FM: What inspired you to write \u201cThe Prague Cemetery,\u201d\u009d and what did you hope to accomplish with it?<\/p>\n
UE: I always said that one of the main features of human languages is the possibility of lying. Dogs do not lie. When they bark to say that someone is outside, they tell the truth. Human beings lie continuously … A particular form of lying is forgery<\/b> … like \u201cThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion,\u201d\u009d which, if not the only cause, certainly contributed to the Holocaust. I find [\u201cThe Protocols\u201d\u009d] interesting because, one, they are a completely self-contradictory text … Second scandal, they were proven in 1921 to be false, and after that they were believed more and more, so it\u2019s an interesting story. The fact that many beautiful and interesting historical essays were written on this topic is evidently not enough, because they have not reached the mass public audience. So, I don\u2019t say it is the only motivation, but one of the motivations was that, maybe, transforming it into a narrative, I could reach more of an audience. I was just told yesterday that my book has been asked to be translated for Indonesia, a Muslim country. I don\u2019t think Indonesians have gotten many opportunities to read the great scholarly books on \u201cThe Protocols\u201d\u009d, which are reserved to a few scholars.<\/p>\n