The History of a Lie Part 6

"'What does the law say?' asked one of the twelve.

"'For adultery with a woman of our own people-death; for seducing a girl-a fine, if she was not betrothed; if she was betrothed-death.

But the law is not so rigorous with regard to one who lives with a slave-her body belongs to her master.'

"'Are the goyim better than our slaves?'

"This explanation was followed by a whisper of approval.

"'The tribe of Mana.s.seh may speak now!'

"The last of the orators lifted his hand and during his speech he raised and lowered it, as if desiring thus to make a stronger impression by his words. His voice was hoa.r.s.e and unpleasant, but he spoke skilfully and with a.s.surance.

"'If gold is the first power in the world, the press is the second.

Of what value are all the opinions and advice given here without the aid of the press? We will attain our aim only when the press is in our hands. Our people must direct the daily publications. We are cunning, shrewd, and we possess money which we know how to utilize for our purposes. We need great political newspapers which mold public opinion-criticism, the literature of the streets and the stage. In this way we will crowd out the Christians step by step, and will dictate to the world what it should believe in, what it should respect, and what it should curse. We will repeat the sorrowful cry of Israel and the complaints against the persecutions which are directed against us. Then, even though each individual may be against us, the ma.s.ses, in their stupidity, will always be for us. With the press in our hands, we can turn wrong into right, dishonesty into honesty. We can shake all foundations, and separate families. We can destroy faith in all that our enemies, until now, have believed. We can ruin credits and arouse pa.s.sions. We can declare war; we can award fame or disgrace. We can uplift or ruin talent.

"'When Israel shall have gold and the press in his hands, we will be able to ask: "On what day will it please you to _put on Atarah_ (crown) which belongs to us by right, to erect Shisse (?) and extend the Shebet (sceptre) over the nations of the earth?"'

"A noisy greeting followed these words and the agitated men who listened hardly understood for some time what was being said at the meeting. At last the voice of the Levite called upon all to be silent.

"'The Roshe-Bate-Aboth of the twelve tribes have uttered words of wisdom. These words will be as pillars for the times to come, if the son of him "who has not rest" will write these words upon his memory and spread the seeds among the nation of Israel in order that it may grow to be a mighty tree. They will be the sword with which Israel will strike down his enemies. Our posterity must share among themselves happiness, wealth and power as it shared misfortune and dangers. They must help one another. Wherever one of them places his foot, he must drag another-his brother-along with him. If one of them is unfortunate, others must help him, if he but lives according to the law of our nation.

"'He who was in prison for ten years, may become a rich man to whom princes will bow, if only our people will not forsake him. Where everybody is against us, all will be for us. After forty years of wandering in the desert, the hand of Jehovah brought us to power in the land of Canaan; the same hand will lead us after forty-five times forty years from our misfortune and miseries to rule over lands which are forty-five times vaster than Canaan. If Israel shall obey the decision here adopted by the Sanhedrin of the Caballah, our grandchildren, coming a hundred years hence to the grave of the founder of our union, will announce to him that they have indeed become the princes of the world and that the promise made to the nation of Israel has been fulfilled. Other nations will become his slaves! Renew our oath, sons of the golden calf, and go to all lands of the world.'

"The blue flame flared up brightly upon the grave of the Rabbi; each of the thirteen threw upon the tomb a stone which each carried under his cloak.

"It seemed to the doctor that on the top of the tombstone, in the bluish flame, there appeared a monstrous golden figure of an animal.

"Then he heard the same metallic sound that he had heard when the light first appeared. Then impenetrable darkness covered the cemetery.

"The white figures again slipped by among the tombstones. The gates creaked softly.

"The clock in the tower struck two past midnight. The last of the mysterious visitors knocked at the window and a hoa.r.s.e voice said (as though the speaker knew that the watchman was not asleep):

"'Close the house of life, watchman of those who are awaiting the resurrection, and may your lips be sealed with the seal of Solomon for a hundred years.'

"The scholar still lay motionless; he was afraid to stir; all he had heard had made upon him such a dreadful impression.

"A noise near him indicated that his companion was rising.

"'To concentrate in their hands all the capital of the nations of all lands; to secure possession of all the land, railroads, mines, houses; to be at the head of all organizations, to occupy the highest governmental posts, to paralyze commerce and industry everywhere, to seize the press, to direct legislation, public opinion and national movements-and all for the purpose of subjugating all nations on earth to their power! No! I shall struggle against the golden calf and shall smash it to pieces as Moses smashed it in the desert.'

"'What we heard is a threat against all society. Here is my hand, I will be your comrade in this struggle against the power of gold.'

"The Italian shook his head, but accepted the extended hand. 'No,'

he said, 'I want to act alone. There is a force which, if properly directed, is not weaker than gold. That force is poverty and her companion, labor. I shall call them out and lead them into battle.

Proud Israel! Beware! I shall put against you the _Artel_ (union) and Labor.'

"'And I,' said the scholar, with animation, 'all that is lofty and n.o.ble,-science, idealism, faith-I shall lead these against this materialism.'

"His comrade laughed:

"'Your ideals will crumble as clay striking against metal. Only the forces of poverty and hunger can be the fighters that will defeat the golden calf. Our ways part here; you will go one way, and I another. My promise is fulfilled; but remember your vow-be silent as to all that you have heard and seen here!'"

This is the weird, fantastic "thriller" from which sprang the Protocols.

It is the first stage. According to this story not only were there present at a secret meeting in the Prague Cemetery, the representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel, ten of which totally disappeared nearly twenty-five centuries ago, but also the son of "the accursed one," the Devil, was there, making side-remarks from time to time. His a.s.signed function was that of spreading the decisions of the Wise Men of Zion among the Jews in order that they conquer the world.

Dr. Herman L. Strack, professor of theology at the University of Berlin, one of the foremost Christian authorities on theological and religious literature, commenting on this Goedsche-Retcliffe concoction, says that this tale of the ghostly convocation in the Jewish cemetery at Prague, discloses no real knowledge of Judaism, that the reference to mixed marriages indicates gross ignorance of actual Jewish thought, and that the Hebrew words supposed to have been employed by the spokesmen for the various tribes appear to have been borrowed from a dictionary. He also points to Goedsche-Retcliffe's story and the "Rabbi's Speech" about to be mentioned as the sources of the Protocols.

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.

A number of years after this Russian translation of the Goedsche-Retcliffe story appeared, Sir John Retcliffe, alias Goedsche, deeming it important for his purpose of adding fuel to the flame of anti-semitism that had been lighted in Germany, undertook to convert this work of fiction, this offspring of his imagination, into a statement of fact. This led him to adopt the simple device of consolidating into one continuous speech the dialogue contained in his shilling shocker, and putting the speech into the mouth of an imaginary Rabbi in such a way as to make it appear to be an address delivered by him to a secret convocation of Jews. And the very man who had invented the speeches set down in his work of fiction twenty years before, now vouched for the authenticity of the obviously fabricated speech which he attributed to a Rabbi who had his birth in the contorted mind of this notorious forger.

A translation from the Russian of the apocryphal "Rabbi's Speech," with the introductory note as published in Russia by G. Butmi, in 1907, in a book ent.i.tled "The Enemy of the Human Race," dedicated by the author to the Black Hundreds, will now be laid before the reader. A comparison of it, with the scene in the cemetery, will at once demonstrate the ident.i.ty of authorship. Below is a facsimile of the t.i.tle page of this book, a copy of which is in the Russian collection of the Library of Congress, in Washington, D. C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cyrillic]

[Transcription: ?. ?????.

???. ??????? ??????????? ?????????, 18.

1907.

[Transliteration: G. BUTMI.