Conspiracy: A HistoryExtra<\/em> podcast series<\/h4>\n
Member exclusive<\/strong> | Was the moon landing faked? Did Shakespeare actually write his plays? Were the pyramids built by aliens? Expert historians offer their perspectives on history\u2019s biggest conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
Listen to all episodes now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>

$\"Conspiracy$ <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/section>
What is the source of the theory?<\/h2>\n
According to historian Pamela S Nadell, professor of history and Jewish studies at American University in Washington DC, the notion of a worldwide Jewish plot is linked to a pogrom in 1903. That April, antisemitic violence erupted in Kishinev, in the Russian empire\u2019s Bessarabian Governate (located mostly in present-day Moldova and partly in Ukraine), resulting in the deaths of 49 Jews and injury to hundreds more.<\/p>\n
Although pogroms were hardly uncommon in 19th and early 20th century tsarist Russia, Kishinev sparked outrage around the world and raised awareness of the Romanov empire\u2019s proclivity for antisemitic atrocities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that so many different places from America [and] across Europe would denounce this horror shocked Russian nationalists, who believed that the only group that could have orchestrated something like this [the international condemnation] had to have been the Jews,\u201d says Nadell.<\/p>\n
The antisemitic propaganda filling the Kishinev newspaper of journalist Pavel Krushevan helped instigate the Kishinev Pogrom in the spring of 1903. That fall, the Protocols<\/em> made their debut in his St Petersburg newspaper, Znamya<\/em>. Krushevan either wrote them on his own or with the help of others.<\/p>\n
The reasons why the theory took hold<\/h2>\n
Nadell explains that the roots of antisemitism can be traced back centuries and that hatred and suspicion of Jews had become endemic throughout medieval Europe. Christian belief that a Jewish conspiracy was responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was widespread and led to them being accused of despicable things.<\/p>\n
\u201cJews [were] stereotyped in dangerous ways,\u201d she says, pointing out that the charge of \u2018blood libel\u2019, was among the most notorious and enduring accusations levied at them by Christians.<\/p>\n
The earliest charge of blood libel in medieval Europe took place in Norwich, England, in 1144 when local Jews were falsely accused of the violent death of a young apprentice. Though now refuted, Thomas of Monmouth wrote that the boy\u2019s murder had been part of a sacral rite whereby \u201cJewish leaders would meet to cast lots to choose the place for the coming year\u2019s victim. So, it\u2019s almost the first intimation of some kind of Jewish international conspiracy,\u201d explains Nadell.<\/p>\n
However, she asserts that the Protocols<\/em> poses something \u201cdifferent\u201d because \u201c[it\u2019s] written in the modern period\u201d.<\/p>\n
Beyond ultranationalist circles, the text initially made little impact within Russia. But that changed with the October Revolution<\/a> of 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd (now St Petersburg).<\/p>\n

Beyond ultranationalist circles, the text initially made little impact within Russia. But that changed with the October Revolution of 1917 <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Disgruntled tsarists and reactionaries of every stripe were horrified by the nascent Soviet regime, and this spawned what Nadell describes as \u201cone of the most enduring antisemitic myths of the 20th century\u201d: \u2018Judeo-Bolshevism\u2019.<\/p>\n
The presence of Jews \u2013 the most prominent being Leon Trotsky \u2013 among the Bolshevik leadership was pounced upon as proof of their supposed complicity in the destruction of Russia\u2019s old order.<\/p>\n
As the Protocols<\/em> had accused the Jews of having \u201cmasterminded the French Revolution\u201d, says Nadell, so Russian nationalists saw the prospect of world revolution championed by Lenin as \u201cBolshevism \u2026 fulfilling the prophecy of the Protocols<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion<\/em> in 1920s America<\/h2>\n
Both during and after the Russian Civil War, nationalist exiles took the Protocols<\/em> with them, bringing the conspiracy theory to Western Europe and the United States.<\/p>\n
In 1919, Rev. George A Simons \u2013 who had spent more than a decade at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) \u2013 appeared before the US Senate\u2019s Overman Committee \u2013 which had been established to investigate possible German and Bolshevik subversion within the country \u2013 to testify on the events in Russia, whereupon he drew a \u2018distinction\u2019 between Jews and Russians.<\/p>\n
He asserted that \u201conly 16 of 388 [members of the Soviet government] were real<\/em> Russians,\u201d says Nadell. \u201cWe know that his information was false, but the Senate was really worried that there was going to be a Bolshevik revolution in America\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was amid such hysteria that the Protocols <\/em>found fertile ground \u2013 and among its most enthusiastic adherents was the industrialist, Henry Ford. A year after the committee, the automobile pioneer used his recently acquired newspaper The Dearborn Independent<\/em> to peddle antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Amid such hysteria the Protocols found fertile ground \u2013 and among its most enthusiastic adherents was the industrialist, Henry Ford <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
On 22 May 1920, Ford\u2019s weekly featured the headline: \u201cThe International Jew: The World\u2019s Problem\u201d on its front page and launched a 91-week series of antisemitic articles. \u201cThe series does exactly what the Protocols<\/em> did,\u201d explains Nadell. \u201cIn fact, it republishes parts of the Protocols<\/em> \u2026 and talks about how the Jews are achieving their goals by manipulating the economy, by manipulating the press and by being the power behind the throne\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ford\u2019s public crusade inspired far right demagogues like Adolf Hitler. In 1923, months before the Beer Hall Putsch<\/a> in Munich, Hitler was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune<\/em> and expressed his admiration for \u201cHeinrich Ford\u201d.<\/p>\n
As Nadell points out, this was around the time that Ford was contemplating running for the White House<\/a>. \u201cHitler says that if he could, he would send some of his shock troops to the United States to help Ford in his presidential campaign,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n
More than two decades later, as the full horrors of the Holocaust were coming to light, an organisation called the Christian Nationalist Crusade was republishing the Protocols<\/em> and [Ford\u2019s] The International Jew<\/em>\u00a0in the US. The latter had never been copyrighted and its pernicious message continued to be disseminated after the downfall of Hitler\u2019s \u2018thousand-year Reich\u2019.<\/p>\n
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion<\/em>: the evidence that debunks the theory<\/h2>\n
The Protocols<\/em> was exposed as a fake soon after its resurgence during the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.<\/p>\n
In 1921, Philip Graves, a journalist for London newspaper The Times<\/em>, revealed the document not only to be a hoax, but a plagiarism of Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu<\/em>, by the French writer Maurice Joly. Published in 1864, this satire was in fact a critique of Napoleon III\u2019s authoritarian rule.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Joly\u2019s book] never mentioned the Jews,\u201d explains Nadell. \u201cWhat [Krushevan] did was lift it from there and then insert the Jews \u2013 and actually The Times<\/em> published a comparison side by side\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 1933, the United Jewish Communities of Switzerland and the Jewish Community of Bern sued the antisemitic Swiss National Front for disseminating the Protocols<\/em>. Two years later, a Swiss judge, declared the Protocols \u201cridiculous nonsense\u201d and ruled that they were a forgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though [it has] been debunked over and over again \u2026 people still continue to believe it,\u201d says Nadell.<\/p>\n
Since the end of the Second World War<\/a>, the Protocols<\/em> has spread across the Middle East and continues to be sold in book shops in several nations around the world. Even as recently as 2002, Nadell points out, Egyptian satellite television developed a 41-part miniseries based on the Protocols<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, she emphasises that the myth of a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world remains potent, with the rise of the internet and the echo chambers of social media helping to spread the conspiracy.<\/p>\n
The abuse directed at the likes of the Hungarian-born, Jewish philanthropist, George Soros \u2013 spuriously accused by conspiracists of everything from having orchestrated the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, to being the mastermind behind Europe\u2019s migrant crisis \u2013 as well as the backlash against the concept of globalism, is \u2018the heir\u2019 to the perceived internationalist menace that so obsessed antisemites like Ford.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a conspiracy theory that helped fuel the Holocaust<\/a>,\u201d Nadell concludes, \u201cthis is a conspiracy theory that has had horrific ramifications\u201d.<\/p>\n
Professor Pamela S Nadell is an American historian, researcher, and author focusing on Jewish history. Former President of the Association for Jewish Studies, she currently holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women\u2019s and Gender history at American University. She was speaking to Rob Attar on the Conspiracy: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion<\/em><\/a> episode, part of our Conspiracy<\/em> podcast series<\/a><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During the early 20th century, a mysterious tract allegedly detailing plans of an international Jewish plot to take over the world, appeared in Russia. Known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, it was soon exposed as an elaborate fake. In the second season of our Conspiracy podcast series, Rob Attar speaks to Pamela Nadell about the Protocols\u2019 deadly legacy and why, despite its unveiling as a fraud over 100 years ago, some continue to cleave to its toxic worldview <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34436,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"8"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/03\/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-the-real-history-that-debunks-one-of-historys-darkest-conspiracies.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/03\/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-the-real-history-that-debunks-one-of-historys-darkest-conspiracies-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/03\/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-the-real-history-that-debunks-one-of-historys-darkest-conspiracies-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/03\/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-the-real-history-that-debunks-one-of-historys-darkest-conspiracies.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/03\/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-the-real-history-that-debunks-one-of-historys-darkest-conspiracies.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/03\/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-the-real-history-that-debunks-one-of-historys-darkest-conspiracies.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/03\/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-the-real-history-that-debunks-one-of-historys-darkest-conspiracies.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"During the early 20th century, a mysterious tract allegedly detailing plans of an international Jewish plot to take over the world, appeared in Russia. Known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, it was soon exposed as an elaborate fake. In the second season of our Conspiracy podcast series, Rob Attar speaks to Pamela…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}