Difference between revisions of "Fritz Grobba"
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==Iraq== | ==Iraq== | ||
| − | In | + | In 1933<ref>James. Barrie G. (2012). Hitler's Gulf War: The Fight for Iraq 1941. United Kingdom:Grub Street Publishers, [https://books.google.com/books?id=h8SIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT29]</ref> |
| − | Moshe Gat]</ref> | + | Grobba purchased a Christian-owned newspaper, "The Arab World" (al-'Alam al-'Arabi). He serialised an Arabic version of Adolf Hitler's ''Mein Kampf'', and soon, Radio Berlin began to broadcast in Arabic by [[Younes Bahri]].<ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537121.2024.2318157 Iraq and its Jewish minority: from the establishment of the state to the great Jewish immigration 1921-1951. |
| + | Moshe Gat]</ref><ref> | ||
| + | Sabar, A. (2009). My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past. United States: Algonquin Books. | ||
| + | [https://books.google.com/books?id=qkbb-QjEW8QC&pg=PA63 p. 63]</ref><ref> | ||
| + | Benjamin, M. (2008). Last Days in Babylon: The Exile of Iraq's Jews, the Story of My Family. United States: Free Press. | ||
| + | [https://books.google.com/books?id=JFHwzjYDjjwC&pg=PA93 p. 93]</ref> | ||
[[File:Mufti-al-Husseni-with-Al-Gaylani.1941.jpg|thumb|Mufti, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini [محمد أمين الحسيني] and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani [رشيد عالي الگيلاني] in 1941, Iraq Arab-Nazi coup. (Younis Bahri first from the left)]] | [[File:Mufti-al-Husseni-with-Al-Gaylani.1941.jpg|thumb|Mufti, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini [محمد أمين الحسيني] and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani [رشيد عالي الگيلاني] in 1941, Iraq Arab-Nazi coup. (Younis Bahri first from the left)]] | ||
Revision as of 03:51, August 5, 2024
Fritz Konrad Ferdinand Grobba (July 18, 1886 - February 9, 1973) was a German orientalist and diplomat. Remembered for the roles he played in the mission of Nazi Germany in the Middle East in the years between the world wars and in the years of World War II. He is particularly remembered for his influence on the Rashid Ali al-Khilani rebellion and the wild anti-Semitic incitement that preceded the rebellion, which was among the causes of the Farhud riots in which over 1,000 Jews lost their lives, and for his collaboration with the Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini during and after the rebellion.[1][2] [3]
Historian:
| “ | As officers, Grobba and al-Husseini were brothers-in-arms in 1915, including in areas where Armenians were deported. Both men spoke Turkish. They met during the 1930s in Iraq, where the German envoy Grobba dealt with Iraqi state representatives and grew to dislike al-Husseini. In his eyes, a cleric without a state styling himself the “grand mufti” should not act as a politician. Their mutual dislike increased after the failed Baghdad coup against the British in mid-1941.
A British adviser in Iraq, Archibald McDougall defended Grobba in The Times, saying he was not a “Nazi Lawrence of Arabia” stirring up Muslims but rather a hard-nosed career diplomat. Berlin then grew suspicious of Grobba. Rumors circulated that he had invited Jews to his receptions, that he was a Freemason, and that he preferred al-Kailani to the mufti. His career faltered, as he was caught between the two Arabs frequently arguing over “who would be the real leader.” Hitler’s choice was clear: al-Husseini. He saw in the mufti a principal actor in the Middle East, and a “realist.” Benito Mussolini followed Hitler’s lead and recognized the mufti as the most competent spokesman for the Arabs who could help the Fascist-Nazi alliance in reshaping North Africa. It was against this political backdrop that SS chief Heinrich Himmler invited select Nazis and their guests to visit his concentration camp system. At the end of June, Grobba noted, the two Arabs each instructed two of their aides to join an SS training course that included a visit to a concentration camp. Al-Kailani wanted to go along to see if this system could be a model for Iraq, where there was a large Jewish community. Grobba agreed: The assistants were going anyway, so there was nothing wrong with it. Still, the SS asked the German Foreign Office to sign on.[4] |
” |
Iraq
In 1933[5] Grobba purchased a Christian-owned newspaper, "The Arab World" (al-'Alam al-'Arabi). He serialised an Arabic version of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, and soon, Radio Berlin began to broadcast in Arabic by Younes Bahri.[6][7][8]
In 1941, there was a brief Arab Pro-Nazi coup, by the four Iraqi nationalist army generals, known as "the Golden Square," the Mufti, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini [محمد أمين الحسيني] and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani [رشيد عالي الگيلاني] assisted by al-Muthanna / Futuwwa (modeled on Hitler-Youth) fascist groups. The coup was later repelled by the Brits.
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 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."[9] Some estimate Jewish fatalities victims to be up to a 1,000.[10] With Yunis al-Sabawi planning a greater massacre, foiled.
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."[11]
See also Fadhel al-Jamali.
References
- ↑ Mallmann, K., Cüppers, M. (2010). Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine. United Kingdom: Enigma Books, p. 94
- ↑ Wolfgang Scwanitz, Germany and the middle east 1871 - 1945, pp.88
- ↑ Hirszowicz, Ł. (2016). The Third Reich and the Arab East. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. [1]
- ↑ Wolfgang G. Scwanitz, Photographic Evidence Shows Palestinian Leader Amin al-Husseini at a Nazi Concentration Camp, Tablet Magazine, Apr 7, 2021
- ↑ James. Barrie G. (2012). Hitler's Gulf War: The Fight for Iraq 1941. United Kingdom:Grub Street Publishers, [2]
- ↑ [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537121.2024.2318157 Iraq and its Jewish minority: from the establishment of the state to the great Jewish immigration 1921-1951. Moshe Gat]
- ↑ Sabar, A. (2009). My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past. United States: Algonquin Books. p. 63
- ↑ Benjamin, M. (2008). Last Days in Babylon: The Exile of Iraq's Jews, the Story of My Family. United States: Free Press. p. 93
- ↑ Black, Edwin. The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust. United States: Dialog Press, 2018. [3].
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.
- ↑ 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.