MembersThis Day in History: The Nazi-Arab Massacre of Iraqi Jews

On June 1, 1941, a day after the escape of Palestinian Mufti Amin Al-Husseini, the “Farhud” began in Iraq. The Farhud was a pogrom which enraged Muslim crowds carried out against Iraq’s Jews. In these riots, hundreds of Jews were murdered and thousands were injured. Muslim mobs stole Jewish possessions and set fire to many Jewish houses.

After the Farhud, the Iraqi government set up an official state commission of inquiry. The commission’s investigations revealed that Palestinian Mufti Amin al-Husseini and the Nazi propaganda broadcast by Berlin’s Arabic-language radio station were the main reasons for the slaughter of Iraqi Jews, and that ongoing incitement against Jews created the conditions under which the massacre could be carried out. Up until the Farhud Iraqi Jews had enjoyed relatively favorable conditions and coexistence within Muslims Iraq.

Ezra Levy was born in Iraq in 1920 and immigrated to Israel in 2003. He told me his account of these events, and allowed his testimony to be filmed. Ezra said that in the days leading up to the Farhud, many Jews...