A Protocol of 1919

A Protocol of 1919 is a text purportedly found on 9 December 1919, among the documents of a Jewish Red battalion commander killed in the Estonian War of Independence. The document's supposed authors, the "Israelite International League", gloat over their success at reducing the Russian people to "helpless slaves", and urge their fellow Jews to "excite hatred" and "buy up Government loans and gold", in order to grow in "political and economic power and influence". The text has been cited as evidence for the antisemitic belief that the Jews are conspiring to take over the world, and is likely a work of black propaganda.

History

A Protocol of 1919 was first published in the Estonian newspaper Postimees (morning edition) on 31 December 1919.[1]

The text was later reproduced in the appendix of a greatly expanded English-language edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in 1934 by the Patriotic Publishing Co., operating from a post office box in Chicago, Illinois. An introduction to the appendix claims that on 5 February 1920, a Russian newspaper in Berlin, Prizyv, published "an interesting document" dated December 1919. It was allegedly in Hebrew, and "was found in the pocket of the dead Jew Zunder, the Bolsheciv Commander of the 11th Sharp-shooter Battalion".[2]

Walter Laqueur, an American historian, states that "the German right-wing extremist press was supplied for years with information first published in Prizyv during its nine months of existence", and points to A Protocol of 1919 as a "typical" example.[3]

Content

The document consists of eleven short paragraphs of vague antisemitic generalizations, with eight admonitions to be "careful" or "cautious", and is signed by "The Central Committee of the Petersburg Branch of the Israelite International League". There is in it only one substantial factual sentence, but it consists merely of "dropping [five apparently historical] names" for the purpose of rendering a flattering exclamation, but in fact operates to discredit the individuals by labeling them "Jews":

Bronstein (Trotsky), Apfelbaum (Zinoviev), Rosenfeld (Kameneff), Steinberg — all of them are like unto thousands of other true sons of Israel.

The full text of the translated document is as follows:[2][4]

SECRET. To the representatives of all the branches of the Israelite International League.

Sons of Israel! The hour of our ultimate victory is near. We stand on the threshold to the command of the world. That which we could only dream of before us is about to be realized. Only quite recently feeble and powerless, we can now, thanks to the world's catastrophe, raise our heads with pride.

We must, however, be careful. It can surely be prophesied that, after we have marched over ruined and broken altars and thrones, we shall advance further on the same indicated path.

The authority of the, to us, alien religions and doctrines of faith we have, through very successful propaganda, subjected to a merciless criticism and mockery. We have brought the culture, civilization, traditions and thrones of the Christian nations to stagger. We have done everything to bring the Russian people under the yoke of the Jewish power, and ultimately compelled them to fall on their knees before us.

We have nearly completed all this but we must all the same be very cautious, because the oppressed Russia is our arch-enemy. The victory over Russia, gained through our intellectual superiority, may in future, in a new generation turn against us.

Russia is conquered and brought to the ground. Russia is in the agony of death under our heel, but do not forget -- not even for a moment -- that we must be careful! The holy care for our safety does not allow us to show either pity or mercy. At last we have been allowed to behold the bitter need of the Russian people, and to see it in tears! By taking from them their property, their gold, we have reduced this people to helpless slaves.

Be cautious and silent! We ought to have no mercy for our enemy. We must make an end of the best and leading elements of the Russian people, so that the vanquished Russia may not find any leader! Thereby every possibility will vanquish for them to resist our power. We must excite hatred and disputes between workers and peasants. War and class-struggle will destroy all treasures and culture created by the Christian people. But be cautious, Sons of Israel! Our victory is near, because our political and economic power and influence upon the masses are in rapid progress. We buy up Government loans and gold, and thereby we have controlling power over the world's exchanges. The power is in our hands, but be careful -- place no faith in traitorous shady powers!

Bronstein (Trotsky), Apfelbaum (Zinovieff), Rosenfeld (Kameneff), Steinberg -- all of them are like unto thousands of other true sons of Israel. Our power in Russia is unlimited. In the towns, the Commissariats and Commissions of Food, House Commissions, etc., are dominated by our people. But do not let victory intoxicate you. Be careful, cautious, because no one except yourselves will protect us! Remember we cannot rely on the Red Army, which one day may turn its warfare on ourselves.

Sons of Israel! The hour for our long-cherished victory over Russia is near; close up solid your ranks! Make known our people's national policy! Fight for eternal ideals! Keep holy the old laws, which history has bequeathed to us! May our intellect, our genius, protect and lead us!

Signed, The Central Committee of the Petersburg Branch of the Israelite International League.

References

  1. ↑ "Vene enamlust juhib juutide üleilmne salaliit". Postimees. 31 December 1919. Issue 290. p.1 - Digitalized Estonian Newspapers
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion – with Preface and Explanatory Notes (trans. Victor E. Marsden). Chicago: The Patriotic Publishing Co. 1934. Hosted online by David Dickerson, Institute for Global Communications.
  3. ↑ Laqueur, Walter (1965). Russia and Germany: A Century of Conflict. Transaction Publishers. p. 131. ISBN 0887383491.
  4. ↑ Lina, Jüri (2002). Under the Sign of the Scorpion - the Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire.