Review The Farhud, Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust

Black, Edwin, The Farhud, Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust, Dialog Press, 2010

 

In June 1941 as the Anglo-Iraq War ended Iraqis slaughtered hundreds of Jews in Baghdad known as The Farhud. Edwin Black’s book is not really about that event however even though it uses the name. There is only one chapter on the Farhud and more than half the book is not about Iraq. Rather the author uses the Farhud to make his argument that Arab Muslims have hated Jews for over one thousand years which led them to support the Nazis during World War II.

 

Black goes through the history of Jews starting in Biblical times and Islam. Jews were prosecuted when Islam was founded but then had periods of revival under later Muslim rulers. They were eventually accepted but given second class status. By the early 1900s Black writes that Arabs in Palestine considered the incoming Jews as a threat which would eventually lead to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Overall the author paints a picture of Jewish victimization and their treatment by the Arabs was part of that. He comes to the conclusion that Arabs have always hated Jews and they wanted their extermination as much as the Nazis which led to an alliance between the two during World War II. The Farhud was an example of that but only a very small portion of the book.

 

What about the experience of Iraqi Jews? They’re not mentioned until page 288 and there are only 19 out of 364 pages of text about the Farhud. Black is much more concerned with the experience of European Jews and the Zionist movement which is a major part of the book. When the author gets to Iraqi Jews he compares them to assimilated Jews in Europe and America who tried to find a place within their home countries and thought their success in business and government would protect them, but it didn’t.

 

In 1941 the Iraqi government aligned with the Nazis leading to a British invasion. After the defeat a massacre ensued in Baghdad with several hundred Jews killed. Black does bring new details to the Farhud largely based upon one book that had interviews with survivors. For instance, several pro-Nazi government officials planned mass killings of Jews but they were driven off after the war ended. The problem is the Farhud is a complete side story. Black thinks that the experience of European Jews was the experience for all Jews so that’s what he focuses upon. In fact Jews in Iraq had a much different experience having lived there for over 2000 years but you get little of that from the author.

 

There are several times when The Farhud gets details about Iraq wrong. Black said that Iraq was created by and for the Anglo-Iraq Petroleum Company. That’s because he believes that the British were obsessed with obtaining oil starting with World War I. English petroleum policy takes up a large part of the volume. The author does mention that the British political officer and later High Commissioner for Iraq Sir Arnold Wilson wanted Iraq annexed by India and he and others advocated for a mass migration of Indians to Mesopotamia. Most histories would say India was a far more important factor in England’s interest in Iraq. Second the book claims the Turkish genocide of Armenians mostly took place in Mesopotamia. Black writes that Armenians worked in the government and in business and their elimination allowed Iraqi Jews to move into those roles. This is simply not true. The Armenian genocide mostly took place in eastern Turkey.

 

If one is interested in Iraq then Edwin Black’s The Farhud is not for you. The book is really about the struggle of European Jews to found Israel. At the start the author says he never likes to make blanket statements about communities because there are always differences amongst a large number of people. He opens by saying that Jews had a mix of good and bad experiences in Muslim countries and Arabs were also angry at English colonialism in the Middle East after World War I. Halfway through the book however he starts arguing that Arab Muslims have always disliked Jews. By the end he says that Islam has hated Jews for 1400 years and its ideas were matched by those of the Nazis because they both wanted to exterminate the group. Iraqi Jews are just a very small example he uses to illustrate his thesis. That disqualifies the book from being taken seriously. There are much better books that focus solely upon Iraq’s Jews and give a much better account of their history.

 

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