Study Guide to anti-Semitism, 1944

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

I found something interesting in this study guide for anti-Semitism, something that may give a little more weight to some already pretty-weighty things.  The pamphlet was written by William R. Brickman¹ in 1944, and in its 26 leaves about half was devoted to what I think is the jewel of the pamphlet--an annotated bibliography--and the first half or so formulated as a study guide.

In the "historical background" of the guide , in the between-the-wars section, there are eleven points, including the Russian Pogroms of 1915, the Petlura massacre in the Ukraine in 1919-1920, the Iron Guard of Romania... and then the KKK, and of real interest, "Ford and the Protocols". that was Henry Ford of course and his connection and support of the fraud and forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which in 1919 when Ford sunk his teeth into it was already at least 50+ years old as a malignant conspiracy theory of no value.  Ford went on to begin his own series of articles on the "International Jew" as having led the world into WWI and who was a general scourge of the civilized world, publishing a weekly called The International Jew, which Ford published and provided content for from 1920-1927. It was vicious conspiracy pap that finally caught up to Ford in 1927 when was sued ; to escape the coming troubles he claimed that he did not know the contents of the newspaper and basically blamed the editors for the content he never saw.  By that time, the damage had been done, while Henry Ford--even after having issued an apology for having been duped by the Protocols--would later maintain that the Jews had managed to start WWII for financial gain.  So, to be one point in an eleven-point study guard leads me to believe that the Ford business was loftier in the general social consciousness than I expected.

The other detail of note comes in the next section, "In the shadow of the war" which is only four points long, though one of them is on the growth of anti-Semitism in the U.S. (during the war). This was a little surprising in the amount of weight given it in the study guide, or at least a little surprising to me.  

I don't have that much to say on these topics presently as it is a long and hard road, but I did want to at least pass along the notation. 

Notes:

See: the Jewish Virtual Library for background on Ford and the Protocols

1.  Published by the Jewish Coordinating Council, St. Louis, Mo. 28cm, 26 leaves, offset printed from a type original, and bound in wrappers and staple-bound at left. PROVENANCE: Library of Congress, with their surplus/duplicate stamp on the front cover.