Waterstones has apologised after a “terrifying” antisemitic book was found on the shelves of a major bookshop in Ireland.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which inspired Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, was discovered in Waterstones subsidiary Hodges Figgis in Dublin, before a customer complained and the book was removed.
Consultant Daniel Epstein-O’Dowd, 28, was left “horrified” after he claimed he found the anti-Jewish text for sale under the shop’s Judaism section while shopping with his wife.
Published in 1903, the book was written by Russian Sergei Nilus and fabricated a series of meetings by Jewish leaders plotting to rule the world by manipulating the economy and controlling the media. During the 1920s and 1930s, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion played a role in the Nazis’ propaganda campaigns.
The Nazi party published at least 23 editions of the text between 1919 and 1939. Following the Nazis’ seizure of power in 1933, some schools used the book to indoctrinate students.
