The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center will be hosting the exhibit “The Plot: A Graphic History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, which will be on display at the Center from January 1 until March 20, 2013. An opening reception is planned on January 13 at 2:00 PM, featuring Lecia J. Brooks, Outreach Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry.
Perhaps no single modern document has been responsible for more bloodshed than The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This false manuscript has been promoted as the minutes of a secret meeting of world Jewry that allegedly took place in Switzerland in 1897 that detail a plot by these “Elders” to take over the world.
First published in 1902, The Protocols of Zion have taken root in bigoted and uneducated minds around the world. It is the most notorious — and likely the most devastating — political forgery of modern times. Although thoroughly discredited almost immediately after its publication, the document has been used to stir up anti-Semitic hatred by such luminaries as Tsar Nicholas II, Henry Ford, and Adolf Hitler. It is still widely distributed as factual in many parts of the world.
Will Eisner, the celebrated “father of the graphic novel,” was deeply concerned about the persistence of anti-Semitism and the still-widespread belief that Jews have a plan to control the world. Applying his talent and creativity to further expose the notorious anti-Semitic document as a forgery, Eisner produced The Plot, an illustrated history of the creation and impact of the Protocols. His goal was to educate younger generations about the power of this historic propaganda.
Eisner completed The Plot in book form shortly before his death in 2005. The traveling exhibit based on that book was created by the Anti-Defamation League with the assistance and support of the Estate Of Will Eisner And W. W. Norton & Company Inc.
Visitors are welcome to tour the exhibit Mondays through Thursdays 9 am to 4 pm, Fridays 9 am to 1 pm, and Sundays 1 pm to 4 pm. No admission is charged, and reservations are not necessary except for school groups.
