J e w i s h  R i t u a l - M u r d e r :   a   H i s t o r i c a l   I n v e s t i g a t i o n
Der jüdische Ritualmord: Eine historische Untersuchung von Hellmut Schramm, Ph. D.

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The year 1891 can be called fateful insofar as within one quarter-year two ritual-crimes of complete similarity accompanied by circumstances just as similar, and in two different regions of Europe -- Corfu and Xanten -- focused the interest of the public upon both these places. This captured attention would have been enough in itself to once and for all dispel that darkness which had seemingly become more and more impenetrable for the middle-class world despite Damascus, Tisza-Eszlár and Skurz.

As Jewish gold prepared the way for the Emancipation, so the other great power of World Jewry, its press, methodically extended these acquisitions. It also helped to draw "a thick veil over those bloody scenes" -- and they were forgotten!

In Greece there was soon no longer a single national newspaper which possessed the courage to give a clear, unbiased account of the events on Corfu. But Jewry had ever to fear the unbiased account and knew how to prevent this as well. Thus nothing remained for national Greek circles, other than to hand over their reports for publication to the single foreign paper which had the courage to call these things by their right name.

These original reports, from the pens of honorable men who knew exactly where the murderers and their taskmasters were to be found, but who in and of themselves were too weak to be able to grapple with them, had a shocking effect in their restrained, objective tone. But after four decades of oblivion, we have have an obligation today [1943] to again make them public.

At the beginning of May 1891 the governments of France, England, and Greece dispatched warships to the totally unarmed island of Corfu; the King of Greece made his way there in person, ministers resigned, the high and (208) the highest of officials were relieved of their duties, the governments of the European Great Powers engaged in diplomatic moves in Athens, note after note was exchanged, and the honest old postal clerks of the main post office in Athens affirmed with a sigh that never before during their long terms of service had such a large number of encrypted dispatches come in and been sent out, as in those days!

Finally the most effective thing of all occurred: The Greek debt-notes fell alarmingly at all stock exchanges in the world, the last resistance of the government of a small nation was broken. The Alliance Israélite Universelle had engaged in their old methods here, too! Jewish high finance and international [news] dispatch bureaus, the sharpest weapons of universal Judah, prevented, under downright outrageous circumstances, the implementation of a judicial procedure which had the mission of exacting justice for a ritual-crime upon an eight year-old girl!

"From detailed information, we are in a position to be able to report that no kind of visible traces of wounds were found on the murder victim; to accept that this is a murder done out of ritual reasons, is to credit with belief a populace which is as fanatical as it is ignorant; moreover, this is a case of a Jewish child" -- In this vein wrote the Jewish papers of all nations with identical voice, and for Germany, the leading press organ of the A.I.U., the Berliner Tageblatt, with its circulation of a quarter million, adopted a cunningly drawn up system of falsifications

Fortunately, there was a German paper that made the effort to unmask this infamous Jewish tactic and the broadly fielded campaign of lies and to search for the truth, though without being able to bring about the just and objective realization of court proceedings, since the German government had already bowed to Jewish interests! Running from the end of April until the end of May 1891, the Neue Preußische Zeitung (Kreutzzeitung) [New Prussian Times (Cross Times -- another name for the New Prussian Times)] brought out the sensational "Corfu Letters," whose contents originated with the expositions of highly placed, nationally-minded Greek politicians and scientists, who had totally and clearly seen through the subversions of international Jewry. A number of these letters were (209) composed by a parliamentary deputy from Corfu itself and transmitted for publication in the Kreutzzeitung through intermediaries. In their time, these articles in the Kreuzzeitung very much got on the nerves of the Jewish wire-pullers; it's no wonder that the hatred of their tribal co-religionists was directed first and foremost against this brave paper and then against the German nationality itself.

What had happened?

On the night of 12/13 April 1891, the completely blood-empty body of an approximately eight-year-old girl, punctured and cut to the point of unrecognizability, had been discovered in the entryway of a house near the synagogue of Corfu under mysterious circumstances.

The employee of the Kreuzzeitung dispatched to Corfu as a correspondent received a report delivered by a Corfu friend, which, composed while still under the impression of the events and authentic in all details, was made the lead article (1) in the said paper. This letter from Corfu reads:

"In the night of 12 April toward ten-thirty, it was announced by town-criers that the Jew Salomon Sarda was missing his little eight-year-old daughter; whoever might know anything about her whereabouts, should report it. The following day people were shocked to learn that the body of the child had been discovered in a sack in the entrance way of a Jewish house. The father himself had found her when he looked through the entrance way for the missing child while walking home from drinking coffee (!) at around two in the morning. There he suddenly stumbled over the body and had immediately summoned the night watchman. The latter stated that Sarda had displayed no kind of surprise or pain at the sight of the body. The autopsy, which was conducted by four of the best trained physicians in Europe, revealed the presence of a wound on the neck as well as one on the heart and one arm, and a bump on the head. Death must have ensued as the result of loss of blood, after the child had presumably been rendered unconscious by a blow to the head. In the body there (210) was not even a drop of blood; rather, numerous needle punctures at various places indicated that the murderers had made sure to carefully evacuate the blood completely. The wounds were -- as was the entire body -- washed clean and plugged with the hair of the girl. Even on the underwear there was not the slightest trace of blood to be noticed.

The unusual circumstances under which the crime, as well as the discovery of the body, had occurred, in connection with the fact that shortly before the Jewish Easter had been celebrated and similar events from the end of the previous and the beginning of this century were still in everyone's mind, impelled the masses to the forceful belief that it is was matter of one of those ritual human sacrifices for the acquisition of blood, which, despite all that has been written against it, nevertheless exists in the mind of all peoples and always has existed, and by means of events of this kind is ever brought to mind all over again. . .The rumor was spreading that the deceased was by no means a Jewess, but on the contrary, was a Christian girl by the name of Maria Dessyla, kidnapped in Janina, who frequently had called herself by that name. The excitement which has swept over the people as a result of this defies description. All the same, justice would have been allowed to run its course with the generally peaceful nature of the Corfuites, if the Jews had not unanimously, as if a signal had been given, expressed the outrageous accusation that the Christians had murdered the child in this manner in order to set the people against the Jews. . ."

Also, an employee of the Staatsbürgerzeitung [National Citizen Times], who had plentiful contacts in Greece from his longer residence in Athens and the Orient, turned to three different persons in Athens with the written request for information about the events in Corfu. From all three -- among them a historian and philologist -- comprehensive reports came in which contained downright overwhelming evidence!

The Jew Vita Chaim Sarda de Salomon had originally claimed that it was his own daughter (211) who had fallen victim to this crime; indeed, the identity of the girl was not immediately definitely established because the small body was cut up in the most hideous manner and resembled a single wound. According to a special report from Athens of 15 May 1891, the official autopsy of the medical examiner showed that death was brought about by the cutting the the neck and subsequent fatal hemorrhage. In the particulars, one learned that neck arteries and neck veins were opened to a depth of 10 cm by means of surgical instruments. Likewise, the arteries and veins of both arms were punctured. The heart was punctured. Approximately twenty smaller, very deeply penetrating cuts were discovered, in addition to numerous piercing wounds on all parts of the body; the head of the girl alone showed seven knife cuts. The legs appeared forcibly stretched and bent(2). The body was absolutely empty of blood!

The parliamentary deputy from Corfu, Georgios Zervos, a leading Corfuite, made frightful accusations in his report. Four Jews had been charged with the bestial murder: the Jewish tailor Sarda, who had taken the non-Jewish girl Maria Dessyla, who came from Janina, allegedly as foster child, and ritually-slaughtered her in company with the synagogue servant Naxon, the grave-digger of the Jewish community, and a Jewish beggar by the name of Ephraim. The latter was also charged with committing deliberate perjury.

Four Roman Catholic nuns who conducted a girls' school in Corfu appeared as witnesses for the prosecution. The child had been brought to this school at the approximate age of six; on this occasion, the tailor Sarda avoided giving further details about the child, despite repeated requests, so that the school had to rely upon the statements of the student herself that she was named Maria Dessyla and was born in 1883 in Janina. These declarations of the nuns were vigorously attacked by the Rabbi of Corfu, who presented a birth register written in Hebrew, in which the murdered girl was supposed to have been entered as the daughter of the tailor Sarda! At closer examination (212) the register was shown to be forged. In the official Greek civil registry the child was listed nowhere as the child of Sarda, although the latter was already resident for twelve years in Corfu! All of these circumstances allowed it to be recognized that the allegedly orphaned child had fallen into the claws of this Jew years before in one way or another, so that she could be allowed to disappear again if need be, and that all further personal particulars [of the child] had been most carefully avoided on purpose.

The chief witnesses, two Greek police officers, observed the murder band on the night in question as it made to bury a body in a sack in the Jewish cemetary; but the Jews succeeded in escaping. To divert suspicion from themselves, the Jews had made the first "announcement" according to the procedure which they had already practiced many centuries earlier in Trent. After the Jew Sarda made use of the public town-criers on the evening of 12 April, he appeared in the morning hours of 13 April at the police bureau in Corfu and boldly declared, without a trace of sorrow, that someone had murdered "his child" and thrown the body in a sack, in the entryway in front of his residence, near the synagogue. To the police commissar in charge these statements seemed highly suspicious, and he held Sarda in custody. On the basis of the statements of witnesses, the evidence grew stronger and stronger. After three days, there appeared before the examining judge a an "exonerating witness" in the form of the half-blind Jewish beggar Ephraim. This one would have it that, in spite of his poor vision, he had seen five peasants with the child's body on the night in question! Because he continued to get caught in awful contradictions, he fell under grave suspicion not only of perjury, but of being at least an accessory to the bestial crime.

What happened to the accused Jews?

The government authorities at first tried -- as in all nations -- to treat the whole matter as a "fairy tale," but soon had to realize that the case could no longer be covered up! But the government did not possess the courage and -- the power, to honestly take into account the people's sense of right, and thereby the outrage of the populace increased by the hour. (213) In order to gain time, following proven methods the Prefect of Corfu, and then the state prosecutor entrusted with the case, were summoned to Athens to make a report to the government. This report-making absorbed more time. Meanwhile international, Jewish-inspired diplomacy had paved the way. The Greek Minister President Delyannis responded to the interventions which England, France, Italy, and Austria had made with him for the protection of the Jews, that "the official investigation might come across certain factors which would be likely to foster the acceptance of the Christian population with respect to [belief in] a ritual-murder." He therefore was making an effort to "postpone the opening of the trial proceedings against the Jews charged with murder, so that this might gain time for producing the necessary proof of their innocence."

To express this in plain words: Delyannis himself is convinced that a child of his people has been ritually-slaughtered -- but his hands are already tied as far as being able to resort to drastic measures!

For refuting the Kreuzzeitung reports, the Berliner Tageblatt dispatched to Greece its own correspondent, a Dr. Barth. We must examine this situation somewhat more closely, because the unscrupulous actions of the Jewish press were responsible for the unrest on Corfu. It has not been possible for us to determine whether this Dr. Barth himself was an international press-Jew, or merely a paid creature of the Jews; However, his tactics were so revealing that even today they still are able to contribute to the story of the Jewish press battle!

Having arrived in Corfu, Barth became involved in feverish activity to confuse public opinion by means of a great quantity of tendentiously distorted and consciously falsified reports and telegrams. In that way he had succeeded in wrangling a declaration, virtually to order, from the Greek archbishop in Corfu and from the Prefect. After these "successes" Dr. Barth went over to his main assault upon the deputy Zervos. The latter's authentic reports were described as "liberally and totally invented," witnesses' statements, according to tried and true methods, were rendered with distortions; (214) finally, Barth fabricated a conversation with the Minister President Delyannis, to throw light upon the "case" -- but let us pursue this press battle by means of the Kreuzzeitung reports!

"Berlin, 16 May 1891(3) -- In regard to the "official denial" of the Wiener Fremdenblatt [literally, Vienna Foreign Page], which from Rome is supposed to have reported the incorrectness of our earlier report concerning the ritual-murder, and about which the local Jewish press was naturally beside itself with joy, we have the following to reply: A statement from an authoritative source has been made to us that -- as of noon today -- no official denial whatsoever against that telegram published in the Kreuzzeitung has been made on the part of the government. According to the judgement of the local Greek colony, it is also absolutely out of the question that Mr. Delyannis would be able to deny the fact of the murder of the Christian girl Maria Dessyla by Jews, without damaging his position as Minister President, as long as the trial against the Jews charged with the murder has not been conducted to its end in a manner completely open to the public. . .and if the Greek government had even the slightest evidence for the innocence of the Jews, it would have published this in the organs which stand at its disposal a long time ago; yet not only has this not occurred, but all the papers of Athens have up to this time set down the facts of the murder as established. We would therefore like to advise papers such as the Kurier and the Berliner Tageblatt to turn elsewhere with their attacks. -- For the rest, we are able to assure the -- Jewish -- leaders of these organs, that we know quite well what efforts individuals of their tribal persuasion have made to arrange official denials toward the Kreuzzeitung['s reports]. But these efforts were in vain for Berlin; naturally it is easier to manage this in Vienna, where the relations of the semi-official Fremdenblatt to Jewish haute finance are certainly known to everyone."

On 21 May 1891, we read on the first page of Nr. 230 of the Kreuzzeitung under the headline: "On the issue of ritual-murder on Corfu":

(215) "The frightful terror which all of international Jewry felt in every limb when we shattered the attempted cover-ups by the telegraph agencies under Jewish influence with our recent report, and frankly pointed out that in Greece, not only the masses, but also people of substance believed in the existence of ritual-murder on Corfu, has led to the local main organ of the Jews, the Berliner Tageblatt, sending its own correspondent to Corfu. The latter immediately managed to prove on the spot all the reports on this case published by the Kreuzzeitung to be "inventions," by getting himself confirmation from the Greek archbishop on Corfu that the murdered girl was of Jewish descent and that [it was] probably a [case of] lust-murder. -- It may, perhaps, be true that the representative of the Berliner Tageblatt actually received this information from the archbishop; but only the personal opinion of the latter has been expressed by that confirmation. The archbishop, however, is no examining judge, so that his judgement is not supported by any kind of real evidence; also, by force of necessity, he [the archbishop] must seek to calm again the wildly aroused passions of the people, so that it is understandable that he will speak as pacifyingly as possible before the public. This view is totally confirmed for us by a source whom we have cause to regard as competent and it is suggested by the fact that the the Prefect of Corfu, who has meanwhile been dismissed from his office, in the beginning had claimed the same thing as the archbishop is now asserting. Since in the meantime all circumstances which have become known have contradicted this assertion, this claim has led to the uncommon animosity of the people and finally to riots. And the fact that the government has recalled the Prefect at the urging of the masses of the people likewise shows that the former regards the Jewish extraction of the murdered girl as in no sense established.

Nevertheless, in order to proceed surely and to be able to offer the correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt at least an equally good testimony, we have asked the publisher of the most widely read Athens paper, the Acropolis, to inform us by telegraph (216) of his view of the state of the Corfu Affair, in order to thereby retain one further check upon the reports of our permanent Athens correspondent:

Athens, 20 May, evening. The Kreuzzeitung is completely justified in speaking of a ritual murder. All known results of the investigation up to the present, can be regarded as proof of this."

So much for the Kreuzzeitung. Its reporting was proof against attacks and unassailable. Thus, finally, the German nationality as such had to become a target of attack! These perfidious methods do not appear to be out of date even today! [Indeed -- the instinctive and deadly hostility of Jewry to Germany and Germans, above all other peoples, antedated the Third Reich and the respective positions of these two arch-enemies in 2001 is the one feature of the current situation we can be grateful Hellmut Schramm was spared having to see.].

On 16 May 1891, the Kreuzzeitung reported in connection with the alleged official denial of the Greek Minister President, that the Jewish press had made the further untrue claim that in Corfu "anti-Semitic" pictures and fliers with German text were surfacing. In reality, it was a matter of harmless Greek newspapers, which were regularly published in Athens, Patras, and Corfu as daily papers. In these were the most varied illustrations concerning the events on Corfu. Several Greek papers naturally put out a picture of the murdered girl, an "extra edition" out of Corfu had a [picture of] the house of the Jew Sarda in front of which the body was found lying in a sack, as well as the hardly sympathetic portrait of this man who had had the murdered child for several years in "foster care." One other picture represented the nocturnal scene in the Jewish cemetary, where those accused of the murder had tried to bury the body. Under this picture was verse written in the dialect of the Ionian islands, which reads:
"Is that not an insult, is that not a crime?
To the Jewish burial grounds they had brought Maria.
Maria was Christian and was baptized,
and in the Jewish cemetary they dug a grave for her."

The Kreuzzeitung wrote in conclusion to this: "In consideration for our 'Jewish fellow-citizens', we shall not give further samples of the texts of these papers; it is hoped that these verses (217) suffice to destroy the fairy-tale of the 'German' inflammatory papers!"

With the beginning of the unrest on Corfu, this infamous lie was again brought up. On 21 May 1891, the Kreuzzeitung received from Athens the message by telegram that simultaneously with the start of the riots on Corfu, telegrams were dispatched from out of Constantinople (!), to Vienna, Berlin, and Paris -- thus the centers of World Jewry -- which told that anti-Semitic pictures with German text were being spread around in Smyrna. Upon being immediately questioned about this, the Greek consulate there made the unqualified statement that nothing whatsoever was known about this in Smyrna. "On this account, it is believed that the Jews of other cities had known about the murder on Corfu, since the denial-system (4) was already arranged ahead of time. The statement of the archbishop is private opinion, which is also shared by diplomatic (!) representatives. But, despite many requests, the government has endorsed this viewpoint by no announcement of any sort. If there had been any kind of proof whatsoever for this, it would do so gladly. . .The Minister Deliorgis stated that the presence of the foreign warships made the position of the cabinet more difficult, since a crisis in the government is probable."

This shameless and provocative maneuver of the Jewish agents produced, with all its satanic slyness, an unforeseen turn of events. The otherwise peaceful populace of Corfu, having become mistrustful due to these subversions, recalled similarly circumstanced murder cases from earlier years which had remained unsolved! Moreover, the nuns had then declared under oath that the little girl had been the Maria Dessyla who was being taught by them. -- Besides this, the Jewish Easter had just been celebrated shortly before the crime. "Actually, the people found evidence for this custom of the Jews in nearly every year. At the time of the Easter of the year before, a Jewish riot arose in Smyrna when a small Christian girl (218) had disappeared, whose corpse was supposed to have been discovered in the water, allegedly by the Turkish authorities(5). Among the Christians, however, everyone was convinced that the child had been ritually-slaughtered by the Jews. . .One must also consider that the Jewish population in Corfu is still of the outright dubious origin of the earlier Venetian times, that the island for almost centuries at a time was the point of passage of all Jews immigrating from Asia Minor, Arabia, and North Africa to the South of Europe and right here was where the most backward of all of the customs of the "Mosaic confession" were to be found. Even today the colloquial language of the Jews in Corfu is a Hebrew and Arabic mixed with elements of Spanish and Italian, and their religious practices are closed to any non-Jew. Thus, if the suspicion can exist anywhere in Europe, that the Jews could, in accordance with old Talmudic laws, go so far in their hatred for Christianity as to the killing of Christian children and to the use of Christian blood, the unique occupants of the Jewish Quarter in Corfu offers the greatest possibility for this."(6)

The unrest which was already breaking out on Corfu at the end of April 1891 has been grossly exaggerated: "loads" of the tribal comrades were "slaughtered" -- one need only recall the atrocity reports of the Jew Pieritz out of Damascus from the year 1840! --.

Naturally the precious Jewish blood flowed out in "currents". The Jews locked in their Ghetto had been abandoned to "death by starvation". In contrast to this stood the official government reports on the facts: The window panes of some houses were smashed into rubble, some Jews, who had behaved too provokingly were beaten with sticks, but not a single Jew was seriously wounded, to say nothing of killed in those days! In the beginning, the populace of Corfu trusted the judicial (219) investigation and therefore kept order by itself -- the insignificant military detachment stationed in Corfu would not even have initially been able to do so.

But when the future showed that the course of the government was apparently in advance already being subordinated to foreign interests, the people became suspicious. The authorities were accused quite openly of bribery. For example, that the state attorney had first begun his foot-dragging investigation many hours after discovery of the body, had repeatedly allowed himself to be led down blind alleys and thus had lost much precious time. That the Ghetto had not been searched at all, while because of supposed excesses many non-Jews were arrested and were taken away right before the eyes of the Jews.

The Rabbi of Corfu, apparently on instructions, went too far with things: he publicized a declaration manipulated out of the Archbishop of Corfu, which the latter had already given to the notorious Dr. Barth, that the child had been of Jewish extraction and was the natural daughter of the tailor Salomon Sarda. The French Consul Danloux accepted this declaration in accordance with his own wishes. The Archbishop of Zante, Dionysius Latas, also shared the view of the Archbishop of Corfu in full compass(7). At the international Congress of Religion at Chicago, Latas later stated the following: ". . .among the ignorant masses of the population, the belief is spread that the Jews for the purposes of their religious rite make use of the blood of Christian children and that, in order to procure it for themselves, do not shrink back from committing murder. As a result of this belief, persecutions of the Jews frequently break out, and the innocent victims are exposed to many acts of violence and danger. Considering the fact that such false notions have also spread among the ignorant masses of other nations and in the last decade Germany and Austria were the showplace of trials against innocent Jews. . .as a Christian priest I ask that this Congress take note of our conviction that Judaism forbids murder of every kind and that none of its (220) sacred authorities and books command or permit the use of human blood for ritual purposes or religious ceremonies. The spreading of such a slander against the believers of a monotheistic religion is unchristian. It is incompatible with the duty of Christians, to allow such a terrible accusation to go uncontradicted, and the good repute of Christianity demands that I ask this parliament to declare that Judaism and the Jews are just as innocent of a crime falsely imputed to them, as the Christians of the first centuries were. . ."

The consequent continuing of these provocations then read: Corfuites killed the child in order to put the Jews under suspicion of perpetrating the deed!

With that, the forbearance of the populace was exhausted. A Good Friday procession attempted to force its way into the Ghetto, in order to compel the surrender of the band of murderers. A reinforced military unit, which had been placed there for the protection of the Ghetto, fired upon the defenseless procession. Three participants were shot dead, about twelve, of whom some later died, were left behind critically wounded at the site, to the mockery of a raging Jewish mob! For the protection of the Jewish segment of the population, the warships of foreign powers came into the harbor. . .

A report out of London from 15 May revealed these connections: "London, 15 May 1891. -- The Lower House. The Under Secretary of State in the Colonial Office, Baron von Worms (!), stated that the English representative in Athens has made remonstrances to the Hellenic government because of the riots which have taken place on Corfu against the Jews. The admiral in command of the Mediterranean fleet has been instructed to send a warship to Corfu in order to cooperate with the English Consul there in the protection of the British subjects of the Jewish religion (!). Worms then read out a telegram which had arrived at the Foreign Office, according to which a Jew was killed by some Greeks after the revolt. The Greek government has granted assistance to the poor Jews suffering from hunger."

In the middle of May 1891, the situation came to a further head. On 15 May it was reported from Athens: "Yesterday a war ship (221) departed for Corfu," and according to a report from Vienna a state of siege had been imposed and the governor and mayors deposed from Corfu due to their alleged "irresolute attitude." -- In Athens "the local German envoy Count Wesdehlen as well as the English envoy" had "longer confidential discussions with the Minister Delyannis." (8)

But International Jewry spun into its web of political machinery not only a commanding admiral, ministers and ministries, but even a king, without, perhaps, the final connections ever becoming clear to him.

In these May days which were critical for Jewry, King George of Greece was sent to Corfu. The Jewish press effusively took note of this "voluntary" decision of the king. The Kreuzzeitung commented on this news as follows (9): "The report, that King George of Greece has decided to travel personally to Corfu and to rest there for some weeks and to calm the unrest of the Christian population by his presence, can only be viewed as a further proof that the Jews on Corfu have so far been able to produce no exonerating factors whatsoever in regard to the crime imputed to them. Therefore it is understandable in what an embarrassing position the official circles of Greece find themselves. The entire population is permeated by the conviction that the murder has been committed by the Jewish community, and any further delay in letting the trial go forward before the public must necessarily increase the exasperation of the people. But since almost overwhelming proof exists against the Jews charged with the murder, a verdict of acquittal is unthinkable. So, for International Jewry, it all depends upon the trial not reaching the state of actual proceedings at all, which is why they are demanding that the Greek government bring the unrest of the population of Corfu and the rest of the islands to an end by whatever other means [necessary]. Since this frankly will be hard to achieve by means of violence, (222) the king accordingly is supposed to go himself to Corfu in order to appease the people by means of the authority of his crown and by kind persuasion." The paper concluded its report with the words: "In any case, however, King George would bring a very great sacrifice to International Jewry through such a decision." -- In this, as in the previous reports, the opinions of the Greek authorities are already being hinted at. The letter of the already several times mentioned Deputy Georgios Zervos gave further information, is simply shocking to read and gives insight into Jewish subversion of the press. Zervos wrote to the Krezzeitung from Corfu (10): ". . .In the authorities, who still seem to have found no trace of the murderers, people have lost all trust. Something abominable has happened. Many Anthenian (read: Jewish-inspired) newspapers have been inaugurating a genuine crusade against Corfu and its 'anti-Semitic' inhabitants, in order to make difficulties for the government of Delyannis domestically and abroad. All incidents were frightfully exaggerated, countless lies printed and sent out all over the world. The foreign (read: international!) press got hold of the case, and since it is in Jewish hands for the most part, all that appeared from tendentious reports in the Athenian papers, or was sent in by Korfuite Jews out of feelings of fear and revenge, was reprinted with new exaggerations. The Vienna papers and the Pester Lloyd(11) have particularly distinguished themselves, and the latter has had the gall to claim that the excesses were continuing, although it had been proven [it claimed] that the Christians had murdered the child out of fanatical motives. Such shameful libels are peddled in all of Europe and we are able to do nothing against it until the truth will have come to light in court. For the present, the government has dismissed examining judges, nomarchs [Greek officials equivalent to governors] and other officials and installed new ones who have gone to work without prejudice. At the same time there have been new military reinforcements and money for the poor Jews has arrived; under armed (223) protection, they are now allowed to follow their usual occupations in the customs house and in their shops. While so occupied, one Jew was stabbed to death by a fanatic from the people. Therefore, one Jew has been killed, compared to so many Christians who were slain or wounded in Zante. No Jew is in custody, while our prisons are filled with Christians because of it. Therefore it is [a matter of] disgraceful lies when English papers say that nine Jews had been stabbed to death and many others starving. . .

To summarize all this, the unrest of the people is sufficiently explained by the murder itself and its accompanying circumstances, by the limp management of the investigation on the part of the authorities, and by the insinuations of the Israelite population, which push the responsibility for the murder off onto Christians, and it is a wonder that the people, as a whole, have observed such a moderate attitude. Bloodshed has been most meticulously avoided, not out of fear of the military, since that was in the beginning much too small a force, and the Korfuites have demonstrated on former occasions against English troops, that they do not fear weapons. The Ghetto was not blockaded in order to starve the Jews to death, but rather to force them to deliver the murderers. Not a single person has starved to death. But in this case it has again been clearly shown how great the power of the Golden Internationale already is! One Jew is dead, and all the governments of Europe raise expostulations with ours; an English and a French warship lie in our harbor, and the Greek debt-notes have fallen significantly in Berlin. Let it be mentioned that the Jews in Korfu have lived unmolested for at least six centuries, although in the year 1812 a similar crime was committed as can be proved. Recently they have made themselves, to be sure, very much hated due to the ruthless exploitation of privileges which have been conceded to them by the Ministry of Trikupi for reasons of [political] election."

The fire drummed up by the Jewish news bureaus, or -- as Zervos described this press campaign: "The crusade against everything non-Jewish" -- became, even for the forbearing Greek (224) government, too much in the long run. In the middle of May, 1891, the Kreuzzeitung learned (12): ". . .The information has been imparted by the Greek Ministry that the telegrams published up to now have been heavily exaggerated. The murder of a young girl which took place before Easter, has, in the opinion of the people, been attributed to the Jews. Consequently, a certain excitability has gotten hold of the populace of both islands (Corfu and Zante), and some riots occurred. . .A mild unrest still exists on one island (Zante); but the government immediately strengthened public forces, as well as ordered judicial prosecutions and taken strict measures, so that there no longer is any doubt that complete peace will be restored in the very near future. The Jews in Greece have always enjoyed the complete equal status before the law with the rest of the population. . ."

Eight days after this government statement the peace of the grave came to Corfu. -- Corfu, 23 May 1891: "The peace remains undisturbed. Several individuals who were distributing provocative placards were arrested. . ."

The individuals are its own subjects. . .

And the Jewish murderers?

The "preliminary investigation" was suddenly declared to be ended. This outcome could certainly not be a surprise after the intrigues which preceded it. -- Athens, 24 May 1891: "Even those who are inclined, out of [their own] interests or for reasons of philanthropic enthusiasm, to describe the ritual-murder on Corfu as a "fairy-tale," have to frankly admit that they are confronted with a puzzle. Everyone asks himself: How does the government come to take such a position? Since 15 May the investigation of the case has been concluded; at least no more witnesses have been questioned since that day; all of the accused Jews were released from custody, whereupon they immediately all emigrated from Corfu. And if the government permits the Jews charged with such a monstrous crime to emigrate, would it not then be compelled to proclaim openly before the nation and before Europe, that they had been falsely accused? -- Here is the way matters stand: the investigation has brought to light (225) a result which the government believes must be concealed under all circumstances. Nothing has been given out by the authorities up till now, in any kind of official form, on the contrary, it is accepted that particular persons, who are completely under Jewish influence, are trying to quietly spread the story that the innocence of the Jews has been proven. Contrary to this claim, two physicians and further witnesses, from whose statements, recorded before the court, the ritual-murder must be regarded as proven, have publicly asked the state's attorney in Corfu to summon them before the court due to the bearing of false witness [by others]. But this, too, has not been done." Only one thing did occur: The Corfuite Jews cheerfully emigrated en masse and thereby they themselves supplied manifest proof of their guilt. While the judicial investigation was still going on, simply enormous payments for the "oppressed, abused Jews of Corfu" arrived from all parts of Europe -- which, however, were paid only to those who resolved to emigrate. For a few drachmas they sold off their belongings; upon being reproached that by this mass-flight they were indeed documenting their consciousness of guilt, the happy emigrants answered as one, that they had been promised the most far-reaching support in Turkey, in Asia Minor, and in Palestine (!). In response to this, the Kreuzzeitung wrote on its front page of 30 May 1891: ". . .For, when the first Jews have gone off from Corfu, those in Zante, Chalcis, and Thessaly will follow them, and the Greek people will be free for a while from these unpleasant guests. . .It is clear that the gathering of the Jews in the Turkish lands will only facilitate the repetition of similar crimes, for one cannot in truth demand from the mohammedan justice authorities and from the weak and the continually financially strapped Turkish government -- and demand it in favor of Christianity -- what Christian states have failed to do for fear of Jewry."

But in the second week of May in this year, which was so painful for Greece, 900 Jews left Corfu, until at the end of June this former Jewish paradise was supposed to have been evacuated!

(226) During these events, Berlin and London bank-Jews continued in an uninterrupted exchange of dispatches with the Greek Finance Minister Karapanos, to the point where the ears of the old telegraph clerks rang! At the end, the Greek government consented to waive the right to any continuing of the trial and to immediately release from custody the Jews charged with the murder, if all Jews would emigrate. . . But the following version was stubbornly being claimed in Athens: at the first remonstrances, made in common by the Great Powers, the Greek Minister President Delyannis plainly affirmed the probability of a ritual-crime. But this statement had the effect of a bomb in all circles of European Finance-Jewry! From every side threats and political repercussions were tried, to move the Minister President to recant. Delyannis remained steadfast and described the fulfillment of this presumptuous demand as a flat impossibility. He hinted that [if this demand were met] still far greater excesses against the Jews living in Greece would probably occur and that his own position would be insecure. But his successor would take over the carrying out of the trial. Under these circumstances a compromise was agreed upon. . .

For this compromise, also, the Greek government -- and this is the most shameful thing -- had to contribute 120,000 Francs! The Herr Rabbi of Corfu expressed his thanks to Delyannis by telegram: "The Israelites (13) in Corfu express through my mediation their robust thanks for the sending of the financial aid, which the Hellenic government had put at the disposal of the destitute Israelites. At the same time, they express their deep recognition of the disciplinary measures which have been taken in order to restore the peace; these will surely produce the desired effect" (report from Athens of 23 May 1891).

(227)In the battue against Delyannis, the stock exchange war of the Golden Internationale proved to be most effective. We obtain excellent information about even this from an excerpt from a telegram from Athens of 19 May 1891(14): "The plunge in the rate of exchange of Greek notes on the European stock exchanges has evoked a panic in all circles, which is still going on. The position of the government is made much more difficult because of it, the Minister of the Exterior, Deliorgis, has tendered his resignation. All the press demands prompt publication of the results of the investigation, the hesitation of the government is seen by the populace as confirmation of the charges raised against the Jews. The officials concerned in Corfu, the Nomarch, the commandant, the state's attorney, and the examining judge were relieved of their offices, supposedly as a result of pressure from the Powers, but in reality for the appeasement of the Christians, who labeled the officials as corrupted. . ."

The Kreuzzeitung(15) finally commented: ". . . To be sure, one cannot attach too much guilt to the cabinet of Delyannis. When all the Great Powers, at the first signal from Jewish Haute Finance, immediately threaten a small, weak state with European action [of intervention], how is the tiny nation of Greece, then, supposed to have the courage to take up the struggle against Great Jewry. And yet an opportunity was offered here, as it seldom has been, to unveil the true character of this Semitic tribe; if only one of the Powers had intervened to see that the trial on Corfu should be conducted with complete impartiality, Greece would not have capitulated. Putting a mixed European investigatory commission in charge of clearing up the facts of the case -- which, frankly, were already laid bare for all eyes -- was even spoken of here but the representatives of the Powers roundly rejected this proposal -- naturally at the behest of Jewry. . ."

The Jewish Internationale sacrificed -- if only apparently, as it later turned out -- the Ghetto of Corfu and thereby abandoned at first its key position at one of the most important and most ancient trade and market centers between the Orient and the West, and further sacrificed several millions [in money], in order to make possible the emigration of 6000 of its racial comrades; it spent enormous sums on bribery and pulled out all the stops to confuse and falsify public opinion in Europe; it even brought about the demonstrations by fleets -- in order to conceal that one crime as a ritual-crime, to be able to keep slaughtering non-Jewish humanity without being molested!

After the "conscience of the world" had been lulled to sleep again, high finance no longer contented itself with the success achieved in Greece in 1891.

So as to be able to subsequently glorify the Jewish emigrants as victims of a fanaticized native population, a reopening of the judicial inquiries was staged. We will not go into the details any more closely -- this would only lead to repetitions!

Let only this definitive result be recorded: The four Jews incriminated most seriously, now as before, were officially acquitted at the cost of the state and brought abroad under a Greek safe-conduct. From now on, racial comrades also, who had emigrated perhaps a year earlier, returned to important positions on Corfu and the Ionic islands, after the Greek government, like that of Egypt in its time (1840), entered into the obligation of taking on the protection of its "Jewish citizens"! But a respected Greek politician, conscious of duty to his people, wrote in an open letter to the paper whose publications exposed the Jewish manner of fighting too late, the Kreuzzeitung: "We must keep silent, even if our hearts are bleeding. Greece is too weak to advocate its rights, indeed, even to speak the truth. . . The case of Corfu has again made us see our total dependence, thus we must hush up the entire affair, although by doing so we commit a crime against our national honor and allow our justice to become a business in the eyes of all independent, thinking men of Europe. . ."

One weak comfort remained to this Greek: the justice of the rest of the European lands had already been delivered up to Jewry. . .

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Copyright 2001 by R. Belser. Reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission of the translator is not permitted. All rights reserved.