Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jonathan Niehof, the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net,
Nikola Smolenski, cinnabar, and Distributed Proofreaders
Europe at http://dp.rastko.net
[Transcriber's Note: This text has many notes in [square brackets]
which are in the original. Added for this electronic edition are
labels for footnotes and illustrations; the actual contents of
such are original. Also added are transliterations into the Roman
alphabet (using the GOST system) of the Cyrillic facsimile pages.
An XHTML version with the original facsimile images is also available.
Any translations appear in the original paper edition.
=Bold= and _italic_ passages are transcribed per this example.]
THE HISTORY OF A LIE
_"The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion"_
_"Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all."_
--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
A STUDY
BY
HERMAN BERNSTEIN
AUTHOR OF "WITH MASTER MINDS," ETC.
NEW YORK
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY
57 ROSE STREET
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY
_FOREWORD_
_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._
_In the war's aftermath the Jews are being blamed by the minions of
autocracy and reaction for all the ills that have befallen mankind. Some
blame them for the war, and others for the peace. Some attack them for
the defeat of the German military machine, and others for the victory of
the allies. In Germany they are attacked by the Junkers for having
opposed the submarine warfare and thus assured Germany's defeat; while
in some of the allied countries the Jews are denounced for constituting
"the brains of Germany." All the revolutionary leaders of Germany are
credited to the Jews, and bolshevism, which has as little in common with
Judaism as it has with Christianity, is branded as a Jewish movement;
and there are Jew-baiters who in their blind madness have gone so far as
to declare that ex-Kaiser Wilhelm was not only influenced by the Jews
but is himself of Jewish descent, and for this reason did not defend
Germany as loyally as he should have done. He conspired against the
Hohenzollern dynasty and undermined it. He destroyed his own throne
because he was serving the secret Jewish world organization._
_On such absurdities have people been fed, since the armistice, in
civilized countries by antisemitic agitators and their dupes, while Jews
have been slaughtered in the Ukraine, in Poland and in Hungary._
_I submit in this little book the documentary evidence showing how the
so-called "Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion" on which this new crusade
is predicated, were forged._
HERMAN BERNSTEIN.
_New York, February, 1921._
CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD 3
CHAPTER ONE
THE MYSTERIOUS PROTOCOLS
The Lie of a Jewish World Conspiracy--Is There a Jewish
Conspiracy?--Anonymous Accusations--The Mysterious
"Protocols" of Sergei Nilus--How did "Nilus" Secure
Them?--Contradictory Explanations--Who is "Nilus"?
How his Sponsors Disagree--What Russian Publicists
Say 7
CHAPTER TWO
THE STORY FROM WHICH THE PROTOCOLS
WERE FABRICATED
Essence of "Protocols" Was German Fiction of "Sir John
Retcliffe"--Who Was "Retcliffe"?--His Infamous Record--His
Bloodcurdling Story--The Meeting in the
Cemetery--An Avowed Myth--Meeting Every Hundred
Years Attended by "Representatives of the Twelve
Tribes of Israel"--The "Son of the Accursed" Also Attends
and Provides Comic Interludes 16
CHAPTER THREE
FICTION FORGED INTO "FACT"
The Lie in its Second Stage--The Tale Becomes "Fact"--The
"Rabbi's" Speech--Its Authenticity Vouched for by
"Retcliffe"--An Illuminating Footnote--A Dedication to
The Russian "Black Hundreds"--The Imaginary
"Speech" Bears Witness to Authenticity of "Protocols,"
Themselves Based on "Speech"--Three Stages of the
Lie 43
CHAPTER FOUR
THE RUSSIAN SPONSORS OF THE FORGERY
Nilus on the Protocols--Only "the God-Anointed Tsar of
Russia" Can Save the World--Passages from Nilus
Omitted by Translators--On Tolstoy--On the Emancipation
of Women--On the "Sanhedrin" and "its Faithful
Ally, England" 55
CHAPTER FIVE
FORGERS DISAGREE
The Butmi Protocols--"Representatives of Zion" Not to be
Confounded with "Zionists"--Butmi Contradicts Nilus--Plan
for World Conquest Conceived 929 B. C. E.--The
"Symbolic Snake"--Universal Suffrage a Jewish Device--Every
Jew Familiar with Plot 59
CHAPTER SIX
THE BLACK HUNDREDS, THEIR DUPES AND CRIMES
Russia in 1905--The Unsuccessful Revolution--The Reaction
and the Reactionaries--Lutostansky and His Work--The
"Symbolic Snake" According to Lutostansky--Who
Plagiarized?--Lutostansky on the English People--Are
the English the "Lost Tribes"?--How the Protocols
Were "Doctored" by Butmi--Conclusion 63
CHAPTER ONE
THE MYSTERIOUS PROTOCOLS
The Lie of a Jewish World Conspiracy--Is There a Jewish
Conspiracy?--Anonymous Accusations--The Mysterious "Protocols" of Sergei
Nilus--How did "Nilus" Secure Them?--Contradictory Explanations--Who is
"Nilus"?--How his Sponsors Disagree--What Russian Publicists Say.
Is there a Jewish conspiracy against the world or is there a conspiracy
against the Jews? What are the so-called "Protocols of the Wise Men of
Zion?" Who is "the Russian mystic," Sergius Nilus, the sponsor of the
Protocols? What forces are behind the anti-Jewish propaganda that is
international in scope and that seeks at this time to spread all over
the world the poison of prejudice and hatred against the Jews, reviving
long-exploded mediaeval legends?
Many Americans have asked these questions ever since the publication of
"The Cause of the World Unrest," "The Protocols and World Revolution,"
"The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion," and the anti-Jewish articles in
Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent.
In 1919 a translation of extracts from what purports to be a book by one
Sergius Nilus was published in Germany. During 1920 a translation was
published in England under the name of "The Jewish Peril," and under
various titles, in different versions, it was reproduced in the United
States, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and even Japan. The Japanese
edition is in the Russian language. In all these books "the Russian
mystic," Sergius Nilus, is given as the sponsor of a number of secret
"documents" by which it is intended to show that the Jews are
responsible for all the ills that have already befallen the world and
that are still to come.
The method is simple. Was there a revolution in Russia? Blame the Jews.
Was there a revolution in Germany? Blame the Jews. Who made the French
Revolution? The Jews. Who caused the World War? The Jews. Who profited
by the war? The Jews. Is there anywhere an industrial crisis? The Jews
are, of course, the cause of it. Has the World War brought forth
Bolshevism? The Jews are naturally the fathers of it. First the Jews
engineered the war, and then they pulled the strings behind the scenes
of the Peace Conference. They secured special privileges at the Peace
Table, because, according to the Protocols, they control the gold of the
world, the press of the world, the rulers of the world. And if, as a
result of the World War, millions of Jews have suffered untold agonies,
persecution, starvation, and pogroms, it is no doubt only part of their
deep-laid plot to gain control of the world for Zion through poverty and
suffering!
Are governments just to the Jews, giving them equal rights? Then it is
obvious that Jews are either at the head of such governments or are
hidden behind the present rulers. If the Jews cannot exert sufficient
influence over the rulers themselves, there are Jewesses in high places,
through whom the cause of Zion is served--and all this is done by the
Jews with but one aim in view--to dominate the world, to become its
autocratic masters, to break down the moral power of Christendom and set
up Israel as "the despot" over the peoples of the earth. According to
the Protocols, all this is engineered with the aid and through the
instrumentality of the Freemasons.
The propagandists everywhere, in Germany, England, France, the
Scandinavian countries, Japan and the United States, basing all their
arguments on the "Protocols" vouched for by "the Russian mystic" Sergius
Nilus, see in the present chaotic conditions the absolute fulfillment of
the prophecies outlined by the so-called "Wise Men of Zion" years ago.
The propagandists are violent and vicious, foaming at their mouths,
appealing to the basest passions, insinuating, accusing, pointing their
fingers at "the source of all evil"--at the Jews who constitute but a
fraction of one per cent of the world's population, and who are in
Europe to-day, after the close of the World War, more wretched and
miserable than ever before,--persecuted, hounded and starved.
What are these mysterious Protocols? How did they come to "the Russian
mystic" who revealed them in 1905, and which have now been exhumed from
obscurity for the purpose of enlightening the world, and which point to
the Jews as the cause of all unrest, chaos and confusion?
Nilus, "the Russian mystic," is credited with several versions of how he
had secured the Protocols, and his stories flatly contradict one
another. In 1905 he said that the Protocols were given to him by a
prominent Russian conservative whose name he did not mention, and who in
turn had received them from an unnamed woman who had stolen them from
"one of the most influential leaders of Freemasonry at the close of a
secret meeting of the initiated in France." Then, several years later,
Nilus wrote that his friend himself had stolen the Protocols from "the
headquarters of the Society of Zion in France." Several years
afterwards, in a new edition of his book, Nilus said that the
"Protocols" came from Switzerland and not from France. This time he
named his Russian conservative friend, Sukhotin, who had died in the
meantime. He added that the Protocols were not Jewish-Masonic but
Zionist documents secretly read at the Zionist Congress in Basle in
1897.
Then followed a new edition of the Nilus book bearing the date of 1917.
A translation of this edition has recently appeared in this country,
containing a brand-new explanation as to how the Protocols were rescued
and given to the world. This explanation is taken from the German
version published in Charlottenburg. The introduction to that edition
says that the Protocols, having been read from day to day at the Basle
Congress, were sent as read to Frankfort on the Main. The disclosure of
them came through the infidelity of the messenger.
The 1917 edition is published with a prologue and an epilogue, like a
drama, which indeed it is, with all the ingredients of melodrama--a
villain, a mysterious woman, a Grand Duke, a conspiracy to destroy the
world, and a saint--Nilus, who convicts himself in his own writings of
falsification in the giving of these various accounts of how the
Protocols came into his possession.
Nothing is known of Sergius Nilus. Russian standard reference books and
encyclopedias contain no mention of his name.
The anonymous American editor of the Nilus book gives the following
information about Nilus:
"Serge Nilus, in the 1905 edition of whose book was first published the
_Zionist Protocols_, was, as he states, born in the year 1862, of
Russian parents holding liberal opinions. His family was fairly well
known in Moscow, for its members were educated people who were firm in
their allegiance to the Tsar and the Greek Church. On one side he is
said to have been connected by marriage with the nobility of the Baltic
provinces. Nilus himself was graduated from the University of Moscow and
early entered the civil service, obtaining a small appointment in the
law courts. Later, he received a post under the Procurator of a
provincial court in the Caucasus. Finally, tiring of the law, he went to
the Government of Orel, where he was a landowner and a noble. His
spiritual life had been tumultuous and full of trouble, and finally he
entered the Troitsky-Sergevsky Monastery near Moscow. 'In answer to his
appeal for pardon, Saint Sergei, stern and angry, appeared to him twice
in a vision. He left the Monastery a converted man.'
"From 1905 until the present, little is known of his activities.
Articles are said to have appeared from time to time in the Russian
press from his pen. A returning traveller from Siberia in August, 1919,
was positive in his statement that Nilus was in Irkutsk in June of that
year. Whether his final fate was that of Admiral Kolchak is not known."
The American editor of Sergius Nilus's book containing the "Protocols"
is hiding behind anonymity. The name of the traveller from Siberia who
was so positive in his statement that Nilus was in Irkutsk is also
concealed. And Serge Nilus to whom Saint Sergei "appeared twice in a
vision" "is said to have written articles in the Russian press" of which
nobody has knowledge.
In Germany, Nilus is described as follows:
"Sergius Nilus was an employee of the Russian secret police department,
of the _okhrana_, connected with the Church, especially relating to
'foreign religions.' He lived for some time at the Optina Pustina
monastery. In 1901 he published a book entitled 'The Great in the Small
and the Anti-Christ.' According to the Lutsch Sveta, Nilus claims to
have received in 1901 a copy of the text of the Protocols from the
secret archives of the Main Zionist organization in France, but he
published the 'protocols' only in 1905. A second edition appeared in
1911, and finally another edition was brought out in the beginning of
1917, but all copies are said to have been destroyed."
"The Cause of the World Unrest," an anonymous book published in England
and reprinted in this country, speaks of Nilus and the "Protocols" as
follows:
"In the year 1903 a Russian, Serge Nilus, published a book entitled _The
Great in Little_. The second edition, which was published at Tsarskoye
Selo in 1905, had an additional chapter, the twelfth, under the heading
'Anti-Christ as a Near Political Possibility.' This chapter consisted of
some twenty pages of introduction followed by the text of twenty-four
'Protocols of Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion,' and the book ends
with some twenty pages of commentaries on these protocols by Nilus.
"Directly after the protocols, comes a statement by Nilus that they are
'signed by representatives of Zion of the thirty-third degree.' These
protocols were secretly extracted or were stolen from a whole volume of
protocols. All this was got by my correspondent out of the secret
depositories of the Head Chancellery of Zion. This Chancellery is at
present on French territory."
In the edition of 1917 Sergius Nilus wrote:
"My book has already reached the fourth edition, but it is only
definitely known to me now and in a manner worthy of belief, and
that through Jewish sources, that these protocols are nothing other
than the strategic plans for the conquest of the world under the
heel of Israel, and worked out by the leaders of the Jewish
people--and read by the 'Prince of Exile,' Theodor Herzl, during the
first Zionist Congress, summoned by him in August, 1897, in Basle."
It will be shown later that the so-called Butmi edition of the
"protocols" published in 1907 contains the definite statement of the man
who claims to have translated them into Russian from the French in 1901
that the Elders of Zion mentioned in the Protocols are not to be
confounded with the Zionist movement.
In the 1917 edition Sergius Nilus wrote:
"In 1901 I came into possession of a manuscript, and this
comparatively small book was destined to cause a deep change in my
entire viewpoint as can only be caused in the heart of man by
Divine Power. It was comparable with the miracle of making the
blind see. 'May Divine acts show on him.'
"This manuscript was called 'the protocols of the Zionist Men of
Wisdom,' and it was given to me by the now deceased leader of the
Tchernigov nobility, who later became vice-governor of Stavropol,
Alexis Nikolayevitch Sukhotin. I had already begun to work with my
pen for the glory of the Lord, and I was friendly with Sukhotin.
_He was a man of my opinion_, that is, extremely conservative, as
they are now termed.
"Sukhotin told me that he in turn had obtained the manuscript from
a lady who always lived abroad. This lady was a noblewoman from
Tchernigov. He mentioned her by name, but I have forgotten it. He
said that she obtained it in some mysterious way, by theft, I
believe.
"Sukhotin also said that one copy of the manuscript was given by
this lady to Sipiagin, the Minister of the Interior, upon her
return from abroad, and that Sipiagin was subsequently killed. He
said other things of the same mysterious character. But when I
first became acquainted with the contents of the manuscript I was
convinced that its terrible, cruel and straight-forward truth is
witness of its true origin from the 'Zionist Men of Wisdom,' and
that no other evidence of its origin would be needed."
Feodor Roditchev, one of Russia's most famous liberals, a member of the
nobility, a former member of the Duma, writing recently of the Nilus
protocols and of Sukhotin whom Nilus described as a man of his own
opinion, says:
"For months I hear on all sides about the Nilus book and its
success in England, and I am asked, Who is Nilus? There was a
Nilus, an associate justice of the Moscow District Court. It is
said that the manuscript was given to Nilus by Sukhotin, the
notorious zemstvo official of Chernsk.
"The Berlin edition contains no mention of Sukhotin, but in that
edition Nilus said, 'Pray for the soul of the boyar Alexis.'
"The name of the notorious Alexey Nikolayevitch Sukhotin means
nothing to the present generation. But there was a time when his
name attracted attention.
"Sukhotin arrested the peasants of a whole village for refusing to
cart manure from his stables because the animals there were
infected with glanders. Judge Tsurikov released the peasants.
Tsurikov was removed for this, while Sukhotin justified his act by
writing to the Minister of the Interior, Durnovo, that he had
arrested the peasants not because they refused to cart his manure
but because they dared disobey him as a zemstvo official. The
reactionary Chernsk nobility made Sukhotin marshal of nobility. So
it was this man who furnished the protocols of the secret meetings
of the representatives of Zion! But how did Sukhotin get the
protocols? An unknown friend had brought them to him. They were
given to him by an unknown lady who had received them from an
unknown but energetic participant in the Basle Congress. Is this
credible? Well, then, there is another version of the origin of the
protocols--but that is for the German readers. The Russian
government sent a spy to the Basle Congress. He did not go to the
Congress himself, but bribed one of the participants. He was
carrying the protocols from Basle to Frankfurt to the local masonic
organization. He stopped on the way in a little town, and gave the
protocols to the spy. He engaged copyists who worked all night and
copied the protocols.
"In the first Russian version the protocols were supposed to have
been brought to Russia in French. According to the German version,
the protocols were copied, consequently they were in German, but
the most important thing is that the protocols are not protocols at
all, but a monograph--which could be called 'the dream of a member
of the Black Hundreds.'"
A distinguished Russian publicist says of the sponsor of the "protocols"
as follows:
"In Russia the problems of Christianity and Judaism have been
studied by such men as Vladimir Solovyov, Professor Troitzky,
Professor Kokovtsev, Kartashov, Bulgakov, Berdyayev--men of profound
intellect and a living conscience. In them the counterfeit ravings
of the ignorant monk (Nilus) evoked but a smile of contempt. The
low level of the circles in which men like Nilus moved and worked
is only too well known. It was the world of police denunciations,
divorce perjuries, monastic servility and feigned, blasphemous
piety. In order to attract attention, Nilus's 'Protocols of the
Wise Men of Zion' had to emigrate from Russia. And the further away
they went, the better they fared."
CHAPTER TWO
THE STORY FROM WHICH THE PROTOCOLS WERE FABRICATED
Essence of "Protocols" Was German Fiction of "Sir John Retcliffe"--Who
Was "Retcliffe"?--His Infamous Record--His Bloodcurdling Story--The Meeting
in the Cemetery--An Avowed Myth--Meeting Every Hundred Years Attended by
"Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel"--The "Son of the
Accursed" Also Attends and Provides Comic Interludes.
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.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF TITLE PAGE OF THE FANTASTIC STORY PUBLISHED
IN RUSSIA IN 1872, CONTAINING THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE PROTOCOLS IN THE
FORM OF FICTION.]
[Transliteration:
EVREJSKOE KLADBISHHE V PRAGE
i
SOVET PREDSTAVITELEJ
DVENADCATI KOLEN IZRAILEVYH.
* * * * *
S.-PETERBURG.
TIPOGRAFIJA TOVARISHHESTVA "OBSHHESTVENNAJA POL'ZA",
po mojke, u kruglago rynka, Nš 5.
1872.
]
_Translation of Title Page_
THE JEWISH CEMETERY IN PRAGUE
And
THE COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES
Of The Twelve Tribes of Israel
ST. PETERSBURG
Printed by the Association "Obschestvenaya Polza"
On the Moika, at the Round Market, No. 5
1872
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE FOREWORD TO THE STORY PUBLISHED IN 1872,
SHOWING THAT THE AUTHOR REGARDED IT AS A "LEGENDARY STORY," COLORED BY
THE AUTHOR'S "FANTASTIC IMAGINATION."]
[Transliteration:
PREDISLOVIE.
Opisanie evrejskago kladbishha v Prage i legendarnyj
razskaz o sobranii predstavitelej dvenadcati
izrail'skih kolen zaimstvovany iz istoriko-politicheskago
romana Sera Dzhona Redkliffa "Do Sedana",
pomeshhennago v zhurnale, izdavaemom Nikolaem
Stepanovichem L'vovym.
Soderzhanie legendy ne est' vymysel odnogo Redkliffa;
skoree Redkliff, s svojstvennym emu fantasticheskim
voobrazheniem, sobral chasti v odno
celoe i okrasil vse poeticheskimi kraskami, porazhajushhimi,
mozhet byt', chrezmernoju jarkostiju, no
tem ne menee predstavljajushhimi interes.
* * * * *
Dozvoleno cenzuroju, S.-Peterburg, 17-go maja 1872 goda.
]
_(Translation)_
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 gifts.
"In the doorway appeared the thin face of the watchman, whose
short-sighted eyes began to look fixedly into the darkness.
"'Come out into the street, Joel, somebody wants to talk to you!'
"'O, God of Justice,' said the watchman with amazement, as he came
out of the door,--'One of the trustees! What is your pleasure to
command me?'
"'This Rabbi desires to make a brief prayer in the cemetery; he is
leaving to-morrow morning by train.'
"'In the cemetery? This evening? But you know yourself, Mr. Banker,
that I am forbidden to open the gates after sunset, and to-night is
also the holy Sabbath.'
"'First of all, there is no need for you to shout here about my
calling,' replied the banker, displeased. 'Every Jewish rag-picker
will know that banker Rosenberg was here to see you. As for the
permit to open the gates, I myself, as a trustee, authorize you to
do it. I will wait here until he has completed his prayer. The
company in your house must not know what we are doing here. Arrange
it so that the curious crowd will not rush in there.'
"The watchman disappeared in the house, but soon returned with a
bunch of keys and opened the gates of the cemetery. He took a
lantern along and was about to light it.
"'Don't!' said the Rabbi in a low voice. 'I don't need any light.
Lock the gates from the inside!'
"'But, Mr. von Rosenberg----'
"'Lock it, I say!'
"The watchman obeyed.
"'Now lead me to the grave of the holy Rabbi Simeon-ben-Yehudah!'
"'Hold on to my coat, esteemed sir,' said the watchman. 'It is dark
and you may stumble over the old graves.'
"'I can see better at night than in the daytime, my son!' answered
the learned Polish Jew.
"'Here is the grave!'
"The old Rabbi reverently leaned over the tombstone. The watchman
heard him pronounce a prayer in Jewish. He used so many words of
ancient Hebrew, or some other words of a language he did not
understand, that he knew only a few separate expressions, although
he himself had been in the past a teacher at the Bohemian
community.
"Having completed his prayer, the stranger turned to the watchman
of the cemetery:
"'When you accepted the position from your predecessor, did he not
give you certain instructions?'
"'Me?'
"'Yes, you! It was so from the day the first person was buried in
this place.'
"'Well, and what if he did give such instructions,--how does that
concern you? This the first time I am asked about this matter since
I am employed here.'
"'Because this happens once in a hundred years, and human life
rarely lasts as long as that.'
"'I see that you know about it, Rabbi,' said the frightened
watchman. 'But I can obey you only if you mention the word which
was given to me by my predecessor, because I took a sacred oath on
the Bible.'
"The Polish Jew bent down and slowly pronounced a word of seven
syllables.
"The watchman bowed respectfully.
"'You are the Rabbi!' he said. 'All will be done as you command!'
"'You will send away the friends who are feasting in your house
before the clock strikes eleven. At the first stroke you will open
the gates of the cemetery, and at the last stroke you will get into
your house, lock the doors and windows, lie down in your bed and
turn into a corpse together with the members of your
household,--into a corpse that sees and hears nothing.'
"'I will neither look nor listen.'
"'The angel of death will leave your soul in your body and will
force you to wander about among the graves to the end of time if
you do not carry out my orders correctly. Now go, and remember that
by virtue of your position you are the servant of the great
Jerusalem synagogue. I need not tell you that you should not say
anything to that vain, worldly man who brought me here.'
"Both returned to the gates, near which the banker was still on
guard.
"'Well,' he said, 'your desire is fulfilled, Rabbi, and you may
inform my friend in Warsaw that Rosenberg and Son are always ready
to do a favor to a guest recommended by such a personage. Now let
us go home; my wife is waiting for us.'
"'Let us go, my son,' replied the Rabbi. 'But relieve me of
worldly pleasures. I shall spend the night in prayer!'
"The banker shrugged his shoulders and gave the watchman a gold
coin.
"'Joel,' he said in a low voice, 'the other trustees of the
community must not know about this violation of the rule.'
"The watchman nodded, and the companion again disappeared in the
dark streets, which had already become deserted, while in the
houses people talked merrily and the sounds of holiday festivities
were heard.
"How poor, dirty and dark these little houses looked from outside!
But it was quite different within! In the rear rooms of many of
these houses the bright light of numerous wax candles was reflected
in the splendid high mirrors, in expensive dishes and precious
rugs. Girls and women, who in the morning perhaps walked with trays
in their hands, now were seated at the tables in heavy silk gowns
with golden chains and bracelets; their jewels and diamonds were
glittering.
* * * * *
"The clock in the town-hall tower struck ten. In the chapel, near
the statue of St. Nepomucenus, upon a stone bench, sat a
large-sized man, with the pale serious face of Germanic type. Every
physiognomist, looking at him, would have said that this man had
devoted his youth to serious scientific work and that he had spent
many sleepless nights over books.
"The clock had just struck ten when upon the bridge appeared a man
in a light summer coat, of about the same age as the young
scientist. His face was pale, of waxen color, without the slightest
natural red in his cheeks; his particularly prominent nose
indicated his Jewish extraction; his forehead was high and large,
his head was strongly developed. He walked straight over to the man
who was waiting and who quickly arose.
"'Good evening. I see you have received my letter. Have you it with
you?'
"'Yes, I know it by heart, I have read it so many times. "My
friend," it is written there, "I have promised to give you the key
to the Caballah, if I ever find the opportunity to do so. Although
I am not always in the habit of fulfilling my vows, I am ready to
fulfil this one, if you will wait for me in the evening of October
8, in Prague, on the old Moldau bridge, under the statue of
Nepomucenus." Then follows your name.'
"'Yes, that is correct. Have you not yet given up your desire?'
"'Less than ever before! You would render science an invaluable
service.'
"'Listen, doctor, bend down a little over the rail; that of which
we speak must not be heard even by the waves of the Moldau, if we
wish to remain alive.'
"The young scientist looked in astonishment at his comrade, but did
as he desired.
"'Three years ago, in Rome, when I promised to acquaint you with
the mysteries of the Caballah, I did it more for the sake of
boasting of a power and authority which, in reality, I did not
possess. Although I had studied for some time the traditions of my
nation, rather out of curiosity than because of the love of
knowledge, I knew very well that I could hardly penetrate the
corridor of those mysteries which I am still regarding as the
sophistry and roguishness of exalted minds, invented for the
purpose of holding fools in fear and subordination. But several
accidental discoveries, made by me since then, have changed my
views and have aroused in me a sense of curiosity.
"'You know, notwithstanding our brief acquaintance, that I am not
the type of man who would abandon a clue or a conceived plan. What
has caused me to make you my companion in satisfying my
curiosity--that does not concern you. It is enough that now we have
an opportunity to satisfy our mutual desire, and all depends on
whether you will agree to accept the conditions upon which I can
make you a partner in my investigation.'
"'If these are not against honor and conscience.'
"'In this respect you have nothing to risk, you are rather risking
something else--your life. Do you feel that you are capable of
facing a serious danger?'
"'For the sake of science, yes!'
"'Very well, in that case I must tell you that I will lead you to a
place which we will not leave alive, if our presence is discovered.
The slightest suspicion that we were uninvited witnesses of the
secret will bring upon us persecution which will kill us sooner or
later.'
"'You are whetting my curiosity, signor!'
"'That is all I wanted to tell you. The other thing--you know that
I am a Jew by birth. Although the Jews have driven me from their
midst and cursed me according to their custom and traditions
because I adopted Christianity,--still I have my own reasons for
stipulating a condition--your word of honor that you will be silent
about all you will see and hear, until I authorize you to speak.'
"'I swear by my honor.'
"'Very well. You will recall in your investigations of the Caballah
that in the mysterious books mention is made of a meeting of the
heads or chosen ones of the nation,--a meeting which takes place
from time to time?'
"'Yes, in the Yezire it is said very definitely, and if I
understood correctly, such meetings take place every hundred
years.'
"'Yes. The last meeting took place in 1760 and you recall that
shortly afterward the movement of Judaism started. It is now 1787
years since the destruction of Jerusalem and this year is
designated for a meeting of the Cabalistic Sanhedrin. This is the
day of the meeting; the place is this city. I want to be present at
this meeting in spite of the danger and am ready to take you along
with me.'
"'But will it not be dishonest to listen, will it not be an
unlawful interference with other people's secrets?'
"'Per Bacco! as we Italians say; with such hesitations you must
abandon once for all the idea of fulfilling your desire. Or do you
think that the people who guard the secret of the Caballah will
bring it to you on a tray? As far as I am concerned, I shall
discover the secret, at any cost!'
"After reflecting a few minutes, the scientist came to a decision.
"'I shall go with you, come what may!'
"'Very well. Now we have agreed. Let us go,--there is no time to
lose.'"
* * * * *
"The tower clock of the town-hall struck eleven. At the first
stroke a key clicked in the lock of the cemetery gates. Then
followed profound silence which indicated that the cemetery was
open. The lights in the Jewish houses were gradually dying out, and
at the same time the sounds of the merry feasting also subsided.
"Mysterious silence reigned in that terrible place.
"The gates creaked softly; the rustling of long coats was heard,
touching the stones and shrubbery; finally a vague white figure
appeared and slipped by like a shadow along the pathways.
"This figure knelt before one of the tombstones; three times it
touched the stone with its forehead and softly whispered a prayer.
"Along the path leading from the gates came an old man, bent,
limping, sighing and coughing. He came over to the ancient
tombstone, and lowered himself on his knees near the white figure
that had entered before him, and he, too, whispered a prayer.
"Then heavy footsteps were heard, and a tall, impressive figure
appeared on the road, clad in a white mantle, and he, too, fell
down on his knees, as though unwillingly, in front of the
tombstone.
"Thirteen times this was repeated. Thirteen old men came over to
the tombstone. The doctor counted them, but he could not understand
whether they were alive or dead. A shiver crept down his back, his
heart began to beat faster from fright. He involuntarily recalled
the terrible legend of the Day of Atonement in the tenth month,
Tishri, in the synagogue of Posen when, during the prayer of Kol
Nidrei, the congregation kept growing larger and larger; unknown
people, pushing one another, wrapped in prayer shawls, came in, one
hundred after another, until the terrified Rabbi lifted his hand as
if to curse and exclaimed: 'He who has flesh in his cheeks, let him
throw off the prayer shawl!' Hundreds remained covered, and when
the prayer shawls were torn away from them, all saw the skulls of
the dead who had come out of the graves to celebrate the Day of
Atonement with the rest of the congregation.
"As there, it seemed to him that the prayer shawls had fallen off
the heads of the praying old men, and a row of dead skulls
appeared. At that moment the clock struck twelve. A sharp metallic
sound rang out on the grave, after which a blue flame appeared and
illumined the thirteen kneeling figures.
"'I greet you, Roshe beth Aboth (heads) of the twelve tribes of
Israel,' announced a dull voice.
"'We greet you, son of the accursed.'
"'A hundred years have already passed. Where have the Nesiyim
(princes of the tribes) come from?'
"'From the lands where the nation of Adonai has been scattered by
the orders of our forefathers.'
"'Are you ready to fulfil the promise during the coming century?'
"'We are ready!'
"'Then say, whose representatives are you, and where do you come
from? Tribe of Judah?'
"'From Amsterdam,' replied a strong, loud voice.
"'Tribe of Benjamin?'
"'Toledo!' came the dull answer.
"'Tribe of Levi?'
"'Worms!'
"'Tribe of Manasseh?'
"'Budapest!'
"'Tribe of Gad?'
"'Cracow!'
"'Tribe of Simeon?'
"'Rome!'
"'Tribe of Zebulun?'
"'Paris!'
"'Tribe of Dan?'
"'Constantinople!'
"'Tribe of Asher?'
"'London!'
"'Tribe of Issachar?'
"The answer came in a faint voice and could not be heard
distinctly.
"'Tribe of Naphtali?'
"'Prague!'
"'And I am the representative of the unfortunate and exiles,' said
the man who asked the questions in a dull voice. 'I am myself
wandering about all over the world in order that I may unite you
for the sake of the cause of redemption which has been promised to
the seed of Abraham and which was taken from them by the sons of
him who was crucified! Who is here of the house of Aaron, let him
rise, scrutinize the heads of the tribes and gather the council.'
"The man who was the first to arrive rose and then seated himself
upon the tombstone. One by one the others came over to him and
whispered in his ear a seven-syllabled word, and each time he
nodded in approval. After that all returned to their former
places. 'Brethren,' said the Levite, 'our fathers formed a union
which compels all those chosen as representatives of the tribes to
gather every hundred years at the grave of the great teacher of
Caballah whose doctrines give the chosen ones power on earth and
supremacy over all the descendants of Ishmael. Eighteen hundred
years the struggle has been conducted by the nation of Israel for
supremacy which was promised to Abraham and which was taken away
from us by the Cross. Trampled under foot by our enemies, under the
terror of death and all kinds of humiliation and violence, the
nation of Israel, nevertheless, has not abandoned this struggle,
and as they are scattered all over the earth, the whole earth must
belong to them! Our learned men are conducting this struggle for
hundreds of years; the nation is gradually rising from its fall;
its power is growing and spreading. To us belongs the earthly god,
which was made for us with such sorrow by Aaron in the desert ...
the Golden Calf which the backsliders are worshipping!'
"'We hear!' they whispered on all sides.