Urbain Gohier (born Urbain Degoulet, December 17, 1862 in Versailles – June 29, 1951) was a French lawyer and journalist best known for his publication of the anti-Semitic forgery ''

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...

'' in France. His

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

for two books was Isaac Blümchen. Orphaned as a young man, Gohier took the surname of his adoptive father, and the issue of his family origin remained a lifelong personal issue. A brilliant high school student at Collège Stanislas in Paris, he obtained a BA and a law degree. In 1884, he became editor of the royalist daily ''Le Soleil''. In 1897, upon the foundation of the socialist daily ''

L'Aurore ''L’Aurore'' (; ) was a literary, liberal, and socialist newspaper published in Paris, France, from 1897 to 1914. Its most famous headline was Émile Zola's '' J'Accuse...!'' leading into his article on the Dreyfus Affair. The newspaper was ...

'', its director Ernest Vaughan called Gohier to join the writing team. He became a leading journalist there, along with

Georges Clemenceau Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...

. An indefatigable pamphleteer, Gohier - a "monarchist-unionist" - maintained a policy that was pro-Dreyfus, anti-Semitic, anti-militarist, and socialist. He took a strongly anti-military position in the

Dreyfus affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

. Perhaps because his willingness to stand up for justice was stronger than his anti-Semitism,

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

was one of his friends. He provoked the resignation of Clemenceau from ''L'Aurore''. In 1898, he was prosecuted after the publication of the anti-militarist pamphlet ''L'armée contre la nation'' (''The Army Against the Nation''); he was ultimately acquitted. In December 1905 he was sentenced to a year in prison for his participation in an international anti-militarist action allied with anarchists. At the turn of the century, he joined the neo-Malthusian movement alongside Paul Robin, André Girard,

Clovis Hugues Clovis Hugues (November 3, 1851 – June 11, 1907) was a French poet, journalist, dramatist, novelist, and socialist activist. He wrote some of his works in Provençal and un 1898 was elected a of the Félibrige, a society for the promotion of ...

, Albert Lantoine, A. Daudé-Bancel,

Laurent Tailhade Laurent Tailhade (; 1854–1919) was a French satirical poet, anarchist polemicist, essayist, and translator, active in Paris in the 1890s and early 1900s. Works *''Au pays du mufle'' 1891. *''Poèmes élégiaques'' Vitraux. Vanier, 1891. *''A ...

, and George Yvetot. Gohier edited the newspaper ''Grenoble The Right of the People'' in 1902, then ''The Old Friar'' in 1903 and the ''Cri de Paris'' in 1904, then became editor of the anti-Semitic ''Vieille France'' from 1916 to 1924. Gohier was also a leading publisher of the anti-Semitic forgery ''

'' in France, circa 1920. He also contributed to The Libertarian. During World War II, Gohier supported the

Vichy government Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...

. Convicted in 1944, he died in oblivion in 1951, leaving a considerable body of pamphleteering along with other such anti-Semitic polemicists of his time as

Édouard Drumont Édouard Adolphe Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French antisemitic journalist, author and politician. He initiated the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper ''La Libre Parole''. ...

Léon Daudet Léon Daudet (; 16 November 1867 – 2 July 1942) was a French journalist, writer, an active monarchist, and a member of the Académie Goncourt. Move to the right Daudet was born in Paris. His father was the novelist Alphonse Daudet, his moth ...

Henri Béraud Henri Béraud (; 21 September 1885 in Lyon – 24 October 1958 in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, Ré Island), also known as Tristan Audebert, was a French novelist and journalist. He was sentenced to death in 1945, which was later commuted to ...

, Dominique Pierre and

René Benjamin René Benjamin (1885 in Paris, France - 1948 in Tours, France) was a French writer. In 1915 he received the Prix Goncourt for his novel ''Gaspard''. In 1938, he became the first Goncourt laureate to be appointed a member of the Académie Goncourt ...

Bibliography

* Laurent Joly (2007), "Anti-Semitic and anti-Semitism in the House of Deputies under the Third Republic," ''Journal of Modern History'', 3 / 2007 (No. 54-3), p. 63-90. * Laurent Joly, ''Archives Juives'', vol. 39, n° 2, 2006, p. 96-109. On Gohier and Coty. *

Pierre-André Taguieff Pierre-André Taguieff (born 4 August 1946) is a French philosopher who has specialised in the study of racism and antisemitism. He is the director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in an Institut d'Etudes Politique ...

, Grégoire Kauffmann, Mickaël Lenoire, ''L'Antisémitisme de plume (1940–1944), études et documents'', Paris, Berg International, 1999 . Contains a complete article of 7 pages on Gohier by Dr. Grégoire Kauffmann, p. 412-418.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gohier, Urbain 1862 births 1951 deaths 19th-century French lawyers French journalists 19th-century French writers 20th-century French writers Collège Stanislas de Paris alumni 19th-century French male writers 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers