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Given their geographical separation from Europe, ethno-religious and cultural diversity, and subordinate status within the Nazi racial hierarchy, Middle Eastern societies were both hospitable as well as hostile to National Socialist ideology during the 1930s and 1940s. By focusing on Arab and Turkish reactions to German anti-Semitism and the persecution and mass-murder of European Jews during this period, this expansive collection surveys the institutional and popular reception of Nazism in the Middle East and North Africa. It provides nuanced and scholarly yet accessible case studies of the ways in which nationalism, Islam, anti-Semitism, and colonialism intertwined, all while sensitive to the region's political, cultural, and religious complexities.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: Responses to Nazism and the Holocaust in the Middle East and North Africa
Francis R. Nicosia and Bogaç A. Ergene Chapter 1. Arab Reactions to Nazism and the Holocaust: Scholarship and the "War of Narratives"
Gilbert Achcar Chapter 2. Turkish Responses to the Holocaust: Turkish Policy toward the Jews, 1933-1945
Corry Guttstadt Chapter 3. Demon and Infidel: Egyptian Intellectuals Confronting Hitler and Nazism during World War
Israel Gershoni Chapter 4. The Persecution of the Jews in Germany in Egyptian and Palestinian Public Discourses, 1933-1939
Esther Webman Chapter 5. Defining the Nation: Discussing Nazi Ideology in Syria and Lebanon during the 1930s
Götz Nordbruch Chapter 6. Mosul as Paradise: Nazis, Angels, Jewish Soldiers, and the Jewish Community in Northern Iraq, 1941-1943
Orit Bashkin Chapter 7. Philo-Sephardism, Anti-Semitism and Arab Nationalism: Muslims and Jews in the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco during the Third Reich
Daniel J. Schroeter Appendixes Appendix A: "The Jewish Question." Article by Hüseyin Cahid Yalçin, in the Turkish newspaper
Yeni Sabah, 24 January 1939
Appendix B: German-Turkish Non-Aggression Pact Signed at Ankara, 18 June 1941
Appendix C: "Immigration to the United States is best!! The supporters of immigration to Palestine are Few!!" Article in the Palestinian newspaper
Filastin, 15 July 1938
Appendix D: "The Policy of Force and Violence in the World," Article in the Egyptian newspaper
Al-Ahram, 15 November 1938
Appendix E: Memorandum on the Arab Question by the Director of the Political Department of the German Foreign Office, 7 March 1941
Appendix F: Telegram from German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop on Axis Policy and Arab Independence, 20 July 1941
Appendix G: The High Commissioner of Spain in Morocco [Luis Orgaz] to His Excellency, the Minister of Foreign Affairs [Ramón Serrano Súñer], Madrid, 25 October 1941
Appendix H: Ambassador of France in Spain [François Piétri] to Mr. Admiral of the Fleet, Minister Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs [François Darlan], 15 December 1941
Appendix I: Memorandum from Amin al-Husayni, Berlin, to an Unknown Recipient, 20 October 1943
Appendix J: Letter from Amin al-Husayni to the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Regarding the Movement of Jews to Palestine, 25 July 1944
Index
About the author
Francis R. Nicosia is Professor of History and Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. His authored books include The Third Reich and the Palestine Question (1985), Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany (2008), and Nazi Germany and the Arab World (2015).
Boğaç A. Ergene is Professor of History at the University of Vermont. He has published extensively on the Ottoman Empire and the history of Islamic law and legal practice. He is the author of Local Court, Provincial Society and Justice in the Ottoman Empire: Legal Practice and Conflict Resolution in Çankiri and Kastamonu (1652-1744) (2003) and co-author of The Economics of Ottoman Justice: Trial and Settlement in a Sharia Court (2016).
Summary
Given their geographical separation from Europe, ethno-religious and cultural diversity, and subordinate status within the Nazi racial hierarchy, Middle Eastern societies were both hospitable as well as hostile to National Socialist ideology during the 1930s and 1940s. By focusing on Arab and Turkish reactions to German anti-Semitism and the persecution and mass-murder of European Jews during this period, this expansive collection surveys the institutional and popular reception of Nazism in the Middle East and North Africa. It provides nuanced and scholarly yet accessible case studies of the ways in which nationalism, Islam, anti-Semitism, and colonialism intertwined, all while sensitive to the region’s political, cultural, and religious complexities.
Additional text
“This outstanding collection of brilliant essays offers explorations of Arab, Turkish, and Jewish responses to Nazism and the Holocaust in the Middle East. Each concise essay presents complex historiographical debates in a way that is highly accessible to scholars, students, and the learned public.” · Marc David Baer, London School of Economics
