Figure 1.--Premier Rashid Ali, a member of the al-Qadiriyya brotherhood, al-Kailani staged a coup with pro-Axis elements in Iraqi Army and launched attacks on British bases as part of an effort to join the NAZI war effort. They apparently expected significnt aid the the Germand Itlians. The British drove Ali and the Golden Square from power. Ali wrote Hitler romising 'to fight the common nemy until the final victory." Here Hitler meets Ali at his East Prussian headquaters near Rastenburg (July 15, 1942). At the time Hitler was directing the German offensive that would led to the Stalingrad disaster. Looking at the photograph, ones gets the impression that Hitler is shaking hands with a Jew. People with Ali's appearance featured prominently in NAZI anti-Semitic propaganda. This must have affected Hitler's thinking.

Premier Rashid Ali al-Kailani, a member of the al-Qadiriyya brotherhood, staged a coup with pro-Axis elements in Iraqi Army and launched attacks on British bases as part of an effort to join the NAZI war effort. They apparently expected significant aid the the Germand Itlians. The British drove Ali and the Golden Square from power. Ali wrote Hitler promising 'to fight the common nemy until the final victory." Here Hitler meets Ali at his East Prussian headquaters near Rastenburg (July 15, 1942). At the time Hitler was directing the German offensive that would led to the Stalingrad disaster. Looking at the photogrph, ones gets the impression that Hitler is shaking hands with a Jew. People with Ali's appearance featured prominently in NAZI anti-Semitic propaganda. This must have affected Hitler's thinking. Click on the image for a fuller discussion. To his credit, Ali asked the Germans about their aznti-Semtism and what that meant for the Arabs. [Weinreich, pp. 111-12 --fn. 947.] This was something as far as we know that the Mufti never did.

Failed Coup (1941)

Premier Rashid Ali al-Kailani, a member of the al-Qadiriyya brotherhood, staged a coup with pro-Axis elements in Iraqi Army and launched attacks on British bases as part of an effort to join the NAZI war effort (April 1941). They apparently expected significant aid the the Germand Itlians. The German and Italians did begin to send in adbisers and forces through French Syria. This was a more important incident than often presented in World War II histories because of the importance of the oil field at Kirkut. The British were alerted of what was happening through Ultra intercepts. It was the mostdangeros action of Fench collaboration. Field Marshal Auchinleck, urged on by Churchill, somehow managed to put together a scratch force and drove Ali and the Golden Square from power before substantial Axis aid arrived (May 1941). [Broich] Hitler and OKW at the time were focused on Barbarossa. Ali wrote Hitler promising 'to fight the common nemy until the final victory." Finally Rashid Ali and Golden Square Commanders fled to Iran and spent the War in Berlin.

Meeting with Hitler

Here Hitler meets Ali at his East Prussian headquaters near Rastenburg (July 15, 1942). At the time Hitler was directing the German offensive that would led to the Stalingrad disaster. Ali along with the Grand Mufti were the two most important Arab figures in the Reich. We have no reports on Hitler's personal assessmnt of Ali or on the conversation tht followed.

Ali's 'Jewish' Look

Looking at the photogrph, ones gets the impression that Hitler is shaking hands with a Jew. People with Ali's appearance featured prominently in NAZI anti-Semitic propaganda. This must have affected Hitler's thinking. Even school children in Germany were being taught to recognize these features. A Jewish reader writes, "That's because both Arabs and Jews are Semitic people with the same blood line and many similar features. I used to work with a guy from Morocco and we always called each other cousins."

German Anti-Semitism

Ali after arriving un the Reich, continued to be treated as the Iraqi Orimeninister and supported like the Grand-Mufti, we think by the Foreign Ministry. Ali, unlike the Mufti, asked the Germans about what their anti-Semitism meant for the Arabs. Given that the NAZI anti-Semitism was leading to Jews in the millions, something tht he and the Mufti were aware of, this was not an unreasonable question. Thanks to the last issue of the NAZI journal Weltkampf (September-December 1944), we know about how the NAZIS handeled this issue. Weltkampf was the journal of the Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (Institute for Research of the Jewish Question) sonsored by NAZI thgeorist Alfred Rosenberg. The Instittue was to be part of an elite NAZI university--Hohe Schule. Professor Dr. Walter Gross was given the job of explaining why the term 'anti-Semitism was no longer used in the Reich, which of course was not true. Dr. Gross was the director of the Racial Policy Office of the NAZI Party. This assignment fell on Dr. Gross because deposed Prime Minister Ali wrote to him asking if the Germans considered the Arabs, like the Jews, to be racially inferior. He wrote, "As Prime Minister of IraqI too well know my countrymen, and the arabs in generalnot to know that they don't don't believe that statement because in their struggle for their freedom and their rights they has so much recognition and support from the Germans that they re covinced of their respect and anity. [Like most arabs at the time, Ali seems totlly clueless as to how German policy would change after they won the War.] But since the enemy propaganda constantly repeats thatlie I feel ot would be useful if Germany officially opposed it by presenting the truth about the German attitude toward the Arab race." Gross wrote back October 17, 1942 after Ali's meeting with Hitler. Itvwas a politically motivated response. The NAZIs claimed that there race policies were based on cience. Dr. Gross simply made up an excuse without the slightest scientific basis. He identified Jews as a '... disharmonious race mixture' were to be strictly destinguished from the people of Near-Eastern and Oriental race ; that the expression 'anti-Semitism' was wrong ; that the "Semitic-Arab peoples , languages, and culture always were the object of affectionate interest on the part of German scholrship" and "that the racial theory recently changef nothing." "No responsib;e person or institution in Germany ever said that the arabs were racially inferior or stood on an unfavorable place in the rnk order of human races. On the contrary, National Socialist racial theory considers the arabs members of a high-value racethat looks back upon a glorious and heroic history. That is hy, too, the struggle of the Arabs for political liberation against the Jewish usurptation of Palestine has always been observed nd supported by Germany with particular sympathy." One historian points out that this a bold faced lie for political convenience. [Weinrich, p. 112.] NAZI race experts continued o classify arabs as an 'alien' species. Dr. Krl Metzger, a colleage of Dr. Gross wrote, "In administrative enforcement of race protectionsome are tobe considered as alien in specues (Artfremde), with whomany miscegenation is prohibitef, particularly all Jews, gypsies, and colored personsas well as theirhybrids to definitely fixed degrees, and likewise the members of the Near-Eastern and Oriental races, with the exception of European Turkey." [Weinreich, p. 112.]

Arab Anti-Semitism

Ant-Semitism has long historical roots and given differences in appearances is somewhat understandable. What makes anti-Semitism in the Arab world more difficult to understand and why an Arab-NAZI alliance so absurd for the Arabs. Ali and the Mufti apparently paid no attention to German occupation policies in conquered regions and wondered how the Germans would have behaved in the Middle Est after driving out the British. The British may have been exploitive, but they were not genocidal. Apparently such was their hatred of the Jews and British, this simply did not occur to leaders like Ali and the Mufti. The Arabs have still not let go of the rcial dynmic they learned from the NAZIs. In Arab newspapers to this day you see hate cartoons depicting Jews with these features just like the NAZIs did. These Aranb cartoons could have been taknb right out of German newspapers. The image here really brings out just how similar the Arbs nd Jews are in ppearance. And we have seen Arab hate political cartoons depicting Jews that look just like ali.

Sources

Broich, John. Blood, Oil, and the Axis.

Weinreich, Max. Hitler's Professors: The Part of Scholarship in Germany's Crimes Against the Jewish People (Yale University Press: 1946), 291p.

Weltkampf (September-December 1944).

Created: 7:16 PM 12/9/2015
Last updated: 2:41 AM 4/1/2023