Quick Facts
Biography
George Shanks (1896–1957) was an expatriate Briton born in Moscow and was the first translator of Protocols of Zion from Russian into English. George was also a founding member of Radio Normandy.
George Shanks was the son of Henry Shanks, a well-known British merchant who resided in Moscow. Henry Shanks managed the family firm of Shanks & Bolin, Magasin Anglais established by his father James Steuart Shanks in 1852.As a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the family lost their business and home and were forced to return to London. It is believed that the translation was completed during this period in London. His identity was not discovered until 1978; initially, it was believed that Victor E. Marsden was the translator, as his name came to be associated with the British English language translation of the Protocols in pamphlet or booklet form soon after he died in 1920.
Shanks's gave it a new fore-title The Jewish Peril.Shanks may have been assisted in the translation by Count Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich. The first edition was published by Eyre & Spottiswoode at the beginning of 1920. The second edition was produced for The Britons, an early anti-immigration and anti-Semitic organisation, at the end of 1920. Shanks is known to have engaged in a dispute with The Britons over payment of the royalties to which he was entitled.
Works
- The Jewish Peril. Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- anonymously translated by George Shanks
- (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1920; First edition)
- Related name: Nilus, Sergei Aleksandrovich, 1862–1930 [1905 Russian source]
- The Jewish Peril: Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- anonymously translated by George Shanks
- (London: The Britons, 62 Oxford Street, 1920; Second edition)
- Related names: Nilus, Sergi︠e︡ĭ Aleksandrovich, 1862–1930 [1905 Russian source]
Sources
- Sharman Kadish – Bolsheviks and British Jews: The Anglo-Jewish Community, Britain, and the Russian Revolution – (London: Frank Case, 1992)
- Robert Singerman – The American Career of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" – American Jewish History, Vol. 71 (1981), pp. 48–78