Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (28 page)

The following evening, VFA returned to one of its favorite themes, "Roosevelt and the Jews. The president had "thrown off the mask and proved beyond any doubt that he is a toy in the hands of the Jews by his collaboration with the Jewish element in his aggression in North Africa."'90 On November 29, the Arab Nation reported that North Africa would be "a bridge between two Jewish capitals, Jerusalem and New York." New York was "the center of the Jews"; they hoped to make Jerusalem another. Yet Jerusalem would "never be Jewish" because it was a "Moslem center" for more than 400 million Muslims and 8o million Arabs. It was and would remain Arab. Conversely, "Jerusalem will be the tomb of the Jews of the world. In it, the Arabs will bury the greediness of the Jews and British imperialism." The Arabs of North Africa were currently "suffering from British, American, French and Jewish imperialism." The broadcast urged Arabs to "rise up against them when the right time approaches."' 9' On December ii, VFA ran another variant of "Roosevelt and the Jews." It had often said that Roosevelt was "the donkey on which the Jews ride with spurs." The American invasion of North Africa was one result. Yet no one could "wipe out the spirit of Arabism and Islam. As long as our religion guides us to fight against Jewry and imperialism, it is certain that the Arabs will seize the opportunity before it is too late, because prevention is always better than cure." 192 On December 12, VFA, in a broadcast entitled "Jews," gave the first thinly veiled acknowledgment that the Axis in North Africa had suffered a setback. The announcer found it "shameful that an Arab leader like [Egyptian Prime Minister] Nahas Pasha" had sent a message to "Roosevelt, the servant of the Jews, congratulating him on his victory. Roosevelt and his soldiers took part in preventing the Axis from advancing into the Arab countries, purely because they realize that an Axis advance means the liberation of the Arab countries and expulsion of the Jews. Roosevelt is the leader of gangsters pledged to destroy Arabism and the Axis are struggling against these gangsters. 11193

Like the press and radio Germany, the Nazi Arabic broadcasts never responded to Allied claims about crimes begin committed against the Jews in Europe. On December 17, the Allies issued a declaration that condemned "in the strongest terms" the "bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination" of European Jews by the Nazi regime.194 That evening, in a broadcast entitled "The Jews Give Orders and the Allies Obey;" VFA stated, "London and Washington are carrying out an extensive propaganda campaign for the help of the Jews who are suffering in Europe." (Actually eleven governments signed the declaration.) One can assume that the editors and announcers of Axis Arabic stations were as well informed as anyone else reading the German press and listening to the radio about Hitler's intentions to exterminate the Jews and Goebbels's boasts that the policy was being implemented. 195 Dismissing the assertions of the Allied declaration as a propaganda campaign was standard practice for the entire Nazi propaganda machine.

Like their British allies, American officials responsible for political warfare in the Middle East refrained from directly confronting the anti-Semitic barrage. In a "Weekly Propaganda Directive" of November 14,1942, the Overseas Operations Branch of the Office of War Information" established the following guidelines for Voice of America broadcasts for Palestine.

The Voice of America must speak to the people of Palestine with greater tact and caution than elsewhere in the Middle East.

1. Spoken and written words must alike be guided by an honest acceptance of the fact that the subject of Zionist aspirations cannot be mentioned, inasmuch as any serious outbreak of anti-Jewish feeling which might result among the Arab peoples in this area would jeopardize our strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean.

2. Equally taboo, at present, is any mention of a Jewish army.

3. It must be remembered that, as a whole, the Jews are staunchly supporting the cause of the United Nations: the Arabs are not. Therefore, our words must be addressed primarily to Moslem and Christian Arabs, especially in view of the effectiveness of enemy propaganda.

4. Quote Hitler's own observations in regard to alien races and cultures, and hold them up to ridicule and scorn. Stress the Paganism of our enemies and embroider our comments with biblical and Koranic phrases of denunciation.

The directive added that Allied propaganda should contrast accounts of German occupation policies in Europe with benefits that would emerge from an Allied victory and should "point out that Moslem and American culture re spect a common tradition of religious toleration. We can build our best propaganda upon this common heritage. 11196 In short, in order to win and sustain Arab and Muslim support for the Allied cause in Palestine, it was important not to directly challenge the anti-Zionist-and anti-Semitic-radio barrage arriving on a regular basis on Axis shortwave radio. Doing so would undermine support for the Allies in the region and could be used by Nazi propagandists to confirm that the Allies were indeed handmaidens of the Jews.

Throughout the war, the Allies' most damaging counter to Nazi propaganda in the Arab world was to point to Nazi claims that Aryans were part of a superior master race. As German officials had understood during the discussions surrounding the Nuremberg race laws and the Berlin Olympics, the doctrine of Aryan racial superiority undermined the Third Reich's efforts to present itself as an ally of the Arabs and Muslims. On October 23, Berlin in Arabic broadcast a public letter Rasihid Ali Kilani had sent to Walter Gross, the director of the Nazi's Office of Racial Politics (Rassenpolitisches Amt).

The Axis enemies in their propaganda state that the Germans consider the Arabs among the lower castes. In my capacity as the Premier of Iraq I can give an assurance that the Arabs do not give this claim any importance after what they have seen and felt Germany's treatment and help to them. But as the enemy propaganda goes on repeating these lies I should like to receive an answer from an official source regarding the German consideration of the Arab race. I should be very grateful to get from you a reply on the opinion of Germany on the subject.

Rashid All el Kilani.'97

The broadcast continued with Gross's reply to "The Prime Minister of Iraq." (This title was a fiction as British intervention in spring 1941 had ended Kilani's coup attempt and he was now in exile in Berlin.)

In answer to your Excellency's letter of 17 October 1942, I have the honor to give you the racial theory regarding the Arab caste. The racial policy has been adopted by Germany to safeguard the German people against the Jews who, biologically, are different from the Middle East races. Accordingly, Europe has been opposing the Jews for decades. The Germans do not fight the Jews because they are Semitic or because they come from the East, but for their character, egoism and their hostility to society.... While Germany forbids the entrance of the Jews into her territory, she welcomes all Arabs of Semitic origin and cares for them. The attitude of the Germans for the Arabs is that of respect. Not a single official German source ever stated that the Arabs originated from a lower caste. On the contrary, the racial theory of National Socialism considers the Arabs of a very high caste. The oppression of the Arabs of Palestine is being followed in Germanywith great interest and Germany confirms [i.e., supports] the demands of the Arabs.'ys

After reading both letters, the announcer attacked British claims of sympathy for Islam and Muslims. The British, in fact, "have shown their hatred for Islam" by allegedly preventing Indians from traveling to Mecca, attacking mosques in the Arab world, destroying many mosques in Palestine, and "encouraging Jews to stay in Islamic countries because they know that they are the enemies of the Moslems and the Koran.... Every Moslem should know that an Allied victory will mean a victory for the Jews and the destruction of the Moslems, but God will never allow the fire of faith to be extinguished by the enemies of Islam."' 99 The following evening, Berlin in Arabic added that this "official statement" by the Nazi Party had "put an end to the weak British propaganda which was trying to cause animosity between the noble Arabs and the great German nation. 11200

In his reply, Gross depicted Nazism as a kind of racist or at least anti-Semitic internationalism bound together by hatred of the Jews and, in this instance, also the British. Compared to Communism and liberal democracy, Nazism was certainly a form of particularism. Yet, as we have seen, Nazi officials claimed that the regime's racial hatred was limited to the Jews whereas nonJewish "Semites," that is, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Indians, and Muslims in general, were simply different but not necessarily inferior. Gross's statement reiterated the clarification of Nazi racial ideology that had taken place in Berlin in the months preceding the 1936 Olympics. Then and again in the midst of the war in North Africa, that reinterpretation of the meaning of Nazi racism was an essential precondition for alliances with non-Germans in Europe, as well as in Latin America, Japan, and the Middle East. All were supposed to be bound together by their common hatred of Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, and of the Jews who allegedly controlled the Allies. These arguments were a necessary precondition for the diffusion of anti-Semitism to these other parts of the world.

In fact, in wartime Germany, love affairs, sexual relations, and marriages between Arab men and German women within Nazi Germany aroused the hostile attention of the Office of Racial Politics. Its officials sought to prevent such bonds and if necessary to imprison or deport the "offending" Turkish or Arab man.201 Such episodes caused problems for German diplomats and soldiers trying to convince Arabs and Muslims that Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were their friends and allies. In May 1942, a writer in the journal Neues Volk (New People) of the Office of Racial Politics, replied to a father who sup posedly asked whether racial differences between Germans and Turks meant that they should not marry.

A marriage or similar connection between your daughter with a Turk is out of the question.A Near Eastern blood element [Bluteinschlag] predominates among the Turks, among whom, alongside Oriental and Western racial components, mongoloid racial elements also enter. The Near Eastern and Oriental races are alien [artfremde] races. The same is true of the mongoloid [Mongolide] races. Moreover, in such cases, even when such racial considerations are not present, marriages of German young women with foreigners are not desirable. If your daughter does not want to listen to you, she faces the danger of being placed in protective custody. We emphatically point out to you and to your daughter the serious consequences of this behavior, one that obviously does not possess the slightest feeling for the honor of the Volk [ nicht das geringste volkische Ehregefuhl besitzt] .202

Upon being informed of this text, Franz von Papen, the German ambassador to Turkey, informed the Foreign Ministry in Berlin that the publication of such a comment in a German magazine "has serious foreign policy considerations." It caused "irritation and insult" in Turkey and would aid "our AngloSaxon opponents" in their "propaganda against us." He asked the Office of Racial Politics not to publish such things in the future.203 On May 16, 1942, Franz Rademacher, director of the Office of Jewish Affairs in the Foreign Ministry, wrote to Gross that he "had no objection to the content of the information from a racial-political viewpoint.... The fact however that it appears now and uses the example of Turkey is, from a foreign policy standpoint, really clumsy" and would have "embarrassing and awkward foreign policy implications." It was a "political blunder" that should not happen again.204

Although the Office of Racial Politics generally kept its actions out of the press, Nazi policies contradicted the claims Gross made on Arabic radio. University officials in contact with Gross's office were determined to prevent "racially alien" students from Arab countries from continuing personal relationships with German women, if necessary by withdrawing permission to study at German universities.205 On July 24, Grobba agreed with Kilani that expelling Arab students during the war was out of the question. Deportation would have to be to a neutral country where the students "would fall into the hands of hostile intelligence services."206 Despite the fact that he had detailed knowledge about cases of Nazi disapproval of intimate relations between Germans with Arabs and Turks, Kilani did his best to convince his Arab and Mus lim listeners that the National Socialists were not the racists the Allies claimed they were.

On December 23, the Arab Nation broadcast the text of Haj Amin el-Hus- seini's speech on the occasion of the opening of the Islamic Institute in Berlin. In it, the Mufti made emphatically clear that his hatred of the Jews was deeply rooted in his understanding of Islam. The speech, repeated in fragments in other broadcasts and leaflets, became a canonical statement of the connection between National Socialism and Islam during the war. The key paragraph reads as follows:

Of those who hate the Moslems most, have declared their animosity from ancient times and those who still persist in it are the Jews. Every Moslem knows that Jewish animosity to the Arabs dates back to the dawn of Islam. Every Moslem knows how they opposed and hurt the Prophet as well as creating endless difficulties for him.... So that the Koran says: "You shall find that the most hostile people are the Jews." The Jews are the same whether during the era of the prophets or in succeeding eras. They never waver from their policy of intrigue and evil doing. They spread their venom in the Islamic countries for their ambitions and of late these ambitions have been clear in Palestine, the Holy Land, which they want to make a center for the extension of their domination. On the occasion of the North African campaign, their leader Weizmann stated that Algeria will be the bridge linking two Jewish centers, New York and Jerusalem .107

Husseini then denounced Zionism and its "evil intentions" toward the Muslims before returning to the Koranic roots of his hatred of the Jews.