Written by an Unknown Author, plagiarised from various authors
First published in imperial Russia in 1903
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a text that claims to be a detailed account of a meeting that describes a Jewish plot for world domination. The plans vary from plans to control the economy, manipulate the media, and also foster religious conflict. Despite the book being proved to be false many times over, this book, unfortunately, contributed to the rampant rise of anti-semitism during this time. It is also mentioned in the text that Liberalism, Socialism, communism, and anarchism were to be used to subvert the Christian Faith and weaken European society. If that were to fail the Capitals of Europe would all be sabotaged. Even now this text is still influential among far-right extremist groups who share the same beliefs as anti-Semites of the past. To me, the whole idea is absurd and reads off to me as yet again another case of bad fan fiction similar to what we read previously such as the Gospel of Judas. This reads to me as yet another case of upper-class wealthy elites trying to protect their status by using Jewish people as a scapegoat so the lower classes focus their energies on other groups but themselves. The fact Freemasonry is mentioned so frequently is very interesting to me. It’s very much treated as a religion and is regarded in the same vein as the Jewish faith, despite the Free Masons being more of a Fraternity club. It ties into the future because Hitler alleged repeatedly that the Jews were using Freemasonry to achieve their own ends. Studying this text has certainly been eye-opening in the grander scheme of anti-seminitism. When we get the Men Kampf, it will be very interesting to see the similarities between the two texts and what inspired Hitler.