole and painted all with poetic colors, which strike one perhaps by their excessive gaudiness, but which are nevertheless interesting.”
Passed by the Censor, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1872
This product of “Radcliff’s fantastic imagination,” the work of one experienced in the perpetration of forgeries, will now be permitted to tell its own story. It requires no commentary. It clearly foreshadows the protocols, with all its accompaniment of melodrama, not even omitting the Devil, himself.

THE JEWISH CEMETERY IN PRAGUE and The Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel

“The Jewish quarter of Prague represents a remarkable labyrinth of crooked and narrow streets; it is situated in the outskirts of Prague which witnessed numerous bloody episodes of Bohemian and German history. The dwellers of the dirty and dilapidated houses of this quarter are engaged in petty trading and profiteering in their own as well as in other parts of the city. Prague is the only city in Germany where the Jews live entirely isolated from the nation whose name they have taken in order to avail themselves of the privileges of the city population and to exploit it for their own purposes. The Jewish quarter in Prague is the same as the rag-fair in Vienna and the Temple in Paris. In these places deals amounting to thousands are transacted daily.
“If you take a few steps along this dirty, foul market-place, you will suddenly come upon an old, high, decayed wall which surrounds a space of from two to three acres. Elder-trees and other wild shrubbery wind around this wall. Old Jewish houses are crowded all along near this wall, threatened with destruction at any moment. The strange circle formed by this wall has an unwelcome, puzzling appearance.
“This is the city of the dead—the renowned Prague cemetery.
“In this abode of rest may be seen the spirit of the nation, whose bones found shelter here after long wandering,—here is stamped all its history, full of sufferings, struggles and resistance.
“It seems as though at any moment these tombs, overgrown with shrubbery, are ready to open, these stones growing for thousands of years are ready to raise themselves, and to let out into the world the restless wanderer with a pack upon his shoulder, with a staff in his hand, in order to go again to strange peoples,—to cheat and combat them and to seek a new Canaan—his dominion! The Jewish cemetery in Prague is the very oldest cemetery known. It was closed by order of the government a hundred years ago. For foreigners it is a historical landmark; for the Jews it is a sacred place. The impression of this deserted spot is intensified by its surroundings. Amidst the closely crowded tombs and monuments, overgrown with moss, only a narrow passage remains which is almost entirely covered with shrubbery of thorn-bushes and mat-weed.
“During the inspection, the watchman will tell the visitor the history of the death of Rabbi Ben Manasseh, the great conqueror of death, and Rabbi Loewe, the most learned Rabbi of the 17th century; he will speak of Simon the Just and of the Polish princess Anna Shmiless. He will then lead the visitor to the monument of Anna Kohn on which can be read the mysterious figure 606, which shows that the Jews, more than twelve hundred years ago, had buried their dead here, in the legendary times of Lyubush and her daughters.
“If we are not to believe this figure, we must nevertheless agree with the opinion of the Jews that this is the oldest settlement and the first Jewish community in Europe.
“Silently the Jewish guide and the curious foreigner go by one place where under an old lilac bush a heap of stone stands out, and when the foreigner asks, ‘What is this?’ the guide gives an evasive answer——
“‘Beth Chaim—the house of life.’ Thus is the cemetery called. Yes, indeed, this place of rest is a house of life, for from here is given the mysterious impulse which makes the exiles masters of the earth and tyrants of nations,—the impulse which directs the golden calf to the chosen tribe.
“The Jewish town has assumed a holiday aspect. The stands of the petty retailers have disappeared; Jewish boys and girls were strolling about in their holiday attire. The houses and windows were adorned with green branches. On the old benches sat men, talking seriously; in the alleys youths were chatting. From time to time men and women in their best Sabbath clothes were going to the synagogue, carrying prayer books in their hands; while poor Christian women whom need had forced to work in this quarter were running with keys and dishes in order to prepare for the feast.
“It was the last day of the Feast of Booths, the day of Assembly, and dusk was gathering over the narrow streets, while the Christian part of the city was still brightly illumined by the last rays of the setting sun. Two men (the older wore a black silk mantle, with long earlocks, which showed that he was a Polish Jew; the other was middle aged, in modern clothes, with diamond studs in his shirt and a heavy golden chain on his vest) walked along the narrow streets, without paying any attention to the crowd.
“The younger seemed to be the guide. Having come with his companion to the little house where the watchman of the cemetery lived, he knocked at the closed door, through a crevice of which the bright light of wax candles was seen, showing the watchman’s holiday mood. It was a good summer—a large number of foreigners had visited the cemetery and were generous in their...