The Basel Trial of the «Protocols of the Elders of Zion»

Basel, Korn­haus­gas­se 8. This address is now home to the Jewish Muse­um of Switz­er­land. Its coll­ec­tion con­ta­ins an unu­su­al book, a copy of the «Pro­to­cols of the Elders of Zion» labe­led as con­fis­ca­ted: «Beschlag­nahmt.» In 1933, the local secre­ta­ri­at at the same address, Korn­haus­gas­se 8, con­duc­ted a so-cal­led «action,» a mea­su­re by the Swiss Asso­cia­ti­on of Jewish Com­mu­ni­ties (SIG) to ward off anti­se­mi­tism. The Basel local secre­ta­ri­at repor­ted anti­se­mi­tic inci­dents to the SIG and nego­tia­ted coun­ter­me­a­su­res to be taken. One of them was the so-cal­led Basel Tri­al of the «Pro­to­cols of the Elders of Zion.»

On 21 June 1933, the Jewish lawy­er, Oscar Mey­er, filed a «defa­ma­ti­on lawsu­it» with the Basel cri­mi­nal court on behalf of Jules Drey­fus-Brod­sky, Pre­si­dent of the Jewish Com­mu­ni­ty of Basel and of the SIG, along with Dr. Mar­cus Cohn, Pre­si­dent of the Swiss Zio­nist Asso­cia­ti­on, and Dr. Mar­cus Ehren­preis, Chief Rab­bi of Stock­holm. The lawsu­it was direc­ted against the aut­hors and dis­se­mi­na­tors of the «Pro­to­cols of the Elders of Zion.»

The «Pro­to­cols» is an anti­se­mi­tic text, pro­ba­b­ly of Rus­si­an ori­gin, which rea­ched Wes­tern Euro­pe in the wake of the Rus­si­an Revo­lu­ti­on, and was published seve­ral times in anno­ta­ted ver­si­ons. The «Pro­to­cols» inten­ded to pro­ve fic­ti­tious agree­ments bet­ween Jews wan­ting to assu­me poli­ti­cal world domi­nan­ce. In fact, the «Pro­to­cols» was a pla­gia­ry of Mau­rice Joly’s poli­ti­cal sati­re  «Dia­lo­gue aux enfers ent­re Machia­vel et Mon­tes­quieu» (1864), a fact that had been pro­ven in 1926. But it con­tin­ued to cir­cu­la­te and find new rea­ders, espe­ci­al­ly as Natio­nal Socia­lism was gai­ning adherents.

The defen­dants in the Basel tri­al were the Ger­man publishers, Gott­fried van der Beek, aut­hor of «The Secrets of the Elders of Zion,» Theo­dor Frit­sch, aut­hor of the «Zio­nist Pro­to­cols» and the Swiss dis­se­mi­na­tors of the bro­chu­res, Alfred Zan­der and Edu­ard Rüeg­seg­ger. The name «Gott­fried van der Beek» was the pseud­onym of Lud­wig Mül­ler von Hau­sen, an anti­se­mi­tic Ger­man jour­na­list who died in 1926. Theo­dor Frit­sch, it soon tur­ned out, was also decea­sed. The lawsu­it was sub­se­quent­ly direc­ted against Alfred Zan­der, head of the fascist Natio­nal Front. Its pri­ma­ry con­cern was to obtain a ver­dict expo­sing the «Pro­to­cols» as a forgery.

The tri­al in Basel was con­duc­ted by the Pre­si­dent of the Cri­mi­nal Court, Dr. Eze­chi­e­le Eno­ca­ri. The court decreed on 22 June 1933 that the «Pro­to­cols» be con­fis­ca­ted from the pre­mi­ses of the local branch of the Natio­nal Front in Basel, with two cri­mi­nal inves­ti­ga­tors sei­zing 761 copies.

Almost at the same time, a simi­lar tri­al against the «Pro­to­cols» was initia­ted in Bern. The Ber­ne­se lawy­ers refu­sed to coope­ra­te with Oscar Mey­er becau­se they did not want to jeo­par­di­ze their own tri­al. Becau­se the Swiss Asso­cia­ti­on of Jewish Com­mu­ni­ties expec­ted more from the out­co­me of the Bern tri­al, it increased its efforts in sup­port of Bern, while the tri­al in Basel was post­po­ned. In June 1936, the tri­al in Basel was reli­quis­hed and a sett­le­ment with Zan­der nego­tia­ted. Zan­der had to with­draw his cla­im that Ehren­preis had testi­fied to the authen­ti­ci­ty of the «Pro­to­cols.» And he admit­ted that the wri­ting had no con­nec­tion with the First Zio­nist Con­gress in Basel. Zan­der also agreed to pay the court cos­ts. For Oscar Mey­er, who had put a lot of ener­gy into the Basel pro­cess, the out­co­me was dis­ap­poin­ting, even though he had advi­sed Jules Drey­fus-Brod­sky to accept the sett­le­ment alre­a­dy in June 1934. Alt­hough he sup­port­ed the Bern pro­cess, he was also dis­ap­poin­ted by the lack of trust that the Bern lawy­ers had shown him. In 1935 he asked Saly May­er about the sta­tus of the tri­al in Bern and men­tio­ned that he had «lost the desi­re to com­ple­te the Basel trial.»

By Bar­ba­ra Häne

Sources:
Mäch­ler, Ste­fan: Hil­fe und Ohn­macht. Der Schwei­ze­ri­sche Israe­li­ti­sche Gemein­de­bund und die natio­nal­so­zia­lis­ti­sche Ver­fol­gung 1933–1945, Zürich 2005.
Hage­meis­ter, Micha­el, Die «Pro­to­kol­le der Wei­sen von Zion» vor Gericht. Der Ber­ner Pro­zess 1933–1937 und die «anti­se­mi­ti­sche Inter­na­tio­na­le», Zürich 2017.
Mey­er, Oscar: Brief an das Prä­si­di­um des 18. Zio­nis­ten-Kon­gres­ses, Basel 16.08.1933, S. 1 f., AfZ: NL Mar­cus Cohn / 88.
o. A.: Prot. der Juris­ten­kon­fe­renz, Basel 01.06.1934, S. 4, AfZ: IB SIG-Archiv / 1215.
Jüdi­sche Press­zen­tra­le Zürich (JPZ) 753, 07.07.1933.
Mey­er, Oscar: Brief an Saly May­er, Basel 24.10.1935. AfZ: IB SIG-Archiv / 1216.