Anti-Semitic manuscript fails to sell

Sir Richard Burton was an eminent Victorian explorer

An anti-Semitic manuscript suppressed for more than a century and put up for sale by the group representing Jews in the UK has failed to sell at auction.

There were fears the controversial manuscript, which claims Jews engaged in human sacrifice, could be used by neo-Nazis to provoke anti-Semitic hatred.

For [the board] to put up to auction a cruel vicious medieval lie, what was described as anti-Semitic racism, is unworthy and wrong

Lord Janner

The Board of Deputies of British Jews wanted to sell the manuscript - Human Sacrifice among the Sephardine or Eastern Jews - which it once said should never be seen in public.

The paper was written by the Victorian explorer and diplomat Sir Richard Burton, who also translated the Kama Sutra, and has never been published.

It went up for auction at Christie's in London on Wednesday but failed to reach its reserve price despited being expected to fetch up to £200,000.

A spokesman for the board told BBC News Online: "It failed to meet its reserve price and therefore didn't sell.

"The next course of action hasn't been decided because the executive has not yet convened."

Money needed

The myth of Jews indulging in human sacrifice has historically been used as a justification for anti-Semitic violence and persecution.

The board admitted prior to the auction that it needed money to move to new offices.

The manuscript has been locked away for nearly 100 years (Picture: Christie's)

Lord Janner, a former president of both the Board of Deputies and of the Holocaust Educational Trust, had attacked the board's decision to put the manuscript up for sale.

"It is a grave error. The Board of Deputies is the representative body of the British Jewish community and for it to put up to auction a cruel vicious medieval lie, what was described as anti-Semitic racism, is unworthy and wrong," he said.

Financial pressure

Another former member of the board, Geoffrey Adams, said: "What amazes me is that suddenly the board should have decided that the document shouldn't be suppressed, that it should be aired.

"I find this absolutely incredible."

The board said the decision to try to sell the manuscript was partly because of financial pressure but also because there was no reason to keep it locked away.

It believed enough time has gone by for it to be seen as a historical document rather than a dangerous polemic.

President of the board Jo Wagerman told BBC Two's Newsnight programme: "Its contents are ridiculous and unpleasant but they are no longer relevant to the modern world.

'No threat'

"Nobody I think could believe the ravings of a disappointed 19th century explorer.

"They don't represent any threat which they might have done in the 19th century.

Lord Janner had asked the board to reconsider

"If I weren't doing this do you think [any] Nazi group would be stuck for information?"

The manuscript was written after Burton had worked as a diplomat in Damascus.

It focused on the 1840 disappearance of a Capuchin friar and the arrest of 13 Jews who were accused of ritual murder but later acquitted.

Manuscript hidden

But the manuscript was thought so inflammatory and damaging to the author's reputation that it was never published.

In her will Burton's widow Isabel asked for it and other papers to be destroyed to protect her husband's name.

The manuscript survived and came into the hands of the board in 1909 when it was hidden away.

It has since only been seen by a handful of academics, although it had been predicted the sale would bring much wider access.