Lyn Julius
Nazis in the Middle East
Summary
Lyn Julius explores the history of the less discussed Nazis of the Middle East.
Lyn Julius
Lyn Julius was born in the UK and educated at the French Lycée in London and the University of Sussex. The daughter of Jewish refugees from Iraq, she is a journalist and founder of Harif, the UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (www.harif.org). Lyn blogs daily at Point of No Return (www.jewishrefugees.org.uk). Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, Jewish News, and Jerusalem Post. She has a regular column in the Times of Israel and JNS News. Her book Uprooted: How 3,000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight has been translated in to Norwegian, Portuguese and Arabic, and a Hebrew version is in progress.
Yes, I can suggest a few books. I’m not sure if the libraries would actually carry them. There is Nazis Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Barry Ruben and Wolfgang Schwanitz. There’s also Nazis on the Nile by Vivian Kin Ross. This is quite a new book, but very well written and very informative. There’s Nazi Propaganda For the Arab World by Jeffrey Hearst. There’s a book about The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, and the impact of World War II by Riva Spector Simon. And there’s a book about The Farhud and the Nazi Influence in Iraq by Snherel Monet and Svee Yehuda.
Yes, they mostly did take their families with them. Why? Well, I think it was dangerous to fade into the woodwork in West Germany because West Germany had embarked on a new policy of renouncing its Nazi past. And don’t forget, there were Nazi hunters like Simon Weezental, who wanted to get hold of them. And of course, you know, they were seeking a haven and South America offered such a haven, that’s Argentina and Brazil, but more, more Nazi war criminals did end up in the Middle East, which was actually kind of ideologically more sympathetic to them. And they obviously thought they would be safer there.
I think it’s, it’s probably not considered politically correct to talk about Arabs and Nazis. The Arabs have actually tried to minimize the role of the, the Mufti of Jerusalem, perhaps for obvious reasons.