One of the most recent books about The Protocols is the book by historian Alex Grobman, License to Murder: The Enduring Threat of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
(also available in a Kindle edition). AsBret Stephens points out in his foreword to License to Murder, antisemitism today is 'the hate that dare not speak its name'.
Indeed, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has not only infected masses of people who otherwise would have no familiarity with Jews--the Protocols has also attracted famous people as well as "intellectuals".
For example, Henry Ford practically single-handedly established the popularity of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the US and bolstered its international appeal--going so far as to influence Hitler.
Alex Grobman writes:
In 1920 the first American edition of the Protocols was published in The Protocols and World Revolution by Boris Brasol, a leader of the Russian monarchist movement in the US. By the end of the year, there were three editions form which to choose. It is Brasol who was responsible for convincing Henry Ford of the authenticity of the Protocols which Ford then published in his International Jew series in the Dearborn Independent.Grobman also examines the popularity of The Protocols in the Middle East, where the long history of Muslim antisemitism makes the Protocols a natural favorite of the regimes there.
Entitled "The International Jew: The World's Problem," the first article in this consecutive series appeared on May 22, 1920, and then sporadically until 1927.
The hostile slanderous nature of Ford's antisemitic articles is evident in their titles, which included "The Scope of Jewish Dictatorship in America," "Jewish Gamblers Corrupt American Baseball," "How the Jewish Song Trust Makes you Sing," "Jewish Jazz Becomes Our National Music," "How Jews Gained American Liquor Control" and "The Jewish Associates of Benedict Arnold."
...When asked in 1921 why he had chosen to publish the series Ford explained that he was "only trying to awake the Gentile world to an understanding of what is going on. The Jew is a huckster, a trader who doesn't want to produce, but to make something out of what somebody else produces". He also blamed them for subversively instigating war behind the scenes for their own profit.
...Adolph Hitler acknowledged that Henry ford's The International Jew influenced him in writing Mein Kampf, and had a picture of Ford hung on the wall in his Munich office. "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," Hitler told a reporter for the Detroit News. In 1938, Hitler sent his personal greetings to Ford on the occasion of his 75th birthday, and conferred upon him the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest honor that could be bestowed on a foreign national.
The International Jew also influenced Baldur von Schirach, Reich leader of the Nazi Students' Federation and future leader of the Hitler Youth. After reading Der International Jude in 1924 at the age of 17, a year prior to hearing Hitler speak for the first time, von Schirach remarked that "The younger generation looked with envy to the symbols of success and prosperity like Henry Ford. And if Henry Ford said the Jews were to blame, why, naturally we believed him."
...The Nation observed the significant increase of antisemitism engulfing the world in 1920 and concluded that "the chief responsibility for the survival of this hoary shame among us in America attaches to Henry Ford." Historian Norman Cohn believed that The International Jew" probably did more than any other work to make the Protocols more famous."
On the eve of World War II the Protocols were more popular than they had been even in 1920 before being exposed as a forgery. (p52-54)
Grobman concludes:
The study of the Protocols can easily lead to despair that reason and enlightenment can never prevail. The lies against the Jewish people are extremely hateful and seemingly eternal. The Protocols are dangerous not only because they are used as a political weapon and to justify social discrimination against Jews, but because they represent a threat to our way of life: democracy, individual freedom, open society, modernity, reason, rationality and truth. Understanding the Protocols is imperative if we hope to combat this toxic conspiracy.(p.98)Alex Grobman's book about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a step in this direction.
Technorati Tag: Israel and Antisemitism and Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Which misses two key points, one which follows from the other.
ReplyDeleteThe left has adopted or embraced The Protocols now since it is less fashionable and has been since 1945 to be a fascist. The second point is that it it no longer considered mere propaganda. It is embraced by the Arab world as truth, as literal a truth as their Quran. The left in the west is truly only a few years behind in their own full on prostration of the Protocols as truth as well. It is now considered bleeding edge leftist rhetoric to 'argue both sides of the issue" and how the holocaust and holocaust denial are merely 'competing narratives.'
In 5 years, tops, the Protocols and Holocaust denial will be academic and political mainstream in at least one western country be it the EU or North America.