Farhud

Farhud
Part of Anglo–Iraqi War
Mass grave for the victims, 1946
LocationBaghdad, Iraq
Date1–2 June 1941
TargetIraqi Jews
Attack type
Pogrom
Deaths~180 Jews killed[1]
~300–400 pogromists killed during suppression
Injured1,000
PerpetratorsRashid Ali, Yunis al-Sabawi, al-Futuwa youths, and Iraqi mobs
MotiveAntisemitism, Iraqi nationalism

Farhud (Arabic: الفرهود, romanized: al-Farhūd) was the pogrom or the "violent dispossession" that was carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on 1–2 June 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a power vacuum that followed the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani while the city was in a state of instability.[2][3][4] The violence came immediately after the rapid defeat of Rashid Ali by British forces, whose earlier coup had generated a short period of national euphoria, and was fueled by allegations that Iraqi Jews had aided the British.[5] More than 180 Jews were killed[6] and 1,000 injured, although some non-Jewish rioters were also killed in the attempt to quell the violence.[7] Looting of Jewish property took place and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed.[1]

The Farhud took place during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It has been referred to as a pogrom which was part of the Holocaust, though its inclusion as such has been disputed.[8][9] The event spurred the migration of Iraqi Jews out of the country, although a direct connection to the 1951–1952 Jewish exodus from Iraq is also disputed,[note 1][11][12] as many Jews who left Iraq immediately following the Farhud later returned to the country, and permanent Jewish emigration out of Iraq did not accelerate significantly until 1950–1951.[10][13] According to Hayyim Cohen, the Farhud "was the only [such instance of Jewish shops and synagogues destroyed, Jewish girls being gang raped, and mob violence[14]] known to the Jews of Iraq, at least during their last hundred years of life there".[15][16] Historian Edy Cohen writes that up until the Farhud, Jews had enjoyed relatively favorable conditions and coexistence with Muslims in Iraq.[17][18]

  1. ^ a b Gilbert, Martin (1993) [1969]. The Atlas of Jewish History. New York: Morrow. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-688-12264-5. OCLC 813666695 – via Internet Archive. June 1941 During riots following collapse of pro- Nazi Government of Rashid Ali, 175 Jews killed and 1000 injured. Much looting of Jewish property. 900 Jewish houses destroyed. Many Jews tortured
  2. ^ Tsimhoni, Daphne (2001). "The Pogrom (Farhud) against the Jews of Baghdad in 1941". In Roth, J. K.; Maxwell, E.; Levy, M.; Whitworth, W. (eds.). Remembering for the Future. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 570–588. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-66019-3_37. ISBN 978-0-333-80486-5. OCLC 1086547441.
  3. ^ Green, David B. (2 June 2013). "1941: The Beginning of the End of Iraq's Jewish Community — Jewish World". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  4. ^ "The Farhud". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  5. ^ Bashkin 2012, p. 115 "The quick defeat of Rashid 'Ali, after a short period of national euphoria, and the allegations that the Jews had aided the British, made for a volatile situation, which exploded violently on the first and second days of June."
  6. ^ Kaplan, Robert D. (April 2014). "In Defense of Empire". The Atlantic. pp. 13–15.
  7. ^ Bashkin 2012, p. 121.
  8. ^ Wien, Peter (2006). Iraqi Arab Nationalism: Authoritarian, Totalitarian, and Pro-fascist Inclinations, 1932-1941. London: Routledge. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-203-02886-5. OCLC 212623474 – via Internet Archive. The presence of German troops on the war scene, however, gave way to interpretations of the pogrom as a racial anti-Semitic endeavor 'in the fringes of the Shoah, the Jewish Holocaust.' While this is surely an exaggeration in its comparative perspective, the apologetic approach of several Arab authors is insufficient as well. According to them, the outbreak of violence resulted from the anti-Zionist zeal of the public ...
  9. ^ Bashkin 2012, p. 102: "As is to be expected, both Arab and Zionist national memories have silenced important aspects of the Farhud ... Zionist historiography ... has highlighted the Farhud as a watershed in the history of the Iraqi-Jewish community. From the Zionist standpoint, the Farhud was the outcome of the anti-Semitism and Iraqi nationalist rhetoric in the 1930s. It was also viewed as having galvanized the Zionist movement in Iraq and ultimately as causing Iraq's Jews to recognize that their country had rejected their attempts at integration and assimilation. In some Zionist circles, the event came to be understood as an extension of the European Holocaust into the Middle East. This connection is made manifest today by the archiving of certain documents relating to the Farhud in Yad Va-Shem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem."
  10. ^ a b Gat 1997, pp. 23–24, 28p.
  11. ^ Shatz, Adam (6 November 2008). "Leaving Paradise". London Review of Books. 30 (21). ISSN 0260-9592. Yet Sasson Somekh insists that the farhud was not 'the beginning of the end'. Indeed, he claims it was soon 'almost erased from the collective Jewish memory', washed away by 'the prosperity experienced by the entire city from 1941 to 1948'. Somekh, who was born in 1933, remembers the 1940s as a 'golden age' of 'security', 'recovery' and 'consolidation', in which the 'Jewish community had regained its full creative drive'. Jews built new homes, schools and hospitals, showing every sign of wanting to stay. They took part in politics as never before; at Bretton Woods, Iraq was represented by Ibrahim al-Kabir, the Jewish finance minister. Some joined the Zionist underground, but many more waved the red flag. Liberal nationalists and Communists rallied people behind a conception of national identity far more inclusive than the Golden Square's Pan-Arabism, allowing Jews to join ranks with other Iraqis – even in opposition to the British and Nuri al-Said, who did not take their ingratitude lightly.
  12. ^ Haddad, Heskel M. (8 January 2014). "World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC): History and Purpose". The Jewish Voice. Brooklyn. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. The turning point for the Jews in Iraq was not the Farhood, as it is wrongly assumed.
  13. ^ Marqusee, Mike (2008). "Diasporic Dimensions". If I am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew. London: Verso. pp. 211–250. ISBN 9781844672141. OCLC 607271749 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference massacre1941 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cohen, Hayyim (October 1966). "The Anti-Jewish Farhūd in Baghdad, 1941". Middle Eastern Studies. 3 (1): 2–17. doi:10.1080/00263206608700059. ISSN 1743-7881. JSTOR 4282184.
  16. ^ Shenhav, Yehouda (May 2002). "Ethnicity and National Memory: The World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) in the Context of the Palestinian National Struggle". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 29 (1): 29. doi:10.1080/13530190220124052. ISSN 1353-0194. JSTOR 826147. S2CID 144466568. In 1941 a two-day pogrom (known as the farhud) was perpetrated in Baghdad. It was the only pogrom in the history of Iraqi Jews and it did not spread to other cities: it was confined to Baghdad alone. Historians agree that this was an exceptional event in the history of Jewish-Muslim relations in Iraq.
  17. ^ "Shoah Memorial, Paris". European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. 12 August 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  18. ^ Cohen, Edy (1 October 2022). "This Day in History: The Nazi-Arab Massacre of Iraqi Jews". Israel Today. Retrieved 18 October 2023.


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