Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

706 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:679unsavory background, it is felt that his letter should not beacknowledged.” 125Brasol’s last communication with the bureau, another letter addressedto Hoover, arrived in September 1960. Its contents were an anti-Khrushchev flyer put out by the Monarchist Front and an anti-communistbroadside reprinted from a Russian paper in Buenos Aires. This, too, elicitedno comment. On March 19, 1963, Boris Brasol’s angry voice and busyhands were stilled forever.So, what is one to make of Boris Brasol and his almost half century ofresourceful, unrepentant Jew-baiting? In one respect, he is a kind of humanembodiment of the resiliency of antisemitic sentiment and myths. Likethose malevolent strains, he transcended limitation to any particular time orplace. His career connects the antisemitism of pre-revolutionary Russiawith that of 20th-century America and Western Europe, Weimar and NaziGermany, and perhaps even Stalin’s USSR. He can be seen as a centralfigure in what might be called an “Antisemitic International” that schemedand fulminated throughout the first half of the century, and doubtless stilldoes. At the risk of sounding sacrilegious, if antisemitism was a Church,Brasol surely would merit sainthood. All that said, the above does not dototal justice to the man. For reasons of focus and brevity, his literary effortshave been largely ignored, nor have his myriad contacts been mapped out totheir full extent. That requires a more in-depth study.Perhaps the last words about him, though, an epitaph of sorts, shouldgo to one of the ADL informants: “Brasol is a crafty man. You feel this inyour conversation with him. He is very careful about how he words hissentences and there is always the feeling of the cat and mouse.” 126*Richard B. Spence has been a professor of history at the University of Idaho since1986, and past department chair. Focusing on Russian, Eastern European, and MiddleEastern history, espionage, antisemitism, and the Holocaust, Professor Spencehas published numerous articles and books, including Boris Savinkov (ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1991), Trust No One (Feral House, 2002), and Secret Agent 666(Feral House, 2008). He has been a consultant to the History Channel, the InternationalSpy Museum, Radio Liberty, and the Russian Cultural Foundation.125. Jones to Gordon A. Nease, July 17, 1958, ibid.126. ADL, report of December 5, 1941, 4.