Younis Bahri
Younis (Younes, Yunus) Saleh Bahri al-Juburi (Arabic: يونس صالح بحري الجبوري, also known as Abu Luai) was an Arab Islamic Iraqi adventurer, writer, journalist and radio broadcaster. In 1939 he founded the first Arabic radio station in Europe "Radio Berlin in Arabic" in Berlin - Huna Berlin! Hiyya al-Arab, in Nazi Germany. This station broadcast Nazi propaganda to listeners in the Arab world during the World War 2, and was identified with the famous phrase that Bahri repeated at the beginning of the broadcasts: "Here is Berlin, the Arab neighborhood." He boasted to be the first Arab-Nazi collaborator. Bahri asked Goebbels who received approval from Hitler to use Islamic text in his hate propaganda.[1] [2]
His radio broadcast was augmented with the arrival of the Grand Mufti of Palestine Al-Hussein in 1941 and his antisemitic and genocidal,[3] jihadi messages. He then also contributed to the Mufti's Barid a Sharq.
Bahri traveled extensively around the world and became famous among politicians, writers, kings, presidents and many media persons.
He held various positions, mastered about 17 different languages, authored many books and was sentenced to death four times.[4]
In India he worked as a reporter for an Indian newspaper, in Indonesia he served as mufti and as the editor-in-chief of the local newspaper "Java" in the Arabic language and in Paris he served as an imam of one of the mosques in the city.[5]
Bahri was a noted figure due to his many achievements and travels and was known to hold anti-colonial views and pro-Nazi ideas.[6]
Contents
Radio Berlin
He started the news with these words: hayyil Arab—long live the Arabs—as a way of supporting the Arab cause against the Jews.[7]
Bahri played a key role in the 1941 Baghdad pogrom. Mejor "in inciting the masses on a daily basis to take action against Britain and the Jews. In coffee shops across Iraq, radios were tuned to his program. In the early years of World War II, while German forces were making impressive advances on many fronts, his bombastic style of delivery fueled the fire of hatred and anti-Semitism." [8]
Farhud
The Farhoud (Farhud), Arab-Nazi pogrom, where up to some 1,000 Jews were brutally murdered, children thrown in the warer in front of parents, mass rapes. Days prior to.the pogrom, Jewish shops were marked with red hamsa.
The Mufti also incited to the infamous Farhud ([الفرهود] Farhoud) pogrom against Iraqi Jews on Shavuot, June 1-2, (just before the new government settled in) , carried out by Futuwwa and others including policemen. It came after months of instigation, including by the Mufti[9] and his associates Darwish al-Mikdadi and Akram Zuaiter, portions of Mein Kampf in Arabic publications and Younis Bahri's Berlin 'voice of Hitler in Arabic' radio broadcasts. It was brutal: "Hundreds of Jews were cut down by sword and rifle, some decapitated. Babies were sliced in half and thrown into the Tigris river. Girls were raped in front of their parents. Parents were mercilessly killed in front of their children."[10] Some estimate Jewish fatalities victims to be up to a 1,000.[11] With Yunis al-Sabawi planning a greater massacre, foiled.
From 'The Extent of Nazism in the Middle-East: the Farhud:[12]
... soldiers attacked Jews with knives and axes, and the violence quickly spread. Frenzied mobs raced through the city and murdered Jews openly in the streets. Women were raped; homes and stores were emptied and burned. Infants were killed right in front of their parents. Beheadings, torsos sliced open, babies dismembered, tortures, and mutilations were widespread. Limbs would be waved around as trophies.The devastation continued. In some cases, police units rolled up to a Jewish home in machine gun mounted vehicles and would turn their weapons on the front door and start shooting. Jewish homes and shops were burned; a synagogue was invaded, its Sifrei Torahs defiled and destroyed, all in a matter very similar to Kristallnacht. Iraqis broke into a girl’s school, and Jewish girls were endlessly raped, with one girl even getting her breasts slashed off, which was typical for that day. Young or old, Jewish females were set upon and mercilessly gang raped and often mutilated.
Even the hospital proved no relief. There were doctors who declined to render medical assistance, and some soldiers even tried in the hospital to rape women. Other Jews were poisoned in the hospital. Things very similar to this also happened in Germany, where German doctors also declined to render medical assistance to Jews.
During WW2, senior officials in the Iraqi Ministry of Education, like Sami Shawkat and Fadhil al-Jamali, sustained firm ties with Fritz Grobba and "frustrated an initiative by the Iraqi security services to deport German teachers who were spreading Nazi propaganda in Baghdadi high schools. They also maintained a pro-Nazi nationalist organization."[13]
See also Fadhel al-Jamali.
In all, "the formidable German propaganda machine led by the Mufti and assisted by the Iraqi pro-Nazi broadcaster Younis Bahri, and the savage attacks of the farhud all ‘had a tremendous effect on the population already infected by the anti-Semitic virus.’"[14]
Al-Hilali
Al-Hilali (Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din bin Abdil-Qadir Al-Hilali, Takki ed-Din el-Hilali / Al-Hilali محمد تقي الدين الهلالي 1893-1987 - Moroccan Salafi, a translator of Islamic texts) became the head of the cultural department of the Palestine Mufti Mohammed Amin Al-Husseini's Foreign Office's Islamic Central Institute, as well as a Nazi Radio Berlin broadcaster in Arabic with Younis Bahri - "the voice of Hitler in Arabic." Al-Hilali used to review speeches and proofread them linguistically..[2]
Lasting damage
Noted:[15]
Many of the antisemitic catchphrases and conspiracy theories still found in Arabic culture today can indeed be traced to the legacy of the Voice of Berlin and its Iraqi anchor, Yunis Bahri. According to the British propaganda official, Nevill Barbour, “The Nazis had the skill or luck to find and employ an Iraqi, Yunus al-Bahri, who had a remarkable talent for the sensational type of broadcasting which they favored. Berlin Radio was bound by no scruples and cared nothing for factual accuracy … it, therefore, used every device to inflame Arab resentment against Britain for favoring Zionism, to exploit every conceivable suspicion regarding British actions, and to sneer at Arabs who publicly declared their support of the British connection. The Berlin Radio announcer, for instance, used regularly to refer to Prince Abdallah as ‘Rabbi Abdallah.’”
Barid Al Sharq
Barid Al Sharq (Bareed al-Shark [بريد الشرق]: Orient Post) was an Arabic Nazi propaganda publication published Bi-weekly[16] in Berlin, in the period 1939–1944. It was distributed in the Arab countries and Mandatory Palestine. "Articles in Barid al-Sharq, dominated by the usual anti-British, anti-Communist, and anti-Jewish agitation, also drew on religious themes... Contributors included the Lebanese pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan and Abdurreshid Ibrahim, who, after his service for Germany during the First World War, had now become imam of the Tokyo Mosque, giving the paper a further pan-Islamic tinge." The journal also published several speeches by members of the Nazi elite, by al-Husayni (including his calls for Jihad).
Johann Von Leers also published articles in Barid al-Sharq.[17]
Its editors also published an Arabic- language brochure with the title Islam and the Jews (al-Islam wa-l-Yahud), based on a series of articles that the journal had run earlier under the same title. Numerous copies were distributed in Tunis. In spring 1942, the German consulate in Tangier reported the "confiscation" of several boxes of the brochure by Spanish officials. Files stored in the archives of the Foreign Office in Berlin indicate that the distribution of Barid al-Sharq in the Tangier zone repeatedly caused friction between German officials and the local Spanish administration during the North African campaign. [18] Nazi propagandist on the Radio, Yunus Bahri, also contributed, edited there.[19]
Al-Jaheer [وبالمقابل] (Bass) was a monthly magazine published by the Arabic section of Radio Berlin. It was addressed to the same readers of the "Barid al-Sharq" who had to be persuaded to be hostile to the Anglo-Saxons, the Communists and the Jews. The magazine sought to bring the sympathy of these readers towards Germany, which is intended to be shown as a great power advocating Islam and Muslims.[20]
See also
References
- ↑ The Arabic Voice of Hitler. Thread by @HusseinAboubak. Jan 10, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Berlin Arab Radio" .. When Hitler addressed the Arab peoples with the voice of the Iraqi Younis Bahri. Arabic Post, 08/18/2022.
... Motivating songs and sermons in Arabic and verses from the H... Quran from the heart of Berlin.
Younes Bahri settled in Berlin, and because of his previous relations, he was able to approach the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, "Goebbels" and meet the Nazi leader Hitler, until Younes attended Nazi rallies and celebrations while wearing a military uniform and a Nazi insignia in his arm.
And only 3 days after he left Baghdad, the Arabs heard for the first time the voice of Yunus Bahri saying: “Here is Berlin, the neighborhood of the Arabs” on April 7, 1939. As for the reason for choosing this particular phrase, Younos Bahri says in his memoirs that he wanted To greet the Arabs in the manner of the Nazi salute, but in Arabic.
According to Younis Bahri's memoirs, he asked Goebbels to agree to broadcast the .. Qur'an on "Berlin Arab Radio", in order to attract Arab listeners, so that he would start sending the radio. Goebbels hesitated at first and conveyed the proposal to Hitler, who approved it.
After Younis Bahri explained to him that broadcasting the .. Qur’an would attract the attention of Arab listeners, and push them to refrain from listening to the BBC, which was not broadcasting the Qur’an, the result was that the "Berlin Arab Radio" became the favorite among Arabs to hear news of war and battles. Germany against the Allies.
The radio station received the support of many Arab personalities, such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, and the Moroccan preacher, Taqi al-Din al-Hilali, who used to review speeches and proofread them linguistically. Many of those personalities supported the radio, because for them it was a lifeline to get rid of British and French colonialism in the Arab countries.
Amin al-Husseini was sending appeals to the Palestinians via the "Arab Berlin" radio, and inciting them to resist the British, but there was no one as famous as Younis Bahri on that radio, and soon Younis Bahri became the semi-official spokesman for Hitler and his Nazi forces, and he delivered speeches signed by Hitler and addressed to the people Arabic. But Yoinis often deviated from the approach of the station by cursing the kings of Egypt and Iraq and accusing them of employment and slavery, and the guardian of the throne in Iraq, Prince "Abdul-Ilah", was the largest part of his insults, as well as the Iraqi Prime Minister at the time, "Nuri al-Saeed" and King "Abdullah" in Jordan .
After he was the main factor in the success of the radio, and captured the ears of Arab listeners everywhere, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, who had a relationship with the Nazi regime, decided to remove Younis Bahri from the radio.
Because he did not abide by the texts of the statements and comments that the Arab Bureau in Jerusalem prepared and sent to the radio, Yunus Bahri was agitated and added harsh phrases that were not written in the text.
With the fall of Germany in the hands of the Allied forces, that broadcast ended forever, but there are still many clips published on the Internet, recorded in the voice of Younis Bahri and his speeches from the "Arab Berlin Radio", as Younis Bahri documented all of them in his book "Here Berlin is the Arab neighborhood" which was published in thw year 1956 with eight parts. - ↑ Herf, J. (2009). Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World. United States: Yale University Press. p.139.
Further, “the problem has been intensified by radio talks from the Grand Mufti and Younus [sic] Bahri urging the Arabs to rise, murder the Jews and seize their property.”
- ↑ A friend of kings and princes, Baghdad Municipality buried him at its own expense. A friend of kings and princes, Baghdad Municipality buried him at its own expense. Baghdad - Jawad Al-Hattabm. Published in: June 05, 2014.
- ↑ "Younes Bahri" is a legend of geography, politics and literature in a novel. by Sami Al-Badri. Ahmed Talab Al Nasser. 2022.07.16
- ↑ “Younis Bahri” the Iraqi who married 290 women and became the Mufti of Indonesia during the day and a dancer in a nightclub at night. Arabic Post. Published: 2022/07/19
- ↑ Khabbaza MD, A. (2010). The Last Tango in Baghdad. United States: AuthorHouse. p.5.
Radio Berlin started to broadcast poisonous propaganda against the Jews to the Iraqi people. My father used to listen to the German news in Arabic almost every morning, and I can well remember Yunes Bahri, the Iraqi Muslim hired by Radio Berlin, starting the news with these words: hayyil Arab—long live the Arabs—as a way of supporting the Arab cause against the Jews.
- ↑
Nimrod Raphaeli, The Farhud: Dramatis personae, MEMRI, June 27, 2021.
A look at some of the individuals that played a key role in the 1941 Baghdad pogrom…
The mufti and his Palestinian entourage quickly connected with the Iraqi nationalist elements as well as with the German chief of legation to spread virulent anti-Semitic incitement in addition to anti-British propaganda. He seemed to have exercised considerable influence on Prime Minister al-Kailani on both the pro-Nazi and the anti-Semitic fronts.
Younis Bahri
Younis Bahri al-Juburi was born in 1904 in Mosul, northern Iraq, and acquired the nickname “Bahri” (sailor) because he briefly attended a naval academy in Constantinople (Istanbul, today). Al-Juburi joined the Arabic program at Radio Berlin in 1939. His morning broadcast always started with the call “Huna Berlin. Hayii al Arab”—”This is Berlin. Arab greetings.” The second part of the opening greeting has been interpreted as “a greeting that addresses the Arab mentality, evokes national feelings, and creates enthusiasm and pride.” In his manner of delivery, there was “a kind of clowning and mockery of the Allies, to whom he promised every day a catastrophic defeat.” His autobiography carries the same call.
Historians have regularly attributed much blame for the June events in Baghdad to the mufti of Jerusalem. The blame is justified, but based on personal experience, I would argue that al-Juburi may have done more harm than the mufti in inciting the masses on a daily basis to take action against Britain and the Jews. In coffee shops across Iraq, radios were tuned to his program. In the early years of World War II, while German forces were making impressive advances on many fronts, his bombastic style of delivery fueled the fire of hatred and anti-Semitism. - ↑ Lyn Julius, The Nazi-Arab alliance: A neglected aspect of Holocaust education, JPost, May 23, 2024
The mufti also helped stage a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in 1941 and incited the anti-Jewish massacre known as the Farhud, making no secret of his wish to exterminate the Jews in his sphere of influence in the event of a Nazi victory. As Hitler’s guest in Berlin, the mufti of Jerusalem raised SS units of Muslim troops and broadcast poisonous anti-Jewish propaganda. “Kill the Jews wherever you find them! This pleases God, religion, and history”, he exhorted from the Berlin shortwave radio station.
- ↑ Black, Edwin. The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust. United States: Dialog Press, 2018. [1].
The Nazi fueled pogrom in Iraq that led to the Jews leaving the country, JewishUnpacked May 23, 2022.Hundreds of Jews were cut down by sword and rifle, some decapitated. Babies were sliced in half and thrown into the Tigris river. Girls were raped in front of their parents. Parents were mercilessly killed in front of their children. Hundreds of Jewish homes and businesses were looted, then burned.
- ↑ Carole Basri, First came the Farhud: The 2-stage ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Jewry, TOI, June 2, 2021.
- ↑ 'The Extent of Nazism in the Middle-East: the Farhud.' The Farhud was a Nazi Inspired Violent Pogrom that took place in Iraq on Shavuot in 1941. By Joseph A. Levy. Jewish Magazine, May 2013.
- ↑ Yehuda, Zvi. The New Babylonian Diaspora: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Community in Iraq, 16th-20th Centuries C.E.. Netherlands: Brill, 2017, p. 253.
Nuri al-Sa'id, according to Grobba, agreed on the eve of the war to send a delegation from the al-Futuwwa youth organization to Germany in order to participate in a conference of the German Nazi Party. Senior officials in the Iraqi Ministry of Education, such as Sami Shawkat and Fadhil al-Jamali, sustained firm ties with Grobba and frustrated an initiative by the Iraqi security services to deport German teachers who were spreading Nazi propaganda in Baghdadi high schools. They also maintained a pro-Nazi nationalist organization.
- ↑ Gilbert, M. (2011). In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands. Canada: McClelland & Stewart. pp.193-4.
Abraham Elkabir, who served in the Iraqi administration for a quarter of a century, later reflected – while living in Israel — on what went wrong between the Muslims and Jews…
The striking German military successes in the early stage of the um’, the formidable German propaganda machine led by the Mufti and assisted by the Iraqi pro-Nazi broadcaster Younis Bahri, and the savage attacks of the farhud all ‘had a tremendous effect on the population already infected by the anti-Semitic virus.’ - ↑ Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, The Liberation of the Arabs From the Global Left, Tablet Magazine, July 11, 2022.
The exploitation of the intellectual and political energies of Arab societies as ammunition in the ideological battles of the left has had disastrous effects on the region.
- ↑ Arabic Studies, (1991), Vol. 27, Iss. 9-12, p. 130.
الى جانب هذه الاجهزة الدعائية المتخصصة في شؤون الشرق ، اقامت حكومة الرايخ محطة اذاعة باللغة العربية في جوار برلين كذلك اصدرت مجلة « بريد الشرق » التي كانت تصدر كل اسبوعين في حين زودت جريدة النهار « البيروتية ، بادارة للاخبار وتجهيزات..
In addition to these propaganda agencies specialized in the affairs of the East, the Reich government set up an Arabic radio station in the vicinity of Berlin. It also published the "Barid al Sharq" magazine, which was published every two weeks, while providing the "Al-Nahar" newspaper, "Al-Beirutiyah", with news management and equipment. - ↑ Wien, Peter. Arab Nationalism: The Politics of History and Culture in the Modern Middle East. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2017, 252.
Von Leers also published articles in Barid al-Sharq.
- ↑ Motadel, David. Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. United Kingdom: Harvard University Press, 2014. p. 88.
Articles in Barid al-Sharq, dominated by the usual anti-British, anti-Communist, and anti-Jewish agitation, also drew on religious themes...
Contributors included the Lebanese pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan and Abdurreshid Ibrahim, who, after his service for Germany during the First World War, had now become imam of the Tokyo Mosque, giving the paper a further pan-Islamic tinge... The journal also published several speeches by members of the Nazi elite, by al-Husayni (including his calls for Jihad)...
The editors of Barid al-Sharq also published an Arabic- language brochure with the title Islam and the Jews (al-Islam wa-l-Yahud), based on a series of articles that the journal had run earlier under the same title. Numerous copies were distributed in Tunis. In spring 1942, the German consulate in Tangier reported the "confiscation" of several boxes of the brochure by Spanish officials. Files stored in the archives of the Foreign Office in Berlin indicate that the distribution of Barid al-Sharq in the Tangier zone repeatedly caused friction between German officials and the local Spanish administration during the North African campaign. The SS played only a small role in Germany's propaganda efforts targeting the Middle East and North Africa. Perhaps the most significant example was the attempt by SS officers to portray Hitler as a religious figure. - ↑ Stefan Wild, “National Socialism and the Arab East between 1933 and 1939,” Die Welt des Islams 25 (1985)
- ↑ Le Maroc et l'Allemagne: actes de la première rencontre universitaire : études sur les rapports humains, culturels et économiques. Morocco: Editions arabo-africaines, 1991.
Al-Jaheer is a monthly magazine published by the Arabic section of Radio Berlin. It was addressed to the same readers of the "Barid al-Sharq" who had to be persuaded to be hostile to the Anglo-Saxons, the Communists and the Jews. On the other hand, the magazine seeks to bring the sympathy of these readers towards Germany, which is intended to be shown as a great power advocating Islam and Muslims. In this context, it is possible[sic] to understand that picture decorated for the back cover of double issues 5-6 of the magazine (December 1942), which shows the Mufti of Jerusalem...
الجهير مجلة شهرية يصدرها القسم العربي بإذاعة برلين كانت موجهة لنفس قراء « بريد الشرق » الواجب إقناعهم بمعاداة الانكلوساكسونيين والشيوعيين واليهود . وبالمقابل ، تسعى المجلة إلى جلب تعاطف هؤلاء القراء نحو ألمانيا المراد إظهارها كقوة عظمى مناصرة للإسلام والمسلمين في هذا الإطار يمكن فهم تلك الصورة - المزينة لظهر غلاف العدد المزدوج 5 - 6 من المجلة ( دجنبر 1942) والتي تبين مفتي القدس...
