The Protocols of the Elders of Zion emerged at the dawn of the 20th century and has since served as a cornerstone of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Fabricated to propagate the falsehood of a clandestine Jewish body controlling global affairs, this text has been disseminated in countless editions and versions across decades and continues to be published today. The digital age has amplified its reach, with the Protocols circulating widely online and on social media platforms.
First published in a Russian newspaper in 1903, the Protocols purported to unveil a genuine document exposing a Jewish world conspiracy. This claim was, and remains, entirely false. Journalistic investigations, legal proceedings, and governmental analyses have consistently debunked the Protocols as a complete fabrication designed to fuel antisemitic hatred through lies.
Despite its proven fraudulent nature, the Protocols has been relentlessly exploited by conspiracy theorists for over 120 years to spread disinformation about Jewish people. The text is continually adapted to reflect contemporary events, deriving its persistent appeal from the allure of simplistic explanations for a complex world—a hallmark of conspiratorial thinking.
Unpacking The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Media Essay
Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Media Essay)
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The Protocols of the Elders of Zion purports to be the secret minutes of meetings held by a shadowy group known as the “learned elders of Zion.” This premise is entirely fictitious. No such meetings ever occurred, and the alleged leaders, the so-called Elders of Zion, are figments of antisemitic imagination.
Early publications of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion comprised 24 chapters, or “protocols,” each presented as verbatim records of these fabricated meetings. These protocols detail the supposed secret plans of the elders to manipulate global politics, economies, financial systems, media outlets, educational institutions, and various facets of society for Jewish benefit. Further antisemitic fabrications within the text include claims that Jews intend to dismantle Christianity and all other religions, and that they thrive on global conflict.
While versions and editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion differ, their underlying purpose remains constant: to attribute global problems to Jewish people. This act of blaming an entire group for societal ills is known as scapegoating. Promoters of the Protocols consistently aim to demonize Jewish people by falsely attributing various problems to them.
The Protocols in the Context of Long-Standing Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories
Antisemitic conspiracy theories predate the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion by centuries. These theories have mutated over time, drawing on religious, economic, nationalist, and racial prejudices to incite hatred against Jews. Historically, Jews have been falsely accused of deicide (killing Jesus), instigating wars and revolutions, and even causing plagues. The false accusation of Jewish control over global politics and economies is another recurring theme in antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Antisemitism gained momentum in the 19th century, a period of significant social, economic, and political upheaval across Europe and North America. Advances in communication technologies, particularly in printing, facilitated the rapid dissemination of ideas globally. A prevalent antisemitic narrative during this era claimed that Jews were orchestrating these societal shifts for their own gain. These conspiracy theories are echoed and amplified throughout The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.
Although the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion did not invent antisemitic prejudice, it consolidated and amplified existing conspiracy theories into a seemingly cohesive document. The book serves to reinforce and escalate the most prevalent antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The Origins of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion: Tracing the Fabrication
The initial version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion surfaced in 1903. It was serialized in Znamia (The Banner), a St. Petersburg, Russia newspaper, beginning that fall. Pavel Krushevan, the owner of Znamia, was a known writer and virulent antisemite who controlled multiple newspapers in the Russian Empire, using them to disseminate anti-Jewish hatred. Notably, antisemitic articles published in one of Krushevan’s newspapers in April 1903 contributed to inciting a pogrom in Kishinev.
Some scholars believe Krushevan himself was the original author of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. When Znamia published the text, Krushevan provided both a foreword and an afterword, asserting that the Protocols were minutes from a meeting of the “World Union of Freemasons and Elders of Zion.” Krushevan accused Jews of plotting global domination, citing the burgeoning Zionist movement as supposed “evidence.” Zionism, mirroring other nationalist movements of the time, advocated for a Jewish state in their historical homeland. False claims have linked the Protocols to the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, asserting it as the meeting minutes. This is demonstrably untrue.
In 1905, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was appended to a book about the Antichrist by Sergei Nilus, a Russian mystic known for his antisemitism. Nilus’s book furthered the lie, portraying Jews as agents of satanic forces bent on destroying the world.
Global Spread of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion gained wider circulation after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In that year, amidst widespread unrest driven by demands for food, an end to World War I, and the termination of imperial rule, the Russian Tsar abdicated. Months later, the Bolshevik Party seized power in Russia through a coup. The Bolshevik Party would later become the Communist Party.
Fear of communist revolutions spreading across Europe amplified a key antisemitic conspiracy theory embedded within The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: the false accusation that Jews were responsible for Communism and for orchestrating the Bolshevik Revolution. This dangerous falsehood is often termed “Judeo-Bolshevism.”
In the ensuing years, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion found receptive audiences in numerous countries. Translated into dozens of languages, it was published globally. A German edition appeared in 1919, and throughout the 1920s, versions proliferated across Europe and the United States. French, English, Japanese, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, and Arabic translations emerged rapidly.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion inspired a wave of other publications promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. Notable among these in the United States was Henry Ford’s The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem. Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, was a highly influential figure in the 1920s. The International Jew was initially serialized in Ford’s newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, and quickly became a book translated into at least 16 languages, including German. Nazi Party leaders, including Adolf Hitler, drew inspiration from The International Jew.
As The Protocols of the Elders of Zion traversed the globe, its content was frequently modified to align with current events and local contexts. This accounts for the variations in content across different editions and languages. However, the core antisemitic themes remained consistent across all versions.
Exposure of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a Forgery: The 1920s
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The Times, August 17, 1921 (Media Essay)
In 1921, a London Times article presented irrefutable evidence exposing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a fraud. The most widely circulated antisemitic publication of modern times, the Protocols falsely claims to be the record of secret meetings of Jewish leaders plotting world domination. Despite repeated discrediting, it continues to circulate today.
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In 1920, British journalist and diplomat Lucien Wolf published a book meticulously debunking The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Wolf traced portions of the Protocols to a chapter in the German-language novel Biarritz (1868). This fictional work depicted Jewish leaders holding secret meetings in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, culminating in a scene where the Devil arrives to endorse their plans.
The following year, The Times newspaper of London unequivocally declared The Protocols of the Elders of Zion a “fake” and a “clumsy forgery.” The Times revealed that significant portions of the Protocols were plagiarized from Maurice Joly’s Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu (1864), a French political satire that contains no mention of Jews.
Further exposés of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion soon emerged in the United States and Germany. New York Herald reporter Herman Bernstein published The History of a Lie: The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion in 1921. In 1924, German journalist Benjamin Segel authored The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Critically Illuminated (Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion, kritisch beleuchtet). In the preface to an English edition, Segel wrote:
“This forgery has caused untold misery to the Jews, and still exercises an incredible spell on the minds of the seduced masses.”
Adolf Hitler and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Adolf Hitler was introduced to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the early 1920s by Alfred Rosenberg, a prominent Nazi ideologue. The conspiracy theories presented in the Protocols reinforced Hitler’s deeply ingrained belief that Jews were responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War I.
Hitler referenced The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in his early political speeches during the 1920s and discussed the book in his autobiography Mein Kampf (1925). Hitler asserted that the Protocols “reveal the nature and activity of Jewish people and expose…their ultimate final aims.” He also predicted that the “Jewish menace” would be “broken” once the Protocols gained wider recognition.
After becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hitler ceased direct public references to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. However, his rhetoric frequently echoed the book’s central lies, including the claim that Jews were responsible for the spread of Communism—the Judeo-Bolshevism conspiracy theory.
Nazi Propaganda and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Front page of a German newspaper with a large Gothic title font. The illustration on the front is a political cartoon featuring an antisemtic depiction of a Jewish man glaring at a weeping veiled woman labeled Europa. She is weeping on the chest of a large man with light skin tone and light.Artifact
Der Stürmer, number 29, July 1934 (Artifact)
Nazi Germany’s fiercely antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer, a semi-official publication, warned of a Jewish plot for world domination in this July 1934 issue. The article, titled “Who is the Enemy?”, blamed Jews for societal breakdown and falsely claimed they desired war while the rest of the world sought peace. Der Stürmer, July 1934.
Credits: – US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Virginius Dabney
Despite being exposed as a lie over a decade before the Nazi rise to power in 1933, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was utilized in Nazi propaganda to mobilize Germans around the idea of defending against Jewish aggressors. While it is unlikely most Germans directly read the Protocols, its antisemitic lies became deeply ingrained through relentless Nazi propaganda campaigns.
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s Minister of Propaganda, recognized the potential of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to demonize Jews. Even before his ministerial appointment, Goebbels acknowledged in his diary: “I believe that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery.” However, he continued, “I believe in the inner, but not the factual, truth of The Protocols.” For Goebbels, the utility of the Protocols in advancing the Nazi antisemitic agenda superseded its factual basis.
Aggressive antisemitic propaganda from the Nazi Party heavily relied on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Stürmer, consistently featured stories throughout the 1930s drawing upon themes from the Protocols. The Nazi Party’s central publishing house, Franz Eher Verlag, issued 22 editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion between 1919 and 1938.
Further Exposure of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a Lie: The 1930s
Nazi sympathizers beyond Germany also disseminated copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, leading to legal challenges.
In 1934, a lawsuit in Grahamstown, South Africa, was brought against leaders of the South African Gentile National Socialist Movement (Greyshirts), Nazi sympathizers who were fined for distributing a document resembling the Protocols. The South African Supreme Court ruled the Protocols a “defamatory document.”
In 1935, a Swiss court fined two Nazi leaders for distributing a German edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion at a National Front demonstration in Bern, Switzerland. The presiding judge denounced the Protocols as “ridiculous nonsense.”
Nazi Editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion during World War II
During World War II (1939–1945), as Nazi Germany occupied vast swathes of Europe, including parts of the Soviet Union, they circulated The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in occupied territories. Even after the mass murder of millions of Jews in the “Final Solution,” German authorities published editions of the Protocols in Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian in 1943. Versions of the Protocols and other texts promoting Jewish conspiracy lies also appeared in German-occupied France, Belgium, and Poland.
Exposure of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a Lie: Post-Holocaust
In 1964, a US Senate subcommittee report unequivocally declared The Protocols of the Elders of Zion “a vicious hoax.” Published during the Cold War amidst heightened concerns about Communism, the report clarified that the Protocols was “one of a number of fraudulent documents that peddle the myth of an ‘international Jewish conspiracy.’” The Senate report dismissed the Protocols as “gibberish.”
Contemporary Antisemitism, Holocaust Denial, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Despite repeated exposures as a fabrication, the power of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has not diminished in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The Protocols and conspiratorial thinking about Jews continue to fuel antisemitism globally. Editions are readily available in print and online in numerous languages, and references to the book are common on social media. A 2024 US Department of State report indicates the Protocols retains significant influence in Russia, its country of origin.
Modern iterations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion falsely blame Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as for war and acts of terrorism, including the September 11, 2001 attacks. Alarmingly, the Protocols has been incorporated into school textbooks in some regions and has even inspired television programming.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion continues to be used in political propaganda and by political leaders. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005–2013) frequently invoked themes from the Protocols in his antisemitic rhetoric. Other influential political and social figures, particularly in the Middle East, have publicly asserted the book’s authenticity. The terrorist organization Hamas has employed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to justify calls for the destruction of both Jewish people and the State of Israel.
Some contemporary versions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion incorporate Holocaust denial, while others distort Holocaust history. For instance, some falsely claim Jewish collaboration with the Nazis to establish the State of Israel.
The enduring purpose of these contemporary adaptations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion remains unchanged: to propagate antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish people.
Footnotes
Last Edited: Nov 26, 2024 Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
