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(p. 82)
To begin with, the most terrible tales of torture were put into circulation, similar to
those centuries before after the Tridentine trial; sadistic licentious acts, of a kind
which can originate only in Jewish brains, were attributed to the investigative authorities:
according to which -- to give just a small selection from the "official report" of the Jew
Pieritz from Damascus from 13 May 1840 (11) -- the
"unfortunate prisoners" together with their children were placed in ice-cold water (which
indeed in and of itself would already be a "torture" for the Jews [Jews living in Orthodox
communities throughout Europe and Asia Minor had the reputation of being less than scrupulous
about matters of personal hygiene]) and then left to roast slowly; "by means of a machine"
their eyes were squeezed from their sockets and glowing irons pushed into their bodies. The
"victims," pinched day and night, had had to stand erect for three full days, and with
burning candles even their bent noses were delicately tickled. Hundreds of Jewish children
were thrown into confinement and they were dropping like flies there. When one reads this
nonsense, one has to ask oneself, who would actually have reacted to this. The sense of
these atrocity reports was clear: the statements of the arrested Jews were supposed to lose
their value through these maneuvers, as "having been wrung from tortured men"; but the
embarrassing fact was that the criminals presently in solitary confinement made, in
separately held interrogations, statements which agreed, not to mention the results
of the investigations conducted on the site. [These atrocity stories may strike the reader
as "warm-up" exercises for those contrived or confabulated for propaganda about "the"
Holocaust, ninety-five years after these events took place.]
Nevertheless, the French government commissioned its Consul from Beirut, Desmeloizes,
to go to Damascus, in order to begin the trial anew. His protocols concerning this second
trial could not but confirm the facts of the case recorded by Ratti-Menton, in
full compass. (12)
From this point on the victims themselves were held responsible for their own awful fate
and not the murderers: Father Thomas, whom no less a person than the French Minister-President
Thiers had described as "a model of piety and benevolence," as "popular with all
denominations and highly respected," as "benefactor and (83)
friend of humanity(13)," became in the Jewish press a by no means
impoverished old grey-head, who "had collected a far more considerable wealth than the
rules of his order allowed him; he did not like to give, talked a lot and with anybody,
was sometimes intemperate, of easy character and slight knowledge."
(14) Later, at the end of this glorious century, a
fourteen-year-old peasant girl, who bled to death in the synagogue of Tisza-Eszlár
under the butcher-knife of an international band of Jews, was described as "whore and
good-time girl," and the upper-fourth-former Ernst Winter, similarly slaughtered
in a Konitz butcher's cellar by a murderous Galician mob, was described as a homosexual
letch, by the same the same press which had meanwhile worked itself up to the position of
the "mediator of culture and civilization" among an "enlightened humanity." But all of
this was called "liberation of the Jewish spirit from the unworthy chains of the dark
Middle Ages" or, in brief: Emancipation.
On 23 May 1840, therefore after the trial in Damascus would have been definitively
concluded and the sentence of judgment of the authorities would have become legally valid,
a Jewish weekly, the Orient(15), called to life in the
same year by the "Instructor at the University at Leipzig," Julius Fürst, wrote
under the entry "Damascus" the following introductory sentences: "A blood-red star has
risen in the East, which seems to conjure up the superstition of the Middle Ages
and its horrifying consequences; a dreadful fairy tale, which in earlier
centuries Europe told itself from dreams, and which the Orient may now have in
mind at its awakening. This fairy tale may get a grip raptor-quick upon the emotions
of the people, and like the terrors of hell, malice and religious fanaticism may keep
alive the now awakened memory of it, and the silence of Jewish voices would not
be timely, as influential men, who have exerted themselves with the governments in this
matter, have also realized." (84) Whoever has gotten used
to reading the most important things between the lines when studying Jewish sources, will
now know, especially from an analysis of the last part of the sentence, where the
Damascus "case" was supposed to be steered: "to the horrifying tales out of earlier
centuries."
The storm signals were up. In all nations, almost simultaneously, "the speakers stepped
forward as if one man. . ."(16). World Jewry was mobilized! In
the synagogues the Rabbis howl or threaten as the case calls for. "The Head Rabbi of
Marseilles came forward with a fierce counter-statement; in Smyrna defending voices were
raised (Head Rabbi Pincas), Ullmann, the Rabbi in Krefeld, appeared;
Aub in Munich bestirred himself and fought with the Bavarian papers. Philippson
in Magdeburg pointed out in the paper widely circulated there, not only the absurdity of
such an accusation, but made an effort at the same time to keep level-headed and
enlightened Germany in its passionless state by means of clear and calm words."
(17)
Some of these effusions exist for us today as bibliophilic oddities; they are all
substantially reduced to one common denominator, which a Jewish "trade paper" itself
indicates to us: "To show the baselessness of the charges in advance, even before the
facts of the murder case were available." Only some of these curiosities do we wish to
get into excerpting as especially eloquent children of their time.
The Rabbi Isaac Levin Auerbach held the days of the Leipzig fair as especially
suitable, in order "on Sunday evening, the 19th of May 1840 at the German-Israelite
worship service taking place during the fair in Leipzig," to give a so-called sermon at
the synagogue in Leipzig in front of the Jews of the fair coming from all nations, about
"Israel's most recent disaster in the East(18)," which went off
so well that it was "distributed in print by demand." The title actually already says
it all. The Rabbi asserted to start with, that he: a) for Zion's sake can not be
silent, b) for the sake of Jerusalem cannot be at peace and c) will speak for the sake of
the honor (85) of his religion. After numerous citations from
the Old Testament he comes, with tearful eyes, to the most noteworthy determination
possible, that "the morality of our age for quite some time has not kept pace with the
spiritual education of it." For the time being let us content ourselves with the Levin
Auerbachian discovery that "the nations for some time have not stood at the stage of
perfection to which the Divinity has summoned them and wishes to educate them by means of
the revelation of His holy word." In dry words: the Gentile peoples keep being so bold
as to raise a protest against the slaughter of their members -- they are therefore "not as
yet perfect," i.e., ripe! But at the end of his sermon the Rabbi scents the coming dawn;
he preaches then, to wit: "Indeed, my devout listeners, we are going toward a more
beautiful time, when injustice , which separates and cuts men off from one another in all
that their natural equality demands, in all that is essential and a condition for a happy
life, where the ridiculous mania, to associate men with one another in one thing,
in the external form in which, according to Nature's determination they are supposed to be
separated for all eternity, will disappear from the earth; we are approaching a time of
tolerance, of true brother-love, as our sacred religion has promised. That
unfortunate event (Damascus), over which we weep, will hasten this time. . .and so reads
the word of Scripture: just as the earth produces her plants, and the garden lets its
seeds sprout forth, thus does the Eternal One let virtue and grace spring forth as a
blessing to all nations. Amen." This "Amen" indeed would be in the 20th century nearly
spoken over Gentile humanity! [And still may be, thanks in large part to the defeat of
Germany in 1945.]
About the same time, on Ascension Day 1840, the "famous canon and cathedral
preacher of the Metropolitan church at St. Stephen in Vienna, Dr. Emanuel Veith,
celebrated pulpit speaker" -- and baptized Jew -- "before thousands of devout Christians"
spoke the following memorable words at the conclusion of his talk: "You all know it, my
devout listeners, and whoever perhaps still (86) does not know,
may hear it: that I was born a Jew and. . .became a Christian -- have given comfort
and hope to professed Christians in my pastoral calling ". . .And now this admirable man
administered the pacifier and continued with emotion in his voice: "And thus I swear
it here, in the name of the Trinity, that the lie, spread through evil cunning that the
Jews at the celebration of their Easter festival (Pessach)[= Passover] use the blood
of a Christian, is a malicious, blasphemous slander, and is neither contained in the
books of the old covenant, nor even in the writings of the Talmud, which I know
exactly(19), and have zealously researched. This is true, so
help me God". . .(20)
On the 18th of August 1840, in order to anticipate a little in this connection, on the
occasion of the celebration of the founding of the institution of the Evangelical Lutheran
Mission Society in the Orphanage Church at Dresden, another "Christian" colleague of the
Rabbi Auerbach, Franz Delitzsch, gave his "Mission Talk with Regard to the
Persecution of the Jews at Damascus and Rhodes(21)." After the
scholar of Scripture -- the same individual, by the way, who 40 years later as Professor
of a theological faculty rendered his "expert opinion" about another ritual-murder
(22) -- had had to make the "heartbreaking" discovery, that
Israel still hadn't the slightest desire to be "converted," although the high amounts of
the Jewish-collection(23), paid by the pennies of the German
church-goers, sought to make this appealing from a financial perspective as well,
Delitzsch finally found the three main obstacles to his attempts at conversion in
the "changed circumstance of the Christians." One of these "main obstacles" is, according
to his own words, "the general hatred of Jews, which is still not uprooted despite all of
the humanitarianism and all the cosmopolitan-mindedness of which one can boast today. . .
This general hatred of Jews has made accepted all sorts of unjust accusations against the
Jews, which make them more and more alienated from Christianity and lead them astray from
charity." To these belongs (87) now the accusation of ritual
blood-murder, an accusation "whose mendacity orthodox teachers of our church have
maintained and proved, but which, as if transplanted from the West into the Levant by a
dark power, has brought new, bloody persecutions upon the people already oppressed there
(the Jews)." The events in Damascus must have transformed everyone "to holy rage and pain."
It is irresponsible, "that such an evil reputation has been made of the Christian name among
the Jews of the world." This mission speech, which doubtless encouraged the devoutly
listening congregation to more generous donations(24) for the lost
lambs, and which concluded with the same Bible passage "which has been chosen as the
inscription for the newly built Dresden synagogue," gives still further explanations,
which additionally weaken its effect; (88) it is also discussed
in the Jewish "culture paper", the Orient. The remarks of the Jewish reviewer, that
"this speech is composed entirely in the attitude of the Mission Society, one might say
filled with the longing, to see Israel converted to Christianity, therefore it would not
belong here. . ." had to have given Delitzsch, the employee of this
paper, something to think about.
Now who are the "influential men, who exerted themselves with the governments," as the
Orient wrote in 1840, who are the "powerful of this world," about whom, in the
same year , a L. H. Loewenstein in his polemic, Damascia or The
Persecution of the Jews in Damascus and its effect on public opinion
(25), knew enough to report -- let us note: already in 1840!
-- "that a wink of their eye might plunge kings from their thrones down into the loneliness
of the night of the dungeons," -- "that a word from their mouth might open iron gates
and lead the imprisoned to the golden light," -- who are they, who break "the bonds
and chains"? Oh, we're getting to know them all, them and their highest and most Christian
of protectors and accomplices; we only wish to make the effort to arrange as chronologically
as possible the abundance of the existing letters, reports, appeals, speeches and
accounts!
Adolf Crémieux (geb. Smeerkopp)
There is first of all the Head Jew, Isaac Adolphe Crémieux -- let us not be tripped
up by the fine-sounding name -- he, too, once had a different name; his origin was in an
old Amsterdam Jewish family of swindlers named Smeerkopp(26), he
was by trade an "attorney," the "true and correct advocate of Israel, the great advocate
for justice and the honor of Jewry, defender of the innocent and advancer of civilization."
-From his lips speech dripped sweeter than honey, "with blazing words, with magical
eloquence he laid bare the tissue of lies, the credulousness (89)
of the ignorant rabble (the Gentile citizens of the state are meant!)."
(27)
In the July Revolution of 1830, as a convinced republican he helped hound away the
Bourbons; under the "Citizen-King," by the grace of Judah, Louis Philippe, this
sly Jew then further played his republican role and propagated the full emancipation of
his racial comrades. At the time of the trial of Damascus, 1840, he has already ascended
to "Vice-President of the Central Consistory of the French Israelites" and played a great
role in political life, so that already in 1842 he was able to move into the Chamber of
Deputies. In the 1848 Paris Revolution he became for a short time Justice Minister of the
provisional government, but then withdrew for some reason or other, in order to spin his
threads behind the scenes; his great time came once again after the fall of the Empire
in September 1870, after he had joined the government of the "National Defense" and for
the second time took over the Ministry of Justice. Jointly with his racial comrade
Gambetta, he let the French bleed to death through a senseless agitation for war
and through the Paris Commune uprising. As Grand Master of the "Grand Orient" and of the
Judaized French lodges, he put a price of the sum of one million on the heads of the
German lodge brother King Wilhelm I as well as upon Bismarck and Moltke. In the
"Alliance Israélite Universelle" (AIU) co-founded by him, "this spawn of the pit of
imperialistic Jewry"(28) delivered to Jewry the most dangerous
and most unscrupulous weapons. As branches of the AIU there came into existence in London
the "Anglo-Jewish Association," in Vienna the "Israelitic Alliance," in Holland the
"Nederlandsche Afdeeling" of the AIU.
Its motto for all these was: "All of Israel stands surety for one another" -- Article I
of the program of the AIU reads however: "The AIU has for its goal: 1. to work everywhere
for the equal standing and the moral progress of the Jews, 2. to be an
effective support for those who suffer in their role as Jews. . ." (Jüdisches
Lexikon, 1927, Sp. 224).
'Sir' Moses Montefiore
For the realization of this "program," (90) the Italian-English
Jew "residing" in London, "Sir" Moses Montefiore gave assistance to the best of his
powers -- we are not able today to determine any longer what he may have been called earlier;
according to the identification of the Jewish Lexicon he was "the most representative
figure of Jewish politics of the 19th century," -- "leading member of the Jewish community
in London, son-in-law of Nathan Meyer Rothschild" -- therefore an absolute match as
colleague for Mr. Smeerkopp-Crémieux in Paris. The latter began the course of his
political life as "attorney," while Montefiore began his -- and this is typical --
as securities-broker of the London house of Rothschild; his grandfather, an active
Livornian Jew, had been enrolled as a straw hat dealer in London, and married the sister
of this Nathan and is thereby socially competent enough, to be able to stand up for
the equal rights of the Jews. In 1837 he was chosen "sheriff" of the City of London
(chief magistrate), later ennobled by Queen Victoria and in 1846 dubbed a Knight (Baronet)
"for the great merit he earned for the Jewish people." From 1835 until 1874 he was
President of the "Board of Deputies of the British Jews" [This remains one of the most
powerful and intimidating Jewish organizations today -- just ask historian David Irving,
who has been unmercifully hounded by this gang.] and as such in a position "to be able
to act especially effectively in this official capacity at his foreign missions in the
service of the Jews." The first international "mission" which he carried through was
the journey of the year 1840 undertaken together with Crémieux to Damascus. "In
order to help the Jews in Russia," he traveled in 1846 and 1872 to Petersburg; in 1859 he
made Rome insecure, in 1864 Morocco and 1867 Romania. In Palestine he surfaced not less
than seven times: "His plans for the Jewish colonization of Palestine were not only of a
philanthropic kind, but on the contrary were related to the political train of
thought represented later by Theodore Herzl" -- so writes the Jewish Lexicon
about the true reason for this "mission" quite openly! "Sir" Moses Montefiore
"enjoyed the inestimable advantage of possessing the support of the British government and
of British public opinion for his actions." After his death "Queen Victoria, who
personally treasured him very much, conveyed the dignity of the baronetcy to his
great-nephew Francis Abraham Montefiore."
Obviously the influence of the Rothschilds also upon (91) the
further course of events in Damascus has been of decisive significance. One glance at the
family tree of these bank-hyenas sitting in London, Frankfurt-on-Main, Vienna, Naples,
Paris, and even in Constantinople, added to his masterwork Hofjuden [Court
Jews](29) by Peter Deeg, is sufficient to recognize
the forlorn position of the French Count Ratti-Menton from the beginning, in this
unequal struggle with the Jewish octopus.
Indeed, as Athanasius Fern(30), a high Church dignitary in
Milan wrote: "Like huge garden spiders the money princes of Judah, the kings of the Jews,
have fastened themselves upon the main cities of the Continent, and from there outward the
filthy threads of their web reach out to Ultima Thule. They hold the gauge of world
politics in their right hand, they are the vultures of the stock exchange and the hyenas
of speculation; before the ring of their voices totter the thrones and smaller seats of
power, crowns and crownlets; before the luster of their names, the purple of royalty
pales."
"Montefiore's ideas, Rothschild's gold, and Isaac d'Israeli's
revolutionary spirit -- what driving power has a kosher Trinity harmonically attuned to
one another!"(31)
We have thereby presented in condensed brevity those chief actors who "do not rest from
washing pure the name of Israel from the shame, with which fanaticism and intrigue
sought to besmirch them," who "deserve the idolization of all co-religionists, whose name
will live in History. . ."(32)
The remaining figures of this tragedy who acted for the Jews were without exception
secondary creatures, but no less dangerous because of it -- all the same, whether it was
a matter of a chief of state or his lowliest police constable. In a letter of 5 March
1840, when the interrogations in Damascus were not even finished, the "attorney"
Crémieux, although no excerpts of any sort from the documents could have been
available to him, already knows enough to report that , 1. "those accused of the
terrible murder in Damascus are not the criminals" and that "the confessions,
coerced from the beginning by torture, but which were rescinded with the return of
consciousness (92), can not justify the charges."
On the 7th of April 1840 -- therefore still during the trial -- the same individual
published in the Journal des Débats an open letter, which first of all
described the facts of the case falsely and then went on to the reports of atrocities
concerning the alleged persecutions of the Jews. What interests us, however, is only the
conclusion of the eight page printed epistle. It reads: "French Christians, we are
your fellow-citizens, your brothers! You have given to the world the example of
the gentlest, the purest tolerance. Serve as a shield for us, just
as you have served as protector! But most of all, may the French press take on
the sacred matter of civilization and the truth with that noble zeal which has been its
glory. This is a beautiful role, which becomes it so well, and which it fills so
magnanimously!" In these concluding sentences Crémieux, for once, does express
three great truths: 1. that the French in their Revolution of 1789 gave to the world a
truly unique example of how [a country], from pure "Brotherhood" and "Equality of all of
that which bears the human face," can commit national suicide, [Unfortunately, a
pattern which is presently repeating itself.] which the Jew Cohen in his
attention-getting book which appeared in 1868: La question juive acknowledged
with the following contemptuous sentence: "For the Jews the Messiah arrived on 28 February
1790 with the Rights of Man," 2. that France might serve as a "shield" for Jewry -- on
that point actually nothing has changed until recently; and 3. that the press
already fulfills Jewish wishes in every respect "magnanimously"!
After pronouncement of the judgment the expert opinions of "eminent Christian authorities"
were requested, in order to stress the baselessness of the charges -- in a later great
ritual-murder trial in Hungary, Jewry received these "Christian credentials" delivered by
the dozen.(33) The Allgemeine Zeitung published the
"expert opinion" of a Herr Councilor Professor Dr. G.H. von Schubert in Number 121
from April 1840 under the headline: "The alleged Act of Murder by the Jews in
Damascus." The Herr Councilor finds it "inconceivable, that the echo of a barbaric,
(93) senseless fairy-tale of the Middle Ages about the
manner in which the Father disappeared and then is supposed to have been murdered by the
Jews, was able to pass on to us Christians of the 19th century and so easily be repeated
among us." As a Christian traveler, he has become accurately acquainted with the
Jews of the East and is able consequently "to say with fullest conviction, that that
strange horrifying fairy-tale stands in such a total contradiction to the attitudes
and inviolably strictly-held religious practices of the Jews," that the Jews can in no
way be viewed as the perpetrators!
But the Herr Councilor is correct on one point, when he reliably determined that the
"religious practices of the Jews are maintained strictly inviolable"; these were even so
mercilessly carried through, that already in those years, when the professor was roving
the shores of the East as a Christian traveler, for instance in some regions and on some
islands of the Near East, an unwritten law existed, according to which at certain definite
times in which, according to frightful experience handed down of old, children regularly
disappeared without a trace, and indeed from the Gentile part of the population,
it had been forbidden to the Jews to leave their apartments, for example the procession
of the Jews held at the time of a death. It is not without interest to note that also,
for example, at Nuremberg and Bohemia in earlier centuries similar prohibitions existed.
For Nuremberg the Emperor Maximilian I in 1498 had issued a nocturnal curfew for Jews
(Tentzel, Mon. Unt., 1697, page 228).
But "the sympathy which enlightened Christians showed the stigmatized, did the heart good,
and history will never forget those who let no time go by in placing Man and his moral
being in the right light, against the attacks of narrow-minded stupidity. Among
these noble men the bishop Dr. Dräseke was the first, in that he made the
declaration in writing to the Rabbi Philippson that he perfectly agreed with the
arguments of the latter in the Magdeburg newspaper and had to thank him for it. Indeed,
even alms from the side of the Christians arrived for hungry Israelites,
a (94) propitiatory sacrifice, as it were, upon the altar
of offended humanity" (34) Not in vain had Jew Loewenstein
directed his cynical appeal "to the liberal Rationalists, who fight for the principle of
theological enlightenment": "You lights upon the field of Theology, it would now
be for you to show that this study does not merely amount to verbal wisdom, but on the
contrary that also a sweet, marrow-like core is contained in those many dry and
indigestible peels, that Humanitarianism is the beautiful reward for years-long
research. You great theologians and philologists of Germany, here is a practical field for
your wisdom acquired in long years! You have toiled greatly, greatly, plowed and sown;
here stand stalks in full ripeness, the time of the harvest has come, do not sleep
through it!" -- Let us note the year: 1840.
In the Journal de Smyrne since the 14th of May 1840 there appeared ongoing reports
out of Alexandria, which had as author the Christian-camouflaged "missionary" G.W.
Pieritz. This "report-making" about the events in Damascus can be described as the
quite successful and effective precursor of the modern Jewish atrocity-propaganda. In a
shameless manner the facts were mixed up -- even the representative of a European Great
Power, the French Consul Ratti-Menton, was accused of "a punishable negligence" --
so that it is appropriate to concern ourselves more closely with the character and the
racial affiliation of the author. The "Protestant missionary" G. W. Pieritz was a
member of the "London Society for the Propagation of Christianity among the
Jews, which was the first organization among the Christians to grasp the standard for
protection of Jewry" (35). When we then learn that the
society had this report of its "missionary" printed and distributed at its own expense
under the title: Statement of Mr. G.W. Pieritz, a Jewish Convert, and
assistant missionary at Jerusalem, respecting the persecution of the Jews at Damascus:
the result of a personal inquiry on the spot, and (95)
we are further informed(36) about these intimate Jewish-"Christian"
relationships through the Jew L.H. Loewenstein -- he had to know this definitely,
of course -- to the effect that another representative of this enterprise of highly political
Londoners, the "preacher" W. Ayerst in a "friendly and worthy-of-his-class manner" assisted
at the composition of the Jewish polemic Damascia in the year 1840, at which also,
upon his special recommendation, another baptized Jew(37), the
"Herr consistorial councilor Professor Dr. A. Neander has performed very important
services in Berlin with the researching of means of proof for the justification of the
Israelites," then we know already enough information about the Jewish convert
Pieritz that we actually wouldn't have needed his self-confession, produced in
another passage, that he was "born a Jew, trained to be a Rabbi and then converted to
Christianity." This Rabbi Pieritz took himself from Jerusalem to Damascus, "in
consideration of the Christian mission which obligates him to defend human rights
in places of despotism(38)." Since Pieritz by no means
"made headway" with his Jew-haggling [the word the author uses, Gemauschle,
comes from the verb mauscheln, which means: "to talk like a Jew; to haggle."]
with the energetic Sherif-Pasha, he traveled, after his "Christian mission"
in Damascus had failed, to Alexandria, from where of course his writings were sent, in
order to "be presented to the Viceroy of Egypt." What emerged from this presentation, we
learn as well: (39) ". . .and have received from him the
promise of the appeal of the questionable trial." This was the actual mission of
this swindler, which he settled to the satisfaction of his London task-masters: Pieritz
had to "test" the ground first. After the departure of this Rabbi, camouflaged as a
missionary, the leading Jews met together in London on the 21st of April, 1840. They
decided to approach the governments of England, France, and Austria, so that these
employed all means to set the arrested Jews free. (96)
"Crémieux also attended the meeting; a deputation, consisting of Baron v.
Rothschild, Sir Moses Montefiore, and some others, was appointed "in order to
come to an understanding orally with the Foreign Minister." The result of these negotiations,
which were conducted orally out of caution, were energetic interventions with the English,
the French, the Austrian, and the Russian governments. "The efforts at the cabinets of
these nations, according to the example of Germany, were successful. The representatives
of the states of Germany, following the direct pressure of many Jewish banking houses,
undertook steps to distort the facts of this deplorable affair, and thus to mislead opinion
about the true cause of the murder." (40) And "the Dutch
government ordered its envoys and Consuls at Constantinople and Alexandria to check [the
spread of] fanaticism in the East; even the government of the Great Lord at Constantinople
showed itself inclined to consider the matter, although the conference was of little
success"(41).
The leading role in this battue [Note: a battue is a technique used in certain types of
hunting, where beaters are used to harry, round-up, and bring their prey to bay and the
author uses it as a metaphor for the tactics used by the Jews in bring the investigators,
politicians, and the press to their side by bringing pressure from several directions
simultaneously.] underway against the judge of the investigation Ratti-Menton, was
assigned to the Austrian Consul in Damascus, Merlato, although at one time, at
least at the beginning of the trial, he was of an entirely other opinion. Merlato
himself is, on the other hand, under the command of the Austrian General Consul, the Jew
Laurin. A entirely dubious individual, the Jew Isaac Piccioto from
Aleppo, by occupation likewise Austrian General Consul and -- as can be determined
with absolute certainty -- an uncle of one of the ritual-murderers of the same name,
seems to have exerted the control over both. "The Jews of Austria, and, at their head,
Rothschild, are taking action and do not implore their just and paternal government
in vain for assistance in this sad affair. We see from now on the Austrian General Consul
in Alexandria and the Consul of the same State in Damascus working most zealously, to
restore a status of justice and (97) humanity to the affair
[i.e., in Damascus]. . ."
The sudden change of opinion of Merlato and his downright obstinate manner of fighting
against his French colleagues are therefore by no means accidental or of a personal nature;
he, too, was only a tool in Jewish hands. But the final disclosures Peter Deeg procures
for us in his work, which has just appeared, Hofjuden [Court Jews]
(42). We learn there that the Parisian Ambassador of
Austria, Count Apponyi, was deeply in debt to the Viennese Rothschild.
Under the date 6 July 1840, the former wrote in reference to the ritual-murder of Damascus
to Salomon Rothschild, in Vienna: " As concerns the affair of your poor
co-religionists in Damascus, I will thus execute the orders and instructions reaching me
on their behalf, with the sincere wish to be useful in this matter." About these
matters not even Merlato, who was then sent on ahead as a battering ram, would
have been permitted to have known. --
For the revision of his views Merlato, as desired, needed only a few weeks.
He reports still on the date 28 February 1940 to the General Consul Laurin in
Alexandria, with the highest degree of indignation over the "disgraceful Jews, eight
in number", who "slaughtered the unfortunate old man and collected his blood," so
he makes report on the 23rd of March 1840 to the same royal and imperial General Consul in
Alexandria about the result of his "most conscientious inquiries" performed on the spot.
These are to the effect that the Father and his servant were perhaps not lured by Jews
lying in wait and then overpowered, but on the contrary, at a very popular(!) place in the
city "had a hard brawl with Muslims of the lowest class, the meanest riff-raff"
(Musulmani della più bassa e più impertinente canaglia), in the course of which both
the missing men could very well have been done away with. Aside from the fact that an old
man already having become somewhat insecure, who went out almost always only in the company
of his servant, would hardly still feel the need for a substantial brawl, it would have to
have been an easy matter for the report-writer to come by witnesses to
(98) such a public incident as this, yet Merlato spares not a word about this in his
verbose epistle! It is striking that the Austrian Consul interests himself in the accused
Piccioto to an extraordinary degree and energetically demands the release of this man
immediately. The key to this behavior is already supplied to us! In a supplementary report
-- aside from the usual attacks upon Ratti-Menton -- the "poor Israelites" are pitied: "The
Israelites have endured in this city tortures which only from this pariah of the Earth
are borne without [there being] a frightful reaction. At every hour the French Consul
on entering any house, meets the most respected names among the Jews, with the most refined
manners, and [who have] a wealth originating from the purest sources, [and who have]
infirmities most deserving of sympathy, [but] nothing is made of it. . ."
(43).
On 25 April 1840, Merlato also pleased his (Jewish) father-in-law, Herr Premuda in
Trieste, with a Jewish-attuned piece of writing, which the latter immediately sent
on to the press. Merlato asserted that he was troubling himself about the
unfortunate Jews "merely out of "philanthropy," who because of this "blessed his name and
prayed to God for him," as, on the other side, "the Christian bunch (la turba
cristiana)" were "heaping curses upon" him. Among the men convicted of the murder one
counts also this Isaac di Piccioto, "the nephew of our General Consul in
Aleppo."
The Royal and Imperial Consul sought comfort in witty surroundings; at his location was a
clever German (read: Jewish) author, who would take over his, Merlato's duties for the
Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung. Besides this, a "Protestant missionary" -- it's
Pieritz! -- intended a memorandum about the Jewsih persecutions of Damascus and
"several scholars" to issue publications "for the benefit of humanity."
The Austrian General consul in Alexandria, Laurin, a Jew himself, utilized the
"enquiries" delivered to him; in a report from Alexandria of 31 March 1840 he is
(99) already able to log his first success
(44), in that he succeeded in submitting a petition to the Viceroy of Egypt,
Mehemed Ali, in order to "introduce the essential matter." Laurin requested
"respectfully to obtain a potent order at the French Ministry, to the effect that the
French Consul in Damascus, Count Ratti-Menton, who through his conduct caused the
Turkish authorities to use coercion, might at last be dismissed". . .This was all the more
urgent, since the "unrest among the Gentile population very easily could get out of hand
and turn into a regular persecution of the Jews in Palestine." In fact, Jakob
Rothschild, the brother of Salomon Rothschild, in Paris, had attempted to push
through the immediate dismissal of the inconvenient Consul with King Louis
Philipp.
On 4 April 1840 it says: "Several details stated in the trial strengthen increasingly my
(Laurin) already expressed opinion, that the accusation of a ritual-murder has no legal
foundation. . .I am convinced, that the Press will raise a cry of horror. . .", and
further on, under the date 6 April 1840, we find the following portentous sentence written:
"I have spoken with the Pasha, the interrogations will be stopped. Thereby much has
been gained."
"This intervention from the European side has encouraged our deeply afflicted brothers in
the East to take the initiative with their own government," wrote Der Orient on 30
Mai 1840; these deeply afflicted brothers now directed a petition
(45) to the Viceroy of Egypt, Mehemed Ali, "in favor of the persecuted
brothers-in-the-faith in Damascus." This reads in part: "The Israelite Nation(!) has no
princes, no State; her glory is buried by the Ages, her nationality is extinguished.
Religion governs her conscience, but it does not sever (us) from (our adopted) nations.
The Israelites of Damascus are your children, for God has entrusted them to your
government. They are slandered by malice and oppressed by cruelty. The name of Mehemed
Ali rings loudly throughout the universe, for in one hand he holds Glory and in the
other Justice. The Hebrews of Damascus are (100) accused of a
horrifying crime, of a crime which contradicts reason, their religious principles, and
even more, history. The people of Israel are unfortunate, it's true, but their character
in travail has been astonishing, and men such as Your Highness, whom God has gifted with
genius, take pity upon them and do not despise them. Your Highness, we ask for no mercy
for our bothers-in-faith -- we ask for Justice. To you alone has God entrusted the power
over these unfortunate people, and you alone have the right to rule them. This concerns an
old religion, which they wish to besmirch, and it seems that God has reserved for you a
still greater glory -- to be the Liberator of an oppressed Nation."
Mehemed Ali thereupon gave command to send first of all an 800 troops to Damascus,
"in order to uphold the peace among the Christians there"(46) --
in later ritual murder trials in like manner entire battalions, yes, even battle ships
were mustered, in order to "calm" the Gentile population.
The consular representatives of the remaining powers joined in the procedure of the
Austrian Consul; the representatives of the German states got the report issued on the
part of the Jews, that "they might appear in the best light." But the Prussian Consul
in Beirut is especially praised, who "proved himself on this occasion as the
representative worthy to be a successor of Frederick the Great, in that he united
his own efforts for the rescue of the persecuted with those of the Austrian Consul." The
representative of Prussia rendered to "the Israelites many benefits" at the most important
place in Syria and assured them "they should fear no one; he was willing and ready to
serve anyone who bore the name Jew." As thanks for this he will be numbered among
"the devout of the peoples of the world" and "every kindness possible in this
world" shall be shown to him, as also "his name is to be praised all over the world,
that all peoples might know that Israel is not yet helpless and that it shows gratitude
toward its benefactors(47)."
What the result of these dealings with the representatives of the European states in the
East finally was, is recognized very clearly by the Allgemeine
(101) Zeitung(48) under examination of the French
reports, in that the paper had reached the conviction that "the accusations against the
French Consul all came from Jewish sources," since "also Herr Merlato as well as
most of the other Consuls in Syria, namely those from Russia, Denmark, Prussia and so
forth are Jews. . ."
These cosmopolitan gentlemen finally agreed upon a formula, that "the Austrian Consul
General made the proposal, to withdraw the pending trial from the hands of the Turkish
justice (Sherif-Pasha), and hand it over to a commission of four European (read: Jewish)
Consuls, to which four German 'criminologists' should be added for the bringing out of
the facts" (49) -- in other words: The Gentile Ratti-Menton
was to be eliminated. Before this plan could be pushed through, an event took place on
Rhodes, which seemed suited to throw the Jewish direction of the case into confusion
during just these critical days.
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