Dr. Herman L. Strack, professor of theology at the University of Berlin,
one of the foremost Christian authorities on theological and religious
literature, commenting on this Goedsche-Retcliffe concoction, says that
this tale of the ghostly convocation in the Jewish cemetery at Prague,
discloses no real knowledge of Judaism, that the reference to mixed
marriages indicates gross ignorance of actual Jewish thought, and that
the Hebrew words supposed to have been employed by the spokesmen for the
various tribes appear to have been borrowed from a dictionary. He also
points to Goedsche-Retcliffe's story and the "Rabbi's Speech" about to
be mentioned as the sources of the Protocols.
CHAPTER THREE
FICTION FORGED INTO "FACT"
The Lie in its Second Stage--The Tale Becomes "Fact"--The "Rabbi's"
Speech--Its Authenticity Vouched for by "Retcliffe"--An Illuminating
Footnote--A Dedication to the Russian "Black Hundreds"--The Imaginary
"Speech" Bears Witness to Authenticity of "Protocols," Themselves Based
on "Speech"--Three Stages of the Lie.
A number of years after this Russian translation of the
Goedsche-Retcliffe story appeared, Sir John Retcliffe, alias Goedsche,
deeming it important for his purpose of adding fuel to the flame of
anti-semitism that had been lighted in Germany, undertook to convert
this work of fiction, this offspring of his imagination, into a
statement of fact. This led him to adopt the simple device of
consolidating into one continuous speech the dialogue contained in his
shilling shocker, and putting the speech into the mouth of an imaginary
Rabbi in such a way as to make it appear to be an address delivered by
him to a secret convocation of Jews.
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