What Happened to Iraq's Jews? | Explained

The “Farhud,” Arabic for pogrom or violent dispossession, gripped Iraq’s 2,600 year-old Jewish community during WW2. Inspired and encouraged by the Nazi regime, Iraqis committed acts of horrific violence for two days against Baghdad’s Jews as British forces watched on.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:37 The Holocaust came to Iraq
01:31 Jewish history in Iraq
02:41 British appointment of King Faisal
03:52 Jewish life under King Faisal
04:48 Jews scapegoated for British theft of Iraqi oil
06:01 Arab immigrants from Palestine spread antisemitism
06:44 Haj Amin Al-Husseini and Hitler
06:56 Iraqis adopt antisemitic Nazi ideology
08:28 Britain returns to Iraq
09:25 The Farhud (pogrom, violent dispossession)
10:05 What did Iraqi Jews do for the rest of WW2?
10:29 Post-WW2 riots, pogroms, extortion, confiscation of property, and boycotts
11:27 Hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrate from Iraq penniless
12:12 Jewish emigration devastates Iraqi economy
12:34 Iraqi Jewish community and Israel

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Let’s connect:
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Image and footage credits:
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Yad Ben-Zvi
© IWM 1082-02b, © IWM 66, © IWM 1131a, © IWM NAT 240, © IWM CVN 232, IWM
World Economic Forum
Israeli Government Press Office: Teddy Brauner, Hans Pinn
IDF Spokesperson
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Executive Producer:
— Barry Skolnick
Co-Executive Producer:
— Shmuel Katz
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Translation credits:

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#ww2 #iraq #britain

[zb]

The Ethiopians used to say that when the Jews leave it’s time to leave.

[HistoryfortheAges]

This is the story of my family! My parents lost everything. They had to live in tents. I made a video on this topic one year ago. What happened to the Jews in the Arab world.

[nicbahtin]

Barely any Christians left too. Makes you forget middle east is where Christianity was born.

[loganl]

I converted almost 4 years ago, and learning Jewish history still breaks my heart so frequently. I love learning, but my heart cries so often for all the people who should have been here but aren't

[rachelg]

This is the story of my grandparents. Thank you for covering the rich history of the Iraqi Jews.

[charlie_says]

This is really fascinating. I'm jewish and have quite a few jewish friends whose families came from Iraq and also Iran. Their stories are so moving and I wish everyone could hear them. I'm thinking of writing a book about them. There's so much ignorance when it comes to jewish history and our culture, and it's such a complex and richly multifaceted subject. Unpacked always create such informative videos, thank you. Am y'Israel chai ❤

[ruchi]

Thank you for teaching me the story of my family. Our ancestors were traumatised and often didn’t and don’t want to discuss their past. This is so necessary

[MaximillianPushker]

Never ask: 
A woman her age
A man his salary
And the Arab countries what they did to their Jewish populations after 1948 💀

[esther_]

Good piece of narration. 👍 This makes me understand about the history timeline of the Jewish community in Singapore in relationship with the Jews' early exile to Iraq. The first Jews of Baghdadi origin migrated to Singapore in 1819.

[megaboi]

Beautiful Video. I personally come from the Mualem family, a well known and well respected one from Baghdad. My great grandfather was a very successful businessman, he owned many businesses over his life and was extremely rich, almost as much as the royalty. However, when push came to shove, he lost everything. When they left for Israel, they had nothing but themselves. My great grandmother (great grandfather's wife) was 6 months pregnant with my grandmother when they left and when my grandmother was born she had to sleep on my great grandmother's stomach for as long as they had to be in the maaborot. During the farhud, my family hid in the basement of their home for 2 days. These lessons we must never forget.

[anonymous-llqm]

As an iraqi jew, thank you for this video! My grandmother was like a second mother to me and passed away when i was pretty young. We didn't really have the chance to talk about her terrible past. My family filled me in as I grew older, but I wish I could hear it from her.

[eytan]

I am Jewish Iraqi
My grandfather’s family left to Israel the moment they could

[lofm]

The Iraqi Jews are refugees living in Israel. Is there an UN agency for them too?

[christophercaraggayan]

Israel lives!
The Jewish people lives!

[Butterfly-ADHD]

Thank you for teaching history that many of us were never taught. Horribly it often continues to happen.

[Kattan]

I'm Iraqi Ex Muslim & I feel so sorry what the Iraqi Government did to Iraqi Jews.

[NARKISDUDE]

during a pogrom in Baghdad, my great grandfather and his family were 'sheltered' by their neighbor. told them to stay inside while he has to go out.
turns out, that neighbor was pillaging from their home! shortly later he became violent and it became a fight to the death.
luckily.. my great grandfather prevailed

[ZionOrange]

We have been persecuted, murdered, ethnically cleansed from everywhere.

I am a Jew and thatbis a mantra, never ashamed, never a victim, never again.

[b.b.heilbrun]

Really professional presentation...a pleasure to watch.😊

[stefanviljoen]

Seems in IRAQ was actuall apartheid, not like the apartheid that people claim to exist in palestine