Read Online Conspiracy: History’s Greatest Plots, Collusions and Cover-Ups by Charlotte Greig - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Charlotte Greig
Ads: Link
leaders were Jewish was taken by many as proof of the worldwide Jewish conspiracy.
Curiously, one of the visions put forward by the Protocols – that of a small group taking over a huge country – was repeated by the real events of a decade later when the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution transformed Russia. Before long this was seen by many as evidence that the Bolshevik revolution was in fact part of the Jewish conspiracy. Jews and communists were now bracketed together across much of the world and the Protocols were put forward as damning evidence. The Protocols were popular with right wing elements in 1920s Germany and also in the United States. No less a man than Henry Ford sponsored the printing of half a million copies in America.
Then the debunking began. Experts looked at the document and soon noticed that its origins lay in pulp fiction rather than historical fact. In 1920, one Lucien Wolf published an exposé tracing the history of the Protocols back to the works of Goedsche and Joly. The
Times
soon followed suit and, later that year, a book documenting the hoax was published in the United States by Herman Bernstein.
Senior members of the Nazi Party, including Julius Streicher (L), at a rally, 1935. Anti-Semitism was the cornerstone of the Nazi world view.
A DOLF H ITLER
One might have thought that this would have been the end of the tale. Sadly not. By the 1920s anti-Semitism was endemic, nowhere more so than in Germany. Adolf Hitler referred to the Protocols in
Mein Kampf
: "To what extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, so infinitely hated by the Jews", he wrote. He acknowledged the claims that the book was a forgery but ignored them, claiming instead that "with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims."
Once the Nazis took power in Germany the book became a set text in schools and helped fuel all the horrors of the Holocaust. It did not matter to the German Nazis that in 1934 a Swiss Nazi was brought to court after he had published a series of articles accepting the Protocols as fact. The trial, known as the Berne Trial, finished in May 1935 when the court declared the Protocols to be forgeries, plagiarisms and obscene literature. As far as Hitler was concerned, however, a lurid lie beat the truth every time and the Swiss verdict was completely ignored.
The palpable falsity of the Protocols has not stopped their circulation in more recent times, either. They are widely published across the Arab world and have proved particularly popular in Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where they have been used to inflame opinion over the whole Palestinian question. In America, too, the Protocols are still accepted as fact by both neo-Nazi organizations and Louis Farrakhan's Nation Of Islam, which has distributed copies.
The history of the Protocols demonstrates that a powerful conspiracy theory need not have any factual basis to gain acceptance: it also reminds us that false conspiracy theories can do an enormous amount of harm if they are cynically used to back up the worst political objectives and to persecute innocent people.
T HE G EMSTONE F ILES
One of the most outrageous and entertaining global conspiracy theories is that of the mysterious Gemstone Files. This theory in essence suggests that the Mafia, led for a time by Aristotle Onassis, controlled America during the 1950s and 1960s.
Allegedly, the original Gemstone files were compiled from a series of writings and talks given by a man named Bruce Roberts in San Francisco during the late sixties and early seventies. The mysterious Roberts was supoosedly responsible for inventing the synthetic ruby used in laser technology, but claimed to have been swindled out of his discovery by the Howard Hughes organisation. He also claimed to have been involved in, or
Curiously, one of the visions put forward by the Protocols – that of a small group taking over a huge country – was repeated by the real events of a decade later when the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution transformed Russia. Before long this was seen by many as evidence that the Bolshevik revolution was in fact part of the Jewish conspiracy. Jews and communists were now bracketed together across much of the world and the Protocols were put forward as damning evidence. The Protocols were popular with right wing elements in 1920s Germany and also in the United States. No less a man than Henry Ford sponsored the printing of half a million copies in America.
Then the debunking began. Experts looked at the document and soon noticed that its origins lay in pulp fiction rather than historical fact. In 1920, one Lucien Wolf published an exposé tracing the history of the Protocols back to the works of Goedsche and Joly. The
Times
soon followed suit and, later that year, a book documenting the hoax was published in the United States by Herman Bernstein.
Senior members of the Nazi Party, including Julius Streicher (L), at a rally, 1935. Anti-Semitism was the cornerstone of the Nazi world view.
A DOLF H ITLER
One might have thought that this would have been the end of the tale. Sadly not. By the 1920s anti-Semitism was endemic, nowhere more so than in Germany. Adolf Hitler referred to the Protocols in
Mein Kampf
: "To what extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, so infinitely hated by the Jews", he wrote. He acknowledged the claims that the book was a forgery but ignored them, claiming instead that "with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims."
Once the Nazis took power in Germany the book became a set text in schools and helped fuel all the horrors of the Holocaust. It did not matter to the German Nazis that in 1934 a Swiss Nazi was brought to court after he had published a series of articles accepting the Protocols as fact. The trial, known as the Berne Trial, finished in May 1935 when the court declared the Protocols to be forgeries, plagiarisms and obscene literature. As far as Hitler was concerned, however, a lurid lie beat the truth every time and the Swiss verdict was completely ignored.
The palpable falsity of the Protocols has not stopped their circulation in more recent times, either. They are widely published across the Arab world and have proved particularly popular in Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where they have been used to inflame opinion over the whole Palestinian question. In America, too, the Protocols are still accepted as fact by both neo-Nazi organizations and Louis Farrakhan's Nation Of Islam, which has distributed copies.
The history of the Protocols demonstrates that a powerful conspiracy theory need not have any factual basis to gain acceptance: it also reminds us that false conspiracy theories can do an enormous amount of harm if they are cynically used to back up the worst political objectives and to persecute innocent people.
T HE G EMSTONE F ILES
One of the most outrageous and entertaining global conspiracy theories is that of the mysterious Gemstone Files. This theory in essence suggests that the Mafia, led for a time by Aristotle Onassis, controlled America during the 1950s and 1960s.
Allegedly, the original Gemstone files were compiled from a series of writings and talks given by a man named Bruce Roberts in San Francisco during the late sixties and early seventies. The mysterious Roberts was supoosedly responsible for inventing the synthetic ruby used in laser technology, but claimed to have been swindled out of his discovery by the Howard Hughes organisation. He also claimed to have been involved in, or
Similar Books
