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Warrant for Genocide
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303 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
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About the author
Norman Cohn
32 books43 followersJewish academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
His main subject were the connection between medievel anti-semitism and contemporary anti-semitismn.
His main subject were the connection between medievel anti-semitism and contemporary anti-semitismn.
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October 30, 2022
Norman Cohn's Warrant for Genocide examines the history of antisemitic conspiracy theories, focusing in particular on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Cohn traces the Protocols through their antecedents from medieval Spain onward, suggesting the idea of a "hidden" Jewish government originated largely from the Inquisition era seeking out "converted" Jews in post-Reconquista Spain. Rather than tying itself to a particular time or religious movement, the idea of a Jewish conspiracy took on a life of its own, meshing with other conspiracy theories (particularly the Anti-Masonic ones which cropped up in the 18th and 19th Century) and turning up all over Europe, particularly in countries experiencing attempts at liberalization. Thus antisemitism was exploited by French monarchists throughout the 19th Century, culminating in the Dreyfuss Affair; in Bismarck's Germany, when Jews were granted civil liberties; even, to a limited extent, in Italy during the Risorgimento. There were numerous direct ancestors of the Protocols, from the (non-antisemitic) work of French democrat Maurice Joly to the (decidedly antisemitic) novels of Hermann Goedesche, a hack German novelist who first described the "Prague Cemetery" meeting of Jewish leaders as fact. The Protocols, of course, were created and disseminated in the dying days of Tsarist Russia as an explanation for the regime's decline; quickly exposed as a forgery, they nonetheless found their way abroad thanks to White Russian emigres, British reactionaries, American bigots (Henry Ford receives prominent discussion) and, of course, Hitler's Nazis, creating a legacy with an incalculable toll in life and poisoned discourse. Cohn recounts this grotesque history with polish and detachment, allowing the heinous ideas and their acolytes to speak for themselves. A remarkable, if heavy work showing the persistence of ideas, however toxic or specious, in the human mind.
January 11, 2021
Quite a challenging read as there is a lot to take in, with a lot of different personalities involved, in the very convoluted history of this pernicious forgery which was used to justify such terrible persecution of the Jews. I had heard of this document as being a fake produced by the Tsar's secret police before the Russian Revolution as a tool of oppression against the Jews, which was then taken up and used by various anti-Semitic groups, the most heinous being the Nazis, but was not aware of the full ramifications, the international basis of the forgery's acceptance and the context of similar documents from which it arose.
Very broadly, modern anti-Semitism, as opposed to the Medieval persecution of the Jews, which had been based on the biblical context in which they were blamed for the crucifixion of Christ and which viewed Jews as devil worshippers etc, arose out of the growing discomfort with modern life among the populations of various countries including France, Russia and Germany (but many others) as they transformed into modern societies. To many traditionalists in such countries, the Jews were identified with modernity, city living, modern "vices", etc whereas the concentration of Jews in cities were due to various historical reasons. These prejudices ignored the wide variation among Jews, with some still of an Orthodox religion, some of a more progressive Judaism and some of no faith or having converted to Christianity. At one time, the prejudices had focused on the Jews' religion and only viewed those who followed Judaism as Jews, but there came to be an idea of a Jewish "race" with certain inherent tendencies, all negative ones. Meanwhile, due to the poor living conditions in many industrialising nations, and the prejudice against them, some Jews were drawn to Communism. This later led to them being identified with Communism/Bolshevism, by the Nazis in particular, and held to blame for the Russian Revolution and other Communist-inspired events.
The first instruments of modern anti-Semitism were documents written after the French Revolution, initially blaming it on machinations of the Freemasons. Before long, however, this switched the blame to the Jews, who were deemed to control the Freemasons and use them as a front (ironically, as the author shows, since the Freemasons themselves were broadly anti-Semitic at the time). One influential work was a novel written by a mid 19th century German author which included a chapter in which the hero spies on a gathering of Jews at night in a cemetery in which they report to Lucifer the progress they have made in suborning Gentile society and bringing about various wars, revolutions, economical difficulties and so on. This chapter was later published as if it was non fiction under the title of "The Rabbi's Speech" and became a best seller. It was an influential precursor to the protocols.
The Tsar's secret police had an office in Paris - the Russian aristocracy divided their time between France and Russia - and its head was notorious for many forgeries which aided the propaganda purposes of the Russian state, so was probably the originator of the protocols. The author pins down its writing to a few years in the 1890s from references to politicians and events in France at that time.
It was recognised quite early on that the bulk of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as it came to be known, was plagiarised from a French work which had nothing whatsoever to do with the Jews but had been written as a dialogue between Machiavelli and another personality, discussing the despotic behaviour of Napoleon III. Whole chunks were lifted and became the protocols, with additions which reflected the prejudices against Jews and served the interests of the Russian state. In an appendix the author compares English translations of this original document against chunks of the protocols, showing just how similar the lines of argument are, and in another appendix has some English translations of some of the most important additional passages.
The forgery, purporting to be the master plan of the Jews for a worldwide conspiracy against all nations - a conspiracy which was rapidly coming to its completion - was soon translated into Russian and published in Russia in various newspapers etc, where it was used as a justification for pogroms. The author follows the very torturous route by which this occurred, with many personalities involved. It was then taken up by a mystic called Nilus who for a time was attached to the Russian court where mystics were entertained by the Tsar and Tsaritsa (Tsarina is an incorrect English term as the author explains) and who had written a book. He became a wholehearted believer and added a copy to the third edition of his book. This caused a sensation, and the "Protocols" was soon published in its own right, becoming a best seller.
When the Russian Revolution took place and the "White" Russians, opponents of the Communists and anti-Semites, were defeated, their officers were offered places on the trains back to German with the retreating German army, and some became prominent publishers of the protocols in German translations. These were best sellers. Eventually the document was translated into many languages and disseminated worldwide, not only in the form of books, but also as cheap pamphlets, which were often given away, and it was also serialised in many newspapers. Even Henry Ford in America published a best selling copy of it after serialising it in his newspaper, though he was later made to retract it due to lawsuits brought by Jewish organisations.
Despite those who came forward, showing that the document was a complete forgery, partly plagiarised from the earlier French work, other so-called scholars wrote defences of it, and otherwise sensible people became wholehearted believers, with the most keen being among the middle class and among university students. The document was subsequently drawn upon heavily by the Nazis, becoming a set text in schools and later used to justify the increasing persecution of Jews in Germany and other European countries.
The sad tale of this document, which was used to justify pogroms and eventually mass murder, is also a salutary one. In the modern age, we are accustomed to the dissemination of false information on social media, but this book shows how earlier ages were also credulous. Perfectly reasonable people, often well educated, believed wholeheartedly in this concoction. Others knew it was a fake but seized upon it for reasons of expediency, deriving income, prestige and power from it, and in some cases finding opportunities to indulge their sadistic urges. Some, such as Goebbels, started off fully aware that it was a piece of propaganda, but ended up believing in its lies. A sobering read and I have only deducted one star from a full rating because the book does dart about in the timeline here and there and is a bit hard to follow in places, and I don't really believe in his Freudian based explanation for anti-Semitism as I think it is more a case of 'the Other' as in the tribal 'us and them' phenomena. But a solid 4 star read.
Very broadly, modern anti-Semitism, as opposed to the Medieval persecution of the Jews, which had been based on the biblical context in which they were blamed for the crucifixion of Christ and which viewed Jews as devil worshippers etc, arose out of the growing discomfort with modern life among the populations of various countries including France, Russia and Germany (but many others) as they transformed into modern societies. To many traditionalists in such countries, the Jews were identified with modernity, city living, modern "vices", etc whereas the concentration of Jews in cities were due to various historical reasons. These prejudices ignored the wide variation among Jews, with some still of an Orthodox religion, some of a more progressive Judaism and some of no faith or having converted to Christianity. At one time, the prejudices had focused on the Jews' religion and only viewed those who followed Judaism as Jews, but there came to be an idea of a Jewish "race" with certain inherent tendencies, all negative ones. Meanwhile, due to the poor living conditions in many industrialising nations, and the prejudice against them, some Jews were drawn to Communism. This later led to them being identified with Communism/Bolshevism, by the Nazis in particular, and held to blame for the Russian Revolution and other Communist-inspired events.
The first instruments of modern anti-Semitism were documents written after the French Revolution, initially blaming it on machinations of the Freemasons. Before long, however, this switched the blame to the Jews, who were deemed to control the Freemasons and use them as a front (ironically, as the author shows, since the Freemasons themselves were broadly anti-Semitic at the time). One influential work was a novel written by a mid 19th century German author which included a chapter in which the hero spies on a gathering of Jews at night in a cemetery in which they report to Lucifer the progress they have made in suborning Gentile society and bringing about various wars, revolutions, economical difficulties and so on. This chapter was later published as if it was non fiction under the title of "The Rabbi's Speech" and became a best seller. It was an influential precursor to the protocols.
The Tsar's secret police had an office in Paris - the Russian aristocracy divided their time between France and Russia - and its head was notorious for many forgeries which aided the propaganda purposes of the Russian state, so was probably the originator of the protocols. The author pins down its writing to a few years in the 1890s from references to politicians and events in France at that time.
It was recognised quite early on that the bulk of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as it came to be known, was plagiarised from a French work which had nothing whatsoever to do with the Jews but had been written as a dialogue between Machiavelli and another personality, discussing the despotic behaviour of Napoleon III. Whole chunks were lifted and became the protocols, with additions which reflected the prejudices against Jews and served the interests of the Russian state. In an appendix the author compares English translations of this original document against chunks of the protocols, showing just how similar the lines of argument are, and in another appendix has some English translations of some of the most important additional passages.
The forgery, purporting to be the master plan of the Jews for a worldwide conspiracy against all nations - a conspiracy which was rapidly coming to its completion - was soon translated into Russian and published in Russia in various newspapers etc, where it was used as a justification for pogroms. The author follows the very torturous route by which this occurred, with many personalities involved. It was then taken up by a mystic called Nilus who for a time was attached to the Russian court where mystics were entertained by the Tsar and Tsaritsa (Tsarina is an incorrect English term as the author explains) and who had written a book. He became a wholehearted believer and added a copy to the third edition of his book. This caused a sensation, and the "Protocols" was soon published in its own right, becoming a best seller.
When the Russian Revolution took place and the "White" Russians, opponents of the Communists and anti-Semites, were defeated, their officers were offered places on the trains back to German with the retreating German army, and some became prominent publishers of the protocols in German translations. These were best sellers. Eventually the document was translated into many languages and disseminated worldwide, not only in the form of books, but also as cheap pamphlets, which were often given away, and it was also serialised in many newspapers. Even Henry Ford in America published a best selling copy of it after serialising it in his newspaper, though he was later made to retract it due to lawsuits brought by Jewish organisations.
Despite those who came forward, showing that the document was a complete forgery, partly plagiarised from the earlier French work, other so-called scholars wrote defences of it, and otherwise sensible people became wholehearted believers, with the most keen being among the middle class and among university students. The document was subsequently drawn upon heavily by the Nazis, becoming a set text in schools and later used to justify the increasing persecution of Jews in Germany and other European countries.
The sad tale of this document, which was used to justify pogroms and eventually mass murder, is also a salutary one. In the modern age, we are accustomed to the dissemination of false information on social media, but this book shows how earlier ages were also credulous. Perfectly reasonable people, often well educated, believed wholeheartedly in this concoction. Others knew it was a fake but seized upon it for reasons of expediency, deriving income, prestige and power from it, and in some cases finding opportunities to indulge their sadistic urges. Some, such as Goebbels, started off fully aware that it was a piece of propaganda, but ended up believing in its lies. A sobering read and I have only deducted one star from a full rating because the book does dart about in the timeline here and there and is a bit hard to follow in places, and I don't really believe in his Freudian based explanation for anti-Semitism as I think it is more a case of 'the Other' as in the tribal 'us and them' phenomena. But a solid 4 star read.
November 25, 2024
There have been any number of books entirely, or in part, on the lamentable history of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion but it is still one of the best English language accounts. Certainly research, particularly since the fall of the Soviet Union, has corrected details but nothing has called into question the overall accuracy of his book.
I won't recount the whole sordid story of the Protocols because Cohn's book is much more than an examination of them. He places them within a long historical context of blaming Jews for, well, everything and anything. He goes on from there to tackle their origins in late Imperial Russia based on an earlier anti-Napoleon III satire by a French journalist Maurice Joly (it is in the complicated history of the Protocols origins in late Imperial Russia that subsequent research has clarified certain details, But none of that essentially alters the usefulness of Cohn's book). But one of the most interesting areas he covers is the 1933-35 Berne libel trial which comprehensively demolished any possibility of the Protocols being true. That the Nazis trumpted the trial and hoped to use makes it all the more interesting.
As I say the trial demonstrated, as had previous investigations, that the protocols were a fabrication (the exact genesis is still confused which only demonstrates, I believe, that bad ideas like good ones have many originators). But in one area Cohn failed, the Protocols neither inspired, caused, justified, or created Nazi antisemitism. That existed independently and would have existed without the Protocols. They may be a horrible document but, if you ever have the misfortune to read a copy, you will find it is very boring. It no more caused the Shoah then Hitler's Mien Kampf. In fact along with Mien Kampf, and possibly Kapital by Marx, it was one of the most influential unread books in history.
Cohn's Warrant for Genocide is still an exemplary work of investigative and narrative history and should be read by everyone but, of course it won't be read by any of those who still believe in the Protocols. But then haven't read them any more then neo-Nazis have read Mein Kampf. Which only shows that real evil lies not in the written words but men's hearts.
I won't recount the whole sordid story of the Protocols because Cohn's book is much more than an examination of them. He places them within a long historical context of blaming Jews for, well, everything and anything. He goes on from there to tackle their origins in late Imperial Russia based on an earlier anti-Napoleon III satire by a French journalist Maurice Joly (it is in the complicated history of the Protocols origins in late Imperial Russia that subsequent research has clarified certain details, But none of that essentially alters the usefulness of Cohn's book). But one of the most interesting areas he covers is the 1933-35 Berne libel trial which comprehensively demolished any possibility of the Protocols being true. That the Nazis trumpted the trial and hoped to use makes it all the more interesting.
As I say the trial demonstrated, as had previous investigations, that the protocols were a fabrication (the exact genesis is still confused which only demonstrates, I believe, that bad ideas like good ones have many originators). But in one area Cohn failed, the Protocols neither inspired, caused, justified, or created Nazi antisemitism. That existed independently and would have existed without the Protocols. They may be a horrible document but, if you ever have the misfortune to read a copy, you will find it is very boring. It no more caused the Shoah then Hitler's Mien Kampf. In fact along with Mien Kampf, and possibly Kapital by Marx, it was one of the most influential unread books in history.
Cohn's Warrant for Genocide is still an exemplary work of investigative and narrative history and should be read by everyone but, of course it won't be read by any of those who still believe in the Protocols. But then haven't read them any more then neo-Nazis have read Mein Kampf. Which only shows that real evil lies not in the written words but men's hearts.
March 13, 2015
A fine bit of research, showing the origins of the infamous "Protocols" in a forgery concocted by the Imperial Russian Secret Police, working out of its Paris branch, with material plagiarized from a book written to criticize France's Napoleon III, who had been dethroned 3 decades before.
The book also points out the terrifying history of the Protocols. Not only did they motivate Russian pogroms against the Jews and the Nazi Holocaust, but they are still credulously read, distributed, and studied throughout the world, by American skinheads and Middle Eastern dictators.
The book also points out the terrifying history of the Protocols. Not only did they motivate Russian pogroms against the Jews and the Nazi Holocaust, but they are still credulously read, distributed, and studied throughout the world, by American skinheads and Middle Eastern dictators.
November 25, 2016
Throughout history the accumulated bad acts of small and vicious men planted the seeds that would bloom into anti-Semitism. Their efforts are the subject of Norman Cohn’s Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Cohn in effect divides the history of Jew hating into two eras: before the French Revolution, and after. Before the French Revolution, Christians demonized Jews as minions of Satan. After the French Revolution, various conservative and reactionary forces updated this demonization. Jews were no less diabolical than before, but they had now allied themselves with anti-clerical Freemasons to overturn established regimes that would be replaced with a global Jewish-Masonic cabal.
The established regimes that felt sensitive to this alleged conspiracy were themselves experiencing extreme material and psychological dislocation in response to the twin shocks of radical political liberalization (which undermined the prerogatives of aristocracies and monarchies) and industrial dislocation (which upset the seasonal routines of the rural class). Those most affected by change cast about for a scapegoat and settled upon a vulnerable group of outsiders who stood to benefit greatly from political and economic liberalization: the Jews.
These changes swept across various countries at various times: the French Revolution, whose Enlightenment values were spread by Napoleonic conquest; the mid-19th century democratic revolution in Germany; the Russian revolt against Czarist autocracy. Each unfolded in history accompanied by the narrative that behind these upheavals lay the twin influences of Masons and Jews. This narrative was crafted by multiple authors across numerous countries for over a period of more than a century until it was realized in its final form as one of history’s great forgeries: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The identities of those who contributed to this narrative are subject to Cohn’s meticulous investigation. The result is a grotesque genealogy of one of humankind’s more noxious fantasies. The authors of this fantasy Cohn reveals to be deluded religious zealots, hateful provocateurs, and ruthlessly cynical manipulators. Their names are unimportant; in way, they are all the same person.
A French priest, years after the French Revolution, concocts a conspiracy of Jews and Freemasons to rule the world. His fantasy is fueled by a letter from an enigmatic Italian who claims to have first-hand knowledge of this conspiracy. The priest shares his paranoia with a Scottish philosopher, who then records it as fact in a philosophical treatise. Later, a Polish postal clerk tries to discredit Germany’s democratic revolutionary leader by forging letters that allege a conspiracy between the revolutionaries and the Jewish-Masonic cabal. A Prussian author then plagiarizes a French satire on the authoritarianism of Napoleon III, changing all the French bad guys into Jewish-Masonic villains. This fiction is then picked up as fact by mad Russian monk, and later translated by the Czar’s secret police into allegations of a more elaborate plot said to be fomented by the enemies of the Czar in cahoots with the Jews and Masons. Ultimately those enemies of the Russian autocracy—the Bolsheviks—would be accused of acting as pawns of the Jewish world conspiracy. We know where the story eventually leads: the Russian pogroms and the Jewish Holocaust.
The plot is as crooked as a swastika, and just as wicked.
If something is to be learned from Cohn’s history in addition to historical fact, maybe it is this. Our species tends to believe the worst about the Other, and to be prone to simplistic beliefs in secret central authorities that exercise God-like influence over history, whether that central authority is the Jews, the Trilateral Commission, globalization, historic law, or whatever. We will grasp at such explanations in times of political and economic unrest and, far from displaying the Enlightenment qualities that liberalization professes to rest upon, we will cast about like superstitious savages for a scapegoat: Jews, blacks, immigrants, the “establishment,” the “media,” the “elites,” the other party, etc.
Cohn’s history tells us that our perceptions during such times—maybe during all times--are based more on fantasy than fact. If not vigorously critiqued with extreme dispassion, such perceptions can lead to tremendous cruelty and suffering.
Read Cohn’s book as history, and read it as a metaphor for our “modern” times.
Cohn in effect divides the history of Jew hating into two eras: before the French Revolution, and after. Before the French Revolution, Christians demonized Jews as minions of Satan. After the French Revolution, various conservative and reactionary forces updated this demonization. Jews were no less diabolical than before, but they had now allied themselves with anti-clerical Freemasons to overturn established regimes that would be replaced with a global Jewish-Masonic cabal.
The established regimes that felt sensitive to this alleged conspiracy were themselves experiencing extreme material and psychological dislocation in response to the twin shocks of radical political liberalization (which undermined the prerogatives of aristocracies and monarchies) and industrial dislocation (which upset the seasonal routines of the rural class). Those most affected by change cast about for a scapegoat and settled upon a vulnerable group of outsiders who stood to benefit greatly from political and economic liberalization: the Jews.
These changes swept across various countries at various times: the French Revolution, whose Enlightenment values were spread by Napoleonic conquest; the mid-19th century democratic revolution in Germany; the Russian revolt against Czarist autocracy. Each unfolded in history accompanied by the narrative that behind these upheavals lay the twin influences of Masons and Jews. This narrative was crafted by multiple authors across numerous countries for over a period of more than a century until it was realized in its final form as one of history’s great forgeries: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The identities of those who contributed to this narrative are subject to Cohn’s meticulous investigation. The result is a grotesque genealogy of one of humankind’s more noxious fantasies. The authors of this fantasy Cohn reveals to be deluded religious zealots, hateful provocateurs, and ruthlessly cynical manipulators. Their names are unimportant; in way, they are all the same person.
A French priest, years after the French Revolution, concocts a conspiracy of Jews and Freemasons to rule the world. His fantasy is fueled by a letter from an enigmatic Italian who claims to have first-hand knowledge of this conspiracy. The priest shares his paranoia with a Scottish philosopher, who then records it as fact in a philosophical treatise. Later, a Polish postal clerk tries to discredit Germany’s democratic revolutionary leader by forging letters that allege a conspiracy between the revolutionaries and the Jewish-Masonic cabal. A Prussian author then plagiarizes a French satire on the authoritarianism of Napoleon III, changing all the French bad guys into Jewish-Masonic villains. This fiction is then picked up as fact by mad Russian monk, and later translated by the Czar’s secret police into allegations of a more elaborate plot said to be fomented by the enemies of the Czar in cahoots with the Jews and Masons. Ultimately those enemies of the Russian autocracy—the Bolsheviks—would be accused of acting as pawns of the Jewish world conspiracy. We know where the story eventually leads: the Russian pogroms and the Jewish Holocaust.
The plot is as crooked as a swastika, and just as wicked.
If something is to be learned from Cohn’s history in addition to historical fact, maybe it is this. Our species tends to believe the worst about the Other, and to be prone to simplistic beliefs in secret central authorities that exercise God-like influence over history, whether that central authority is the Jews, the Trilateral Commission, globalization, historic law, or whatever. We will grasp at such explanations in times of political and economic unrest and, far from displaying the Enlightenment qualities that liberalization professes to rest upon, we will cast about like superstitious savages for a scapegoat: Jews, blacks, immigrants, the “establishment,” the “media,” the “elites,” the other party, etc.
Cohn’s history tells us that our perceptions during such times—maybe during all times--are based more on fantasy than fact. If not vigorously critiqued with extreme dispassion, such perceptions can lead to tremendous cruelty and suffering.
Read Cohn’s book as history, and read it as a metaphor for our “modern” times.
December 27, 2022
Perhaps one of the most engrossing histories I've ever read. Cohn, ordinarily a scholar of ancient history, turns to the phenomena of modern antisemitism. Whereas in medieval antisemitism Jews were seen as the literal children of Satan, Cohn describes how, with the advent of modernity, this morphed to a fear of global domination by a secret society of Jews and Freemasons (despite the fact that the majority of Freemasons were actually Catholic). As Cohn details, the Protocols were instrumental in this change to the narrative. This text, the purported minutes from a secret meeting between the "Elders of Zion", was actually drummed up in Russia at the turn of the century to turn opinion against Freemasons moving in the Tsar's circle. But soon the fear of Freemasons fell away, and the Jews were being considered responsible for both Capitalism and Bolshevism, depending on who you asked. Despite being proved to be a forgery by the Times in 1921, the Protocols found an audience around Europe, and eventually became mandatory reading in Nazi Germany.
What is staggering is that the myth the Protocols promoted is the same being peddled today over a century later. Bigots will say they are revealing an unspoken truth of unfettered thought when spreading the lie of Jewish power but really they are regurgitating the same nonsense that has been in circulation for many generations. These lies are foundational to the deaths of millions of Jews, and yet we have to resign ourselves to the fact they have never really gone away.
Cohn reveals the rogues gallery of fanatical racists and political opportunists behind the spread of the Protocols. These people are familiar today. The warning of this book is always to be wary and critical of dubious ideas and the people who are trying to convince you of them - in the digital age they could be more dangerous than ever.
What is staggering is that the myth the Protocols promoted is the same being peddled today over a century later. Bigots will say they are revealing an unspoken truth of unfettered thought when spreading the lie of Jewish power but really they are regurgitating the same nonsense that has been in circulation for many generations. These lies are foundational to the deaths of millions of Jews, and yet we have to resign ourselves to the fact they have never really gone away.
Cohn reveals the rogues gallery of fanatical racists and political opportunists behind the spread of the Protocols. These people are familiar today. The warning of this book is always to be wary and critical of dubious ideas and the people who are trying to convince you of them - in the digital age they could be more dangerous than ever.
March 6, 2021
Imprescindible para desmontar la conspiración judía que alimentó al nazismo, aunque también muestra el origen de otras teorías conspiranoicas como la de los templarios o los iluminati. Vale la pena leerlo.
March 24, 2023
i originally wrote this on the storygraph
4.75
The book goes thru to the end of the Holocaust in 1945.
It's published from 1966-1969, I read the 1969 edition. A lot of the sources are old & the book sources multiple languages.
I read this book because when I had learned about day of hate on march 3 (the day of would be Saturday march 4), i was like WTF & I basically looked up some jewish news sites & found out that this book was considered one of the first books that debunked "the protocols of the elders of zion". Since I know that's a relatively common book among antisemites & that I had been told that I was being antisemitic before, I was like this book would probably be a good book to use to study antisemitism while avoiding getting gaslit by antisemites.
The book did that job very well & it helped show me how my family & local area are antisemitic. It explained how a lot of the trad cath rhetoric (i heard in my area) was antisemitic.
It explained how various pop culture symbols like snakes, gold, and satanism were antisemitic dogwhistles. Seriously, I recommend this book for studying antisemitic canards/tropes. The book reveals ways to identify antisemitism in things like pop culture etc. The book also names names & that's good for further research. For example, I was able to see via the example given of Father Coughlin how media figures like Jimmy Dore etc will go from left of the new deal to the right of the new deal. I documented this sort of thing in my progress notes which I'll share here when I get to a computer instead of a phone.
(Note on usage: I said "canards/tropes" because canard is largely a term I see used in studies on antisemitism & my generation is more likely to say something like disinformation tropes. So to help increase legibility that's how I phrased it.)
So yeah, circa 2022/2023 transphobia is being wrapped with antisemitism is then being used by white power terrorists to try and get hunts started again targetting "the woke" AKA untermenschen as described by black butch anarchist lovebroccoli on tiktok with the referrals to:
- "welcome to new Orleans" a documentary,
- some news article about ethnic cleansing that got published in December 2008, https://www.propublica.org/article/po...
- "black flags and windmills" by scott crow,
- and "white flight" by kevin m kruse.
I saw on a tumblr post about how jewish people don't speak up on antisemitism unless it will lead to a ton of deaths (for example, not speaking up much on tim Burton's antisemitism with "the corpse bride") so I'm keeping that in mind right now.
Now let's get into what I didn't like:
The author identifies as a liberal, as in a capitalist. This means some of his political praxis on solutions is crap, even though he's great at calling out antisemitism. You can't have the heirarchy of privatization/Enclosurement that capitalism is built in & also barring out fascism from having a seat at the table.
The author repeatedly mentions that there's antisemitism in USSR, in Middle East, in South America, but doesn't go thru that or give much citation. While the way that was handled for the Middle East & South America was graciously handing off the baton to future researchers, he was gross when it came to USSR because there were sections that weren't as thoroughly cited & being in 2023 was the assumed historical consensus of the conversation Cohn was having with the 1st-world was lost to me.
Meanwhile while the citations about the levels of antisemitism in the white bourgeois patriarchal "west" were plentiful. Repeatedly it's said the soviets cooperated in sending out evidence to various trials. And the way Trotsky's antisemitism was handled was too monarchist, as if respectibility politics had any sway on fascists. point being it seemed to center antisemite "fragility".
To be fair this scholar is working in UK, 2 decades after its empire fell. Like sure the academy is not denazified yet, which is why cohn backed up his work with citations about antisemitism outside USSR, and sure Cohn accepts soviet cooperation in sending sources that debunk nazi claims, like the british & french cooperation, but the lack of citation brings up so many questions about self-censorship, respectibility politics, ... it just came off as out-of-left-field trying to defend a system that's not denazified. And as I said he identifies as a liberal in the 1960's British context, so I'm not sure how much of this respectibility politics is merely picking his battles.
One of the things that's interesting for editing & giving citations is that this was published about 2 decades before glasnost, which was the soviet version of an FOIA & declassification request policy. I know Cohn renewed the copyright after glasnost happened. I would hope that there would be citations from that, but I don't think there are.
Also it uses a psychoanalytic framework in the last chapter before the appendixes & bibliography which while it seems somewhat reasonable as it was applied here, the framework is outdated & was critiqued by another work that this book reminded me of called "the policing of families" by Jacques Donzelot. Further, considering how psychiatric asylums were not denazified & were used as a method for locking up both dissenters against racial capitalist patriarchy & people who advocated against antisemitism, the chapter seemed like it was bordering ableist territory of trying to rehabilitate antisemitic war criminals via medical models instead of making them accountable to the communities they genocided.
The good news is the psychoanalytic chapter focused more on like rhetoric & cognitive dissonance under authoritarian & consent-dismissing regimes, but still, it felt like it took too long to say all of that, and I'm not sure if there's loopholes since as I explained there's incentive for that, especially if the expected audience has antisemite "fragility".
CW:
Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Rape
4.75
The book goes thru to the end of the Holocaust in 1945.
It's published from 1966-1969, I read the 1969 edition. A lot of the sources are old & the book sources multiple languages.
I read this book because when I had learned about day of hate on march 3 (the day of would be Saturday march 4), i was like WTF & I basically looked up some jewish news sites & found out that this book was considered one of the first books that debunked "the protocols of the elders of zion". Since I know that's a relatively common book among antisemites & that I had been told that I was being antisemitic before, I was like this book would probably be a good book to use to study antisemitism while avoiding getting gaslit by antisemites.
The book did that job very well & it helped show me how my family & local area are antisemitic. It explained how a lot of the trad cath rhetoric (i heard in my area) was antisemitic.
It explained how various pop culture symbols like snakes, gold, and satanism were antisemitic dogwhistles. Seriously, I recommend this book for studying antisemitic canards/tropes. The book reveals ways to identify antisemitism in things like pop culture etc. The book also names names & that's good for further research. For example, I was able to see via the example given of Father Coughlin how media figures like Jimmy Dore etc will go from left of the new deal to the right of the new deal. I documented this sort of thing in my progress notes which I'll share here when I get to a computer instead of a phone.
(Note on usage: I said "canards/tropes" because canard is largely a term I see used in studies on antisemitism & my generation is more likely to say something like disinformation tropes. So to help increase legibility that's how I phrased it.)
So yeah, circa 2022/2023 transphobia is being wrapped with antisemitism is then being used by white power terrorists to try and get hunts started again targetting "the woke" AKA untermenschen as described by black butch anarchist lovebroccoli on tiktok with the referrals to:
- "welcome to new Orleans" a documentary,
- some news article about ethnic cleansing that got published in December 2008, https://www.propublica.org/article/po...
- "black flags and windmills" by scott crow,
- and "white flight" by kevin m kruse.
I saw on a tumblr post about how jewish people don't speak up on antisemitism unless it will lead to a ton of deaths (for example, not speaking up much on tim Burton's antisemitism with "the corpse bride") so I'm keeping that in mind right now.
Now let's get into what I didn't like:
The author identifies as a liberal, as in a capitalist. This means some of his political praxis on solutions is crap, even though he's great at calling out antisemitism. You can't have the heirarchy of privatization/Enclosurement that capitalism is built in & also barring out fascism from having a seat at the table.
The author repeatedly mentions that there's antisemitism in USSR, in Middle East, in South America, but doesn't go thru that or give much citation. While the way that was handled for the Middle East & South America was graciously handing off the baton to future researchers, he was gross when it came to USSR because there were sections that weren't as thoroughly cited & being in 2023 was the assumed historical consensus of the conversation Cohn was having with the 1st-world was lost to me.
Meanwhile while the citations about the levels of antisemitism in the white bourgeois patriarchal "west" were plentiful. Repeatedly it's said the soviets cooperated in sending out evidence to various trials. And the way Trotsky's antisemitism was handled was too monarchist, as if respectibility politics had any sway on fascists. point being it seemed to center antisemite "fragility".
To be fair this scholar is working in UK, 2 decades after its empire fell. Like sure the academy is not denazified yet, which is why cohn backed up his work with citations about antisemitism outside USSR, and sure Cohn accepts soviet cooperation in sending sources that debunk nazi claims, like the british & french cooperation, but the lack of citation brings up so many questions about self-censorship, respectibility politics, ... it just came off as out-of-left-field trying to defend a system that's not denazified. And as I said he identifies as a liberal in the 1960's British context, so I'm not sure how much of this respectibility politics is merely picking his battles.
One of the things that's interesting for editing & giving citations is that this was published about 2 decades before glasnost, which was the soviet version of an FOIA & declassification request policy. I know Cohn renewed the copyright after glasnost happened. I would hope that there would be citations from that, but I don't think there are.
Also it uses a psychoanalytic framework in the last chapter before the appendixes & bibliography which while it seems somewhat reasonable as it was applied here, the framework is outdated & was critiqued by another work that this book reminded me of called "the policing of families" by Jacques Donzelot. Further, considering how psychiatric asylums were not denazified & were used as a method for locking up both dissenters against racial capitalist patriarchy & people who advocated against antisemitism, the chapter seemed like it was bordering ableist territory of trying to rehabilitate antisemitic war criminals via medical models instead of making them accountable to the communities they genocided.
The good news is the psychoanalytic chapter focused more on like rhetoric & cognitive dissonance under authoritarian & consent-dismissing regimes, but still, it felt like it took too long to say all of that, and I'm not sure if there's loopholes since as I explained there's incentive for that, especially if the expected audience has antisemite "fragility".
CW:
Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Rape
January 11, 2012
I read the protocols years ago and it was interesting to find some information about the probable origins of these forgeries. For years they have proven to be just that - forgeries. But racist and anti-semitic groups continue to use them as fuel for their hatred. "Discovered" at the end of the 1800's - beginning of the 1900's. Everyone from Henry Ford and Hitler to the KKK and Neo-Nazis have used them as part of the foundation of their reason to commit genocide. Supposedly a narrative of a meeeting of Jewish elders explaining their plans to rule the world. On being told that the Protocols are a proven forgery Hitler's attitude was that even if it wasn't true it was the reality of what the Jews were - so that was acceptable to him. Years before the internet these were very difficult to obtain. Most libraries and schools and book stores would not have them in their inventory and there were no references to them. Now they can be found and dispersed easily. One of the downsides of the WWW.
July 4, 2012
Okay, not the most cheerful of books, but it's a book that everyone should read at school. It exposes the myth of the Jewish world conspiracy and "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". A readable book written by a professor who was driven to seek all similar injustices, and the man who inspired my own researches into the shameful trials of the Templars.
April 2, 2017
La obra es un ensayo excelentemente documentado para conocer de donde viene el antisemitismo contemporáneo (desde la Revolución Francesa) hasta el Holocausto. El libro repasa con un nivel de detalle extraordinario toda la evolución de la falsificación que fueron los Protocolos de los Sabios de Sión.
Es una lectura nada divulgativa, el acercamiento es para quien quiera ir un poco más allá.
Es una lectura nada divulgativa, el acercamiento es para quien quiera ir un poco más allá.
January 18, 2008
Especially today, when the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are being circulated anew in Fundamentalist circles, the history of this bogus document needs to be widely known; well written.
April 18, 2008
Very well researched; I would say a classic that should also serve as a warning to us all!
February 7, 2011
Fascinating exploration of the origins of the fabrication that inspired the Nazis and other anti-semites
March 28, 2012
I think this book needs to be compulsory reading in schools.
July 14, 2024
A magnificent study of the roots of 20th century antisemitism, Warrent for Genocide disects the background of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, an imitation of a novel by the antisemitic French author Maurice Joly. This book dives deeply into the progression from medieval Jew-hatred to organized pogroms in France, Poland, Russia, and as part of several inquisitions, up to the Nazi holocaus. Cohn explores how the stories, myths, exaggerations, and outright lies infected entire civilizations until they became fanatics to a new faith, or at the bottom learned to simply not care what happened to people they'd been taught were either subhuman or the secret rulers of a broken world.
A frighteningly relevant book to the present divisions between modern ideologies, the lesson to be learned, if no longer specifically about the Jews (although of course this is there, and growing; inevitably the Jews are always blamed for the ills of civilization), we can gape in horror while reading of revelations in a book published in 1961, that defines so much of the growing hatred consuming the world today.
A frighteningly relevant book to the present divisions between modern ideologies, the lesson to be learned, if no longer specifically about the Jews (although of course this is there, and growing; inevitably the Jews are always blamed for the ills of civilization), we can gape in horror while reading of revelations in a book published in 1961, that defines so much of the growing hatred consuming the world today.
February 20, 2019
A bit more of a sprawling book than I was expecting. Cohn really dives into the old history of the text and the mostly Russian propaganda origins, getting deep into historical figures and versions before finally hitting Germany and the Nazis.
It's thorough, though a bit confusing with some of the timeline and version jumping. It was also interesting to see the callout of left-wing antisemitism at the very beginning before basically just showing that would be a separate book: the Protocols have essentially always been used by right-wingers.
It's amazing to see, in our post-truth world, the history of doubling down on debunked things, the pre-internet spread of memes. I mean, it's also very depressing, but also interesting. And to see just the hatefulness and irrationality and amoral exploitation of things.
Not exactly the most hopeful book, but you do not have to read another history on the subject, this seems very definitive (though they really should get rid of the debunked footnote saying assassin is derived from hashish, it sort of undermines a little).
It's thorough, though a bit confusing with some of the timeline and version jumping. It was also interesting to see the callout of left-wing antisemitism at the very beginning before basically just showing that would be a separate book: the Protocols have essentially always been used by right-wingers.
It's amazing to see, in our post-truth world, the history of doubling down on debunked things, the pre-internet spread of memes. I mean, it's also very depressing, but also interesting. And to see just the hatefulness and irrationality and amoral exploitation of things.
Not exactly the most hopeful book, but you do not have to read another history on the subject, this seems very definitive (though they really should get rid of the debunked footnote saying assassin is derived from hashish, it sort of undermines a little).
December 4, 2025
Incredibly challenging read but over all one of the most important books I've ever read in my life. Made me realize the deep deep roots of Antisemitism in ways I didn't understand before, and how it was actively pushed and spread by nefarious actors. It was amazing to read how in recounting the history of the Protocols the author in many ways manages to predict the current climate, with the rise of modern Antisemitism and the wide spread hate and misinformation rampant in social media platforms. It really is true that history repeats itself.
Read
September 26, 2025History books written sixty years ago are hard to rate. It's interesting, but so much of what he has to say is already relegated to "oh, that sure isn't the case now". This one is also a bit difficult because it's casual enough to be considered a history for the layperson but it's still quite dry and there's a lot of names and dates that blur together. I really enjoyed the later chapters and the conclusion was especially interesting, and (unfortunately) relevant.
March 19, 2020
Extraordinario libro para entender uno de los discursos judeófobos más comunes, a lo largo de la historia e incluso en la actualidad. Los capítulos sobre la Unión Soviética y Alemania son de los mejores, al mostrar la importancia que un texto falso como "Los Protocolos" tuvieron en la muerte de millones de judíos.
June 8, 2025
Not a conspiracy
https://just-another-inside-job.blogs...
https://just-another-inside-job.blogs...
October 6, 2013
L'un des plus terribles faux de l'histoire démonté et analysé par Norman Cohn sous tous ses aspects, historiques, policiers et psychanalytiques. Si plus personne ne conteste qu'il fut un faux grossier construit par la police tsariste à partir d'um pamphlet anti- Napoléon III, ce livre est toujours une leçon des dangers que peuvent porter des élucubrations lorsqu'elles peuvent enflammer des masses en délire. A l'heure des 'fake' et de la force de divulgation du web, Norman Cohn nous aide aussi À garder en mémoire les leçons du passé...
February 26, 2019
Arricchito da una lunga serie di dettagli storici e biografici, Licenza per un genocidio mette a nudo le origini della più clamorosa bufala di tutti i tempi, prodotto del timore atavico per il giudaismo e, assieme, delle paure moderne derivanti dalla società capitalistica.
August 20, 2014
Tengo un vago recuerdo porque hace mucho que lo leí.
Trata del mito de la conspiración judía y la idea que tengo es que era interesante.
Trata del mito de la conspiración judía y la idea que tengo es que era interesante.
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