Appendix A

AN OUTLINE

In the "Coffee Table Book" edition of the British Museum exhibition 1990 named "Fake?" they say: "In the musee noir of literary fraud few works have deserved greater notoriety than the ”Protocols of the Elders of Zion".

Marking a full century since the creation of this preposterous fabrication, we may be justified in noting that no other proven political forgery has survived with such immunity, has enjoyed such world-wide distribution, has been so cynically used for sinister purposes and has done so much damage, as these so called “Protocols of the Elders of Zion".

Of all the libels which have served as a means of incitement against Jews and as intellectual justification of anti-Semitism, the myth of a Jewish conspiracy to gain domination of the whole world is probably the most devious and, in the long run, the most dangerous.

Although this document has been pronounced a forgery and a plagiarism not only by courts of law in many countries, but also by world famous experts and by political institutions (including a special committee of the U.S. Senate), it is being re-published and distributed around the world, displayed in bookstores and openly sold and quoted as authentic.

This is, first and foremost, a political document, and it has been successfully used as such to set the Jews up as scapegoats for every calamity that has befallen the world for the last century.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hadassa Ben-Itto was among the first Israeli women to be appointed as judge, and has served for 31 years in courts of all levels, including the Supreme Court of Israel. She also represented Israel , from time to time, in international bodies, including the United Nations Assembly and Unesco. From 1988 till 2005 she served as President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ), represented in the United Nations and in the Council of Europe. In March 2005 she was elected Honorary President of the IAJLJ. She has addressed audiences in various countries on a variety of subjects, mostly in the field of human rights.

Having researched for a long time the theme of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which had been quoted in her presence on many occasions, she decided to retire from the court to write this book.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Written in English, in a popular style, the book tells how and why she decided to investigate the story of the Protocols, and what she found out. It tells how the Protocols had been fabricated, how the truth about them had been revealed, and largely ignored. It also describes how the theme of the alleged “Jewish Conspiracy” has been used for a whole century to explain disasters that befell the world for the last hundred years, including wars, revolutions, economic crisis, terrorism and even Aids.

The finished manuscript is divided into 12 chapters, and is approximately 350 pages long.

Following is a short description of the content of the chapters.

CHAPTER 1. ENCOUNTERS WITH THE PROTOCOLS

This chapter, written in first person, describes the disturbing personal experiences, which led ultimately to Ben-Itto's decision to retire early from the bench to conduct her own inquiry into the Protocols. Passages from the Protocols are quoted.

CHAPTER 2. THE ROMANOV DYNASTY AND THE PROTOCOLS

The setting for this chapter is St. Petersburg , a city gripped with political and religious intrigue, at the dawn of the twentieth century and the waning years of the Romanov Dynasty. It describes the political struggles as well as the mystic fanatical atmosphere surrounding the royal palace, which fanned the growing circles of political intrigue and conspiracy. The chapter describes how the myth of the Jewish conspiracy was published by a religious fanatic, supported by royal circles, and used to promote pogroms against Jews, to explain growing revolutionary activity, and discredit Witte, the famous Minister of Finance, who was trying to save the economy of Russia by obtaining French loans, and was accused of conspiring with Jewish bankers.

CHAPTER 3. THE PROTOCOLS ON TRIAL

The story shifts to Bern , Switzerland , in the early 1930's. Alarmed by events in Germany and a rally held by the Swiss Nazi Front, where the Protocols were openly distributed, the Jewish community persuaded Georges Brunschvig, a young lawyer to represent it in court proceedings initiated against the Nazi publishers. Brunschvig's investigation of the facts, his preparations for the Bern Trial, and his conduct of the trial itself, are a central theme in the book. In the course of his inquiry into former trials of the Protocols she uncovered astonishing facts, including the full story of Henry Ford, who was probably the person most responsible for the distribution of the Protocols around the world.

CHAPTER 4. 1921 - UNMASKING THE MYTH

Three unrelated events that took place in 1921 in New York , Paris and Istanbul , proved that the Protocols were definitely a forgery. In New York , the Russian Princess, Katerina Radziwill, former lover of the chief of the Russian Secret Police, revealed that one of the forgers of the Protocols had actually confessed to the forgery in her presence and showed her the original, handwritten, forged manuscript. In Paris, Armand Du Chayla, a French scholar, who had spent years in Russia researching and teaching religious studies, had seen the identical manuscript in the hands of Sergei Nilus, the first publisher of the Protocols. In Istanbul , Philip Graves, correspondent of the Times of London, discovered the French book from which the Protocols had been plagiarized.

CHAPTER 5. DEFENDING A LIE

Documents seized by the police revealed that the defendants in the Bern Trial turned to Hitler's headquarters in Munich for assistance and leadership. The chapter describes how the Germans took over, manipulating their Swiss colleagues and dictating trial tactics; how they set up a clandestine organization to conceal their illegal involvement in the Swiss trial, complete with false code names and secret assignations in obscure locations. The central figures conducting the defense are described, and their motives, conduct and tactics fully disclosed.

CHAPTER 6. DIFFICULT DECISIONS

The main feature of this chapter reflects the involvement of British newspapers in the matter of the Protocols. Documents reveal the cynical behavior of "The Morning Post" in London, which published the Protocols in 17 articles and in a booklet entitled "The Cause of World Unrest", in order to increase circulation, in spite of expert opinion stating the falsity of the document. Philip Graves refused to testify in the Bern trial, and documents in the Times archive reveal the far reaching and threatening influence of Nazi Germany on the decisions of an English journalist and a respected English newspaper, in the early thirties.

CHAPTER 7. THE WITNESSES

Prospective witnesses, interviewed by Georges Brunschvig, describe the historical and political background behind the fabrication of the Protocols, and definitely confirm that the project had been instigated by Rachkovskii, the chief agent of the Russian Secret Police in Europe .

Sergei Svatikov, had been entrusted in 1917 with the job of liquidating the Secret Police of Tsarist Russia, and inspecting all its former activities abroad. A former assistant of Rachkovskii told him how he had personally paid the forgers. Vladimir Burtsev, editor of newspapers, had learned the truth about the fabrication from a Russian General living in Paris and from a former chief of the Police Department, with whom he had shared a cell in a Russian prison during the revolution.

CHAPTER 8. FRENCH FINGERPRINTS ON A RUSSIAN PRODUCTION

The story returns to Paris in the late 19th century, and reveals that the Protocols are in essence a Franco-Russian co-production. It describes how a combination of deeply rooted French intellectual anti-Semitism and the crude Russian brand of unsophisticated and violent Jew hatred, gave birth to the Protocols in the mid nineties, when France was torn apart by the Dreyfus Affair. The chapter includes colorful descriptions of prominent French men and women, whose names were linked in some way to the story of the Protocols, their respective roles and their motives.

A former agent of the French Secret service investigated the story of the Protocols, and wrote a book focusing on Hitler's obsession with this document. As soon as the Germans invaded Paris his book was promptly banned. Passages from 'Mein Kampf' are quoted.

CHAPTER 9. THE FORGERS

The chief instigator of the forgery was Piotr Ivanovich Rachkovskii, who had started his career in a prison cell in Petersburg as a suspect in subversive activities, and later was put in charge of operations of the Russian Secret Service outside Russia in the years 1884-1902. A ruthlessly ambitious manipulator, he was personally involved in many international intrigues. With the help of his assistants, he refined various methods of sabotage, including burglaries and murders, but his favorite method of implicating his victims was forgery. The biography and activities of Rachkovskii and his agents is fully described, including other forgeries and criminal activities perpetrated by them.

CHAPTER 10. A SOUTH AFRICAN SAGA

On the eve of the opening of the Bern trial, the lawyers receive word of the judgment of a South African court, which had just pronounced that the Protocols were "a dangerous forgery". A Jewish Rabbi had sued the leaders of the "Grey Shirts", the local Nazi party, for libel, and the Protocols were banned in South Africa , the forgers were tried and convicted of perjury and forgery, and sentenced to long periods of imprisonment with hard labor. The full record of the trial and the impressive press coverage served as invaluable sources for this chapter.

CHAPTER 11. JUSTICE IN BERN

There is a wide consensus that the Bern Trial was the most important event in the attempts to learn the truth about the Protocols. In 1934 witnesses were still alive, who had played prominent roles in Russia before, during and after the revolution. These unimpeachable witnesses, who had no ulterior motive, were ashamed of the role played by their country in the matter of the Protocols, and eager to tell the truth in open court.

Drawing from the original court records, private archives, press reports and interviews with the last survivors of the Bern Trial, the courtroom drama is described in detail, leading up to the judgment in which the judge called the Protocols “ an obscene forgery". Attention is drawn to legal problems, tactical considerations, and behind the scenes activity, which accompanied the trial, including the major role played by the German Nazi party, which was later the subject of indictments against Swiss citizens accused of treason.

CHAPTER 12. THE LIE WOULDN'T DIE

The Protocols have survived all court judgments, and are being published to this day in millions of copies, in all languages, around the world, mostly for political purposes.

To avoid too much detail, this chapter focuses on a number of events, which highlight the role played by the Protocols in the last decades of the twentieth century in various parts of the world: the unusual attitude to the Protocols in Japan; the 1964 report of a subcommittee of the Judiciary committee of he U.S. Senate; distribution of the Protocols to participants in the Million Men March of African Americans in Washington; banning of the Protocols in France in 1990 after the desecration of the Jewish graveyard in Carpantras; proceedings before the South African Board of publications in 1991, which considered the un-banning of the Protocols, and finally, copies of the Protocols carried by suicide bombers, on their way to missions in Israel, and Egyptian and Syrian television series based on the Protocols and shown to millions of Moslems around the world during the holy month of Ramadan, and the use made of the Protocols in Arab and Moslem countries.

HOW DOES THIS BOOK DIFFER FROM OTHER BOOKS ON THE PROTOCOLS

• Existing books on the same subject are mostly scholarly, footnoted, analytical studies, aimed for a limited readership. This book is written in a personal, investigative and narrative style and given the dramatic value of its content, it should arouse the interest of the general book-buying public. Based on careful and meticulous research, all characters and events are authentic, but easily discernible descriptions, conversations and thoughts were added, as the reader is told in the preface.

• No other book has ever described in detail the various trials of the Protocols which are a major feature in the book, including all the elements of courtroom drama, and a jurist's insight into legal, moral and tactical dilemmas of both lawyers and judges.

Personal remarks, drawn from the author's own experience, and even as "sidebars" during trials, add interest and popularity.

The book was favorably reviewed by major newspapers and journals wherever it was published, and was the subject of an impressive number of radio and television programs. Articles and Interviews with the author were published even in countries in which the book had not yet appeared in the local language.

Appendix B

FROM THE AUTHOR'S NOTE that appears in the book (English edition) ¹

This book is about a forged document that tells a dangerous lie about my people. Of all the libels which have served as a means of incitement against Jews, and as intellectual justification of anti-Semitism , the myth of the so-called “Jewish Conspiracy” to gain domination of the whole world, as embodied in the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion , is probably the most devious and, in the long run, the most dangerous.

The book tells the full story of those who forged the document, distributed it around the world and exploited it. It also pays tribute to those who exposed and disproved it.

For an entire century this lie has been published and disseminated in almost every language known to men in civilized countries, and time and again, for many decades, it has been challenged and exposed by honest journalists, by learned historians, by politicians and by diplomats, by religious leaders and by former police agents, and most of all by courageous, responsible and unimpeachable judges in democratic countries. It has also been disproved by the horrible history of the twentieth century.

Yet, the lie endures and is still spreading its poison.

The story of the Protocols has been told numerous times in various languages in scholarly, well-researched accounts, which fill the shelves of libraries. Yet, although the Protocols have been, and still are, distributed around the world in hundreds of editions, in millions of copies, and now also on the website, the general public is not aware of the true facts of this dramatic story, for it appears that academic footnoted studies have a limited readership.

I am not a historian, and my involvement with the story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was personal, rather than professional. As described in my book, I became aware of the story by a chain of coincidences, and began my research as a matter of pure curiosity. As a judge I was particularly interested in the trials concerning the Protocols , which were mentioned, but not fully described, in former publications. As I became aware of the facts I felt duty bound to share them with the public. What began as a minor project, not supposed to interfere with my judicial duties, took on immense proportions, which created a personal dilemma. In order to follow the story as it developed I was compelled to retire before reaching compulsory retirement age, after having served 31 years in the Israeli court system.

As I followed the history of the Protocols I was astonished at the large number of persons who had been involved in the story, in various capacities, and whose lives had been affected by it. Most of them had been mentioned in previous publications, but my curiosity about them remained unsatisfied. I decided to accumulate as much information as possible about each of the persons who kept crowding my notes, and to bring them alive in my book. I was encouraged to do so by two persons whose advice I sought.

Justice Haim Cohn was my friend and mentor for many years. O ne of the most outstanding jurists in Israel, he was the former attorney General and Minister of Justice, Deputy President of the Supreme Court and the author of many important books, including his famous study of the Trial of Jesus Christ , which was translated into many languages.

“Follow the story wherever it takes you”, he advised, “write it as a judge, not as an historian”.

In spite of his ripe age and failing health he later offered to read the manuscript, and wrote the introduction to the Hebrew version.

I received the same advice from a well-known historian, Professor Israel Gutman of the Hebrew University and of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem , one of the most reputable authorities in the field. Professor Gutman accompanied me throughout my research, discussing with me various aspects of the story. As I went along, I informed him of my sources, and he then read and approved the final manuscript. He also presented my Hebrew book at three public meetings.

Literally following the story, I traveled from one country to another, from St. Petersburg to Bern , from Paris to London , from Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth to Washington DC . I interviewed live persons, read as many available books as possible, in various languages, both for facts and for background material, combed public and private archives, and spent months studying the mass of documents accumulated both on my computer and on my microfilm screen.

I wrote the story as I found it, and used some license in describing events and persons in my own language, but all these events so described were taken from published sources, from documentary archives or from actual interviews.

It took me six years.

Since 1933 the Protocols were used in Nazi propaganda around the world. As a judge I was particularly interested in the two major trials, both initiated in 1934 by Jewish communities in Switzerland and in South Africa , against local Nazi distributors of the Protocols.

From the beginning it was obvious that the Bern trial would be a focal theme of my book, but I could not have foreseen the unexpected sources that became available to me, one source leading to another.

It began at a chance meeting with Odette, widow of Georges Brunschvig, a young inexperienced lawyer who had undertaken in 1934 to conduct in the City Court of Bern the most important historical trial concerning the Protocols of the Elders of Zion . This is when I first learnt to my surprise that I could still interview, in 1988, live witnesses who had lived through the Bern trial and remembered, after more than 50 years, details that were absent from all existing archives.

Throughout the years of my research I spent many days talking with Odette, rekindling her memory, recording her impressions, and rummaging through personal notes left behind by her late husband.

It was through Odette that I discovered many other sources.

The 800-page unpublished handwritten manuscript of Emil Raas, the law partner of Georges Brunschvig, provided invaluable insight into the conduct of the Bern trial.

Emil Dreifus had miraculously kept for more than 50 years the newspapers which reported daily on the court proceedings, and supplied live descriptions of atmosphere and witnesses.

Willy Guggenheim, the Secretary General of the Jewish Community of Switzerland, put at my disposal the complete archive of George Brunschvig, which had been entrusted to him for safekeeping and had rested for many years in a cabinet in his office. It included a mass of documents, reports, minutes of meetings, correspondence and private notes accumulated by the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the Bern trial. It was through his efforts that the whole archive was microfilmed and delivered to me in three microfilm cassettes that contained some 8000 pages.

For long periods during the preparation of the book, The Wiener Library at Tel-Aviv University was like a second home to me. Not only did I spend many weeks studying there the whole verbatim record of the Bern trial, but it is there that I became acquainted with the documents of the Fryenwald Archive , which served to create a whole chapter in the book. All the facts about the Nazi defendants in the Bern trial, including their correspondence with each other, their tactics, their conspiratorial methods, and their contact with the Nazi leadership in Germany , are fully documented in this archive, which had been confiscated by the Swiss police after the Bern trial.

As described in the book, the full verbatim record of the South African trial in 1934 came into my possession privately, from the Port Elizabeth advocate Mr. Jankelevich, in whose chambers it had been kept all these years.

The rest of the information concerning the South African trial came from the library of the Zionist Federation in Johannesburg .

The records and background material of the appeal to the South African Board of Publications, in 1991, are in my possession due to my personal involvement in these proceedings. As President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, I was consulted on the matter by our South African branch of the IAJLJ which was represented in the proceedings.

The persons who supplied the documents concerning the Moscow trial in 1991, and offered eyewitness testimony, remain unnamed at their request. They deserve all my gratitude.

Obviously the relevant period in Tsarist Russia was at the center of the story. Many books describe the history of the period, but it took much more to describe the events that led to the publication of the Protocols and all the persons that were involved in this saga.

The memoirs of Count Sergei Witte, The Minister of Finance in the Tsar's cabinet, and of Paul Miliukov, the leader of the opposition, deserve special mention, as they brought to light many facts and episodes.

Dr. Boris Moruzov, a historian who assisted me throughout my research, combed newly opened Russian archives and supplied and translated invaluable material. He also checked and re-checked Russian material derived from other sources, and the confusing spelling of Russian names.

The full story of the Russians figuring in the book, the forgers as well as the witnesses, came from those Russian archives and from documents in the private archive of George Brunschvig, as well as the testimony of witnesses at the Bern trial, and the published works of some of them.

The Last Tsarina , by Princess Katerina Radziwil, published in English in 1928, provided many colorful details of an eye-witness, which I used in my description of this woman, who had been so instrumental in revealing the truth about the forgery of the Protocols.

In order to recreate the atmosphere in Russia in those days, I read and used the fascinating memoirs of Maurice Peleologue, the last French ambassador to Tsarist Russia.

The London Times played a central role in the revelation of the truth about the Protocols, and the ongoing distribution of the facts around the world. The information concerning the role of their correspondent, Philip Graves, and of the London Times itself, came from the Times archive, which I inspected with the courteous assistance of the Times management. The personnel of the archive carried to my desk huge volumes filled with relevant documents and generously assisted in preparing photocopies. This is how I became acquainted with the full story of Philip Graves, his correspondence with the Times editor and management, the description of his meetings in Istanbul with the Russian refugee who wished to remain anonymous, his hope to receive the Nobel prize for his revelation about the Protocols , and his reluctance to testify at the Bern trial so as not to endanger his relatives in Nazi Germany.

The full details of the Ford story and the interviews of Katerina Radziwil and Henriette Hurblut, came from the Library of Congress in Washington DC , mainly from old copies of the Hebrew American. This is how I became acquainted with Mr. Pipps, the editor of Ford's newspaper, The Dearborn Independent , who opposed the publication of the Protocols , resigned in protest, and told the whole story in his own newspaper, Pipps Weekly.

It is in the Library of Congress that I also discovered the facts concerning the appointment and report of the subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate of the United States , in 1964, and their full report on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is part of the congressional record.

From the beginning I was greatly fascinated with Maurice Joly, from whose book the Protocols were plagiarized. His own autobiography served as an invaluable source. I tried in vain to find the original record of his trial but that particular courthouse had burnt down. I did find a copy of the original prison record where he had served his sentence, with the assistance of Judge Miriam Ezratty, former First President of the Court of Appeal of France .

A most valuable source of information on current publications of the Protocols was the Project for the Study of Anti-Semitism of Tel-Aviv University, headed by Dr. Dina Porat, who offered ongoing advice and insight.

Professor Bernard Lewis, whose books and articles helped educate me on the situation in Arab and Moslem countries, willingly shared his personal experience during our walks on the Tel-Aviv waterfront, affording me the privilege of learning the facts from one of the foremost experts on the subject. He also confirmed that the Protocols were currently sold in bookstores in Arab capitals, which he visited regularly.

Professor Ben Ami Shillony of the Hebrew University offered a personal story and checked the Japanese part.

I wrote the book as a challenge to all those who unwittingly allow this and similar lies to be spread and to cause continuous harm. Many people have told me, time and again, that it is wrong to ban a book, any book, even a proven forgery. A lie, they say, should be confronted in the “marketplace of ideas”. The facts described in this book should prove these people wrong. A deliberate lie is not an “idea”. It may easily become a dangerous weapon. Those who exploit it don't belong in a genuine “marketplace of ideas”. Unlike some weapons, a lie like the Protocols is never used in self-defense, so there is no reason for allowing it. It should be banned, as are other weapons that possess the potential of causing mass murder and destruction.

¹ Pp. XV-XXI.

Appendix C

A PASSAGE FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF JUSTICE HAIM COHN TO THE HEBREW EDITION OF “THE LIE THAT WOULDN'T DIE” ²

( Justice Haim Cohn was the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Israel)

Hadassa Ben-Itto dedicated six years of research to the journey of the Protocols. Her book presents a clear and an eye-opening description of the forgers, their passions, their motives, their sources, and their destiny. She discovered part of the material from very different protocols – the files of evidence and arguments presented in courts of law in Switzerland and in South-Africa in 1934. The publication of this material is in itself of great importance. Reading her book one gets the impression that she is reporting not only on the trials, not only on the history of this big lie, but on herself. Her personal impressions and her intimate relations with the figures in the book, some of whom she met in person, and others whom she discovered in published and archive material, lend to her book a personal dimension. That is how she succeeds, for example, to bring the reader close to the good people behind the Bern trial, and make him feel that he is invited to wander among them. The reader directly experiences the wild incitement, the rude lies, the imminent danger, and the cynical use made throughout the trial for propaganda reasons. The author, herself an experienced and very learned judge, can properly appreciate the difficulties and dilemmas of the lawyers, without whose efforts and clever conduct, these trials would not have achieved their positive result. She also knows how to place herself in the shoes of the judge, who considers each argument on its merits, without prejudice.

Following the history of one of the great forgeries of the twentieth century, which fed the anti-Semitic flames and caused the gravest results to Jews and to Jewishness, has given birth to a fascinating and most important literary work.

² This passage appears on the back cover of the English edition.

Appendix D

Preface to “THE LIE THAT WOULDN'T DIE”

By Hadassa Ben-Itto

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND

This is a remarkable book by a remarkable woman, Hadassa Ben-Itto. Because of her background she knows from personal experience the corrosive effect of anti Semitism. This has caused her to devote her immense energy and talents in a personal crusade to combat its effect. In particular, she has attacked the poisonous lies that over the centuries have fuelled anti Semitism.

As Hadassa Ben-Itto has been a distinguished lawyer and judge, it is not surprising that one of the principal weapons she has used, so effectively, in her campaign against anti Semitism is the evidence she has collected that establishes beyond doubt the total inaccuracy of the most damaging lie of all “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. This book is the product of her research. It demonstrates not only her total mastery of her subject, but also her ability to tell a most compelling story. Even when her material is largely based on the records of one of the trials that should have indelibly and permanently labelled the “Protocols” a forgery there is nothing turgid in her account. On the contrary, her account brings the proceedings to life. You are transported to the court in which the trial is proceeding and you feel you are witnessing at first hand what must be one of the most fascinating trials that have ever taken place.

This is a book you will find difficult to put down. When you do, you will be left amazed that it is possible that there are those who have so little regard for truth that they can still publish the “Protocols” without placing at the start and foot of each page in red ink “This volume is a forgery, its contents are lies. It serves no purpose other than to demonstrate the lengths to which those who wish to damage the Jewish people will go to achieve their objective”. That the lie will not die does not detract from Hadassa's achievement. She cannot prevent the repeated publication of the calumny, but what she has achieved is that it is far more likely that the lie will be recognised for what it is. She deserves our applause.

Appendix E

Foreword to “THE LIE THAT WOULDN'T DIE”

By Hadassa Ben-Itto

Chief Judge

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

For several years now my judicial responsibilities have included the negotiation and implementation of an agreement with Swiss banks concerning Holocaust era claims. In this context I sought a deeper understanding of the historic and political roots of anti-Semitism and their effect on the rise of Nazism. It was very clear that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion served as a poisonous wellspring for Tsarist pogroms and the Final Solution.

In February 1943, three and a half years after the Second World War began with Hitler's invasion of Poland , Nazism's end became predictable with the destruction of the German 6 th Army at Stalingrad . The failure of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union was followed in May 1943 by the surrender of all Axis troops in North Africa after the rout of General Rommel. Yet I was particularly startled to read in the diaries of Goebbels under the 18 May 1943 entry: ‘I have devoted exhaustive study to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . in the past the objection was always that they aren't suited to present-day propaganda. In reading them now I find that we can use them very well. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are as modern today as they were when they were published for the first time.' The entry then continues as follows: ‘At noon I mentioned this to the Fuhrer. He believed The Protocols were absolutely genuine ...' After a long recital of the Fuhrer's fulminations against Jews and references to ‘the Jewish peril', Goebbels quotes the Fuhrer: ‘There is therefore no other recourse left for modern nations except to exterminate the Jew ... The nations that have been the first to see through the Jew and have been the first to fight him are going to take his place in the domination of the world.' For Hitler and Goebbels, the strength of the Protocols - ‘The Lie That Wouldn't Die' - inspired them to ignore the writing on the wall and to prolong the war against the Jews and the predictable demise of the Third Reich.

The world will shortly mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz , followed by VE Day - the military defeat of the Third Reich. This was also the time when we hoped and dreamed of ‘Never Again'. To the shame of the Free World we are facing today a serious rise of anti-Semitism with ugly manifestations in countries where hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered during the Second World War.

Hadassa Ben-Itto - a fellow judge - deserves great credit and recognition for the masterly and passionate exposition of the murderous fraud that was perpetrated by the authors of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . The Lie That Wouldn't Die , the result of Hadassa Ben-Itto's prodigious research and powerful prose, should serve as a potent weapon in the struggle against the revival of virulent anti-Semitism at the start of the twenty-first century.

New York , December 2004