Volume II – The Seeds of Hate
Chapter 12 – Forging the Scapegoat
If modern Europe was an engine roaring forward with steam, steel, and electricity, it was also a cauldron of fear. New machines replaced old jobs. Cities swelled with workers uprooted from the land. Monarchies toppled, revolutions erupted, ideologies collided.
In such turmoil, people sought simple answers to complex problems. And again, as for centuries before, many found their answer in the Jew.
But in the late 19th and early 20th century, as Jewish influence was on the rise with their tremendous success in their numerous enterprises, something more insidious took root: a conspiracy so vast, so malicious in its reach, that it seemed to explain everything wrong with the modern world. That conspiracy was written down in a text; a forgery that would become one of the most influential lies in history: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The Birth of a Lie
The Protocols first appeared in Russia around 1903. They were not ancient, not authentic, but rather a cobbled-together forgery produced by elements within the Tsarist secret police, the Okhrana.
Their intent was straightforward: to blame Jews for the rising tide of revolution. Russia was convulsed with strikes, protests, and demands for reform. The monarchy trembled. To preserve their power, the Tsar's agents sought a scapegoat.
So they created one.
The Protocols claimed to be the minutes of a secret Jewish meeting; the "elders" plotting world domination. They spoke of controlling banks, manipulating the press, fostering revolutions, corrupting morals, undermining Christianity, and seizing power over nations.
In truth, much of the text was plagiarized from a 19th-century French satire that had nothing to do with Jews. But by adding Jewish names and conspiratorial tones, the forgers crafted a "smoking gun" that seemed to confirm every prejudice.
The Spread Across Europe
The forgery first circulated in Russia, where pogroms were already raging. It was used to justify violence, to argue that Jews were not innocent victims but dangerous plotters. Copies soon spread beyond Russia, translated into multiple languages.
In Germany, nationalist leagues embraced it. In France, still reeling from the Dreyfus Affair, it found eager readers. In Britain, even some politicians and aristocrats gave it credence.
The tragedy was not that the Protocols were believed to be true but that even when proven false, they continued to be believed.
Journalists, scholars, even courts exposed it as a forgery. But those predisposed to hate Jews clung to it. The lie was too useful, too intoxicating. It offered an explanation for every misfortune, every political shift, every personal failure.
The Asimov Family's Struggle
In a shtetl outside Minsk, the Asimov family read the Protocols with disbelief. Rabbi Shmuel Asimov, the family's patriarch, shook his head as he studied the pamphlet brought by a frightened congregant.
"This is poison," he said. "Lies written by men who fear us. They accuse us of controlling the world, yet we can barely control whether the mob will burn our homes."
His eldest son, Aaron, a fiery young man, resolved to act. He obtained a copy of the original French satire from which the Protocols had been plagiarized. With the help of sympathetic intellectuals, he wrote articles demonstrating the forgery. He smuggled them across borders, placing them in the hands of European journalists.
But Aaron's efforts felt like drops in an ocean. The forgery had already taken on a life of its own. In taverns, coffeehouses, and nationalist meetings, men waved the Protocols as proof of Jewish treachery. "See?" they said. "It is written, they want to destroy us."
The Asimovs continued their quiet resistance; teaching, writing, hoping truth would prevail. But Aaron could not shake the despair that lies were stronger than facts.
The Kellers Discover a "Revelation"
In Bavaria, young Friedrich Keller's father was handed a copy of the Protocols by a fellow nationalist. For years, he had harbored suspicions about Jews, their success, their wealth, their seeming immunity to hardship. Now, here was the "proof" he had always sought.
At the dinner table, he read aloud passages to his family:
"See here; they admit it! They want to control the press. They want to corrupt our morals. They want to dominate governments. It is all written by their own leaders!"
Friedrich listened wide-eyed, his boyish mind absorbing the venom as truth. If his teachers had warned of foreign corruption, the Protocols gave it form. If the town whispered of Jewish conspiracies, the Protocols gave them voice.
The forgery had become not just propaganda but scripture for the hateful.
Antisemitic Leagues and Movements
Across Europe, antisemitic leagues used the Protocols to rally followers.
In Germany, organizations distributed copies at rallies, presenting them as evidence that Jews were behind socialism, liberalism, and capitalism all at once.
In France, agitators tied them to fears of Jewish bankers and "foreign influence."
In Russia, they justified pogroms, claiming violence was not cruelty but self-defense against conspirators.
The brilliance and the danger of the forgery was that it confirmed every fear, regardless of ideology. For conservatives, it proved Jews were revolutionaries. For revolutionaries, it proved Jews were capitalists. For nationalists, it proved Jews were cosmopolitan traitors.
No matter what one feared, the Protocols could be used to justify it.
The Weight of a Lie
The tragedy of the Protocols was not merely in the violence it incited, but in how it reshaped the imagination of Europe.
For centuries, antisemitism had been rooted in religion; Jews accused of killing Christ, of rejecting the Church. Now, in the modern era, antisemitism cloaked itself in politics, science, and conspiracy. Jews were no longer seen as a stubborn faith but as an international cabal.
This shift made antisemitism more dangerous than ever before. One could convert from Judaism to Christianity, but one could not escape being cast as part of a "race" or "plot."
Thus, even Jews who had assimilated, baptized, or abandoned religion found themselves accused. The Rothschild banker in Paris, the Einstein student in Germany, the Abramovich shopkeeper in Warsaw, all were cast into the same conspiracy.
The Power of Belief
In Warsaw, Isaac Abramovich argued heatedly with his father about the Protocols.
"Do you not see?" Isaac cried. "They will never accept us. No matter how German we become, no matter how Polish, they see only these lies. Herzl was right, we must leave!"
Moishe Abramovich shook his head. "But leave for where? For Palestine, where there is nothing? For America, where we will be peasants? This is our home. Lies cannot uproot us."
But Isaac was not convinced. Each new pamphlet, each new whisper of conspiracy, confirmed his fears. He began to save coins in a box under his bed, preparing for the day when leaving would no longer be a choice, but a necessity.
The Seeds of Paranoia
By the dawn of the 20th century, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion had seeped deep into the bloodstream of European culture.
It was more than a book. It was a lens. Through it, ordinary people viewed every strike, every scandal, every financial crisis. Jews were behind it. Jews were pulling the strings. Jews were plotting in shadows.
The forgery gave shape to centuries of suspicion, translating it into the language of modern politics. And because it offered simple answers to complex problems, it spread faster than truth ever could.
Chapter Summary
The Industrial Revolution had made Jews visible in banks, in universities, in sciences, in shops. The Protocols turned that visibility into evidence of conspiracy.
In Russia, pogroms continued. In Germany, nationalists sharpened their rhetoric. In France, memories of the Dreyfus Affair lingered. And in households like the Kellers', children grew up believing that every Jewish neighbor was part of a dark design.
The scapegoat had been forged anew, no longer a medieval villain but a modern conspirator. The lie was powerful, portable, and enduring.
And though Herzl had dreamed of Zion, though Ben-Gurion was already tilling the soil of Palestine, the vast majority of Jews still clung to Europe, believing or hoping that reason would triumph.
But reason was being drowned by resentment. And soon, the world would be plunged into a war that would make scapegoats of entire nations and radicalize a young Austrian named Adolf Hitler.