Language:
English
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Central European History
Angaben zur Quelle:
42,4 (2009) 709-736
Keywords:
Ḥusaynī, Amīn,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
National socialism Philosophy
;
Nazi propaganda History 20th century
;
Antisemitism History 1933-1945
;
Antisemitism History 20th century
;
Anti-Jewish propaganda History 20th century
;
Anti-Jewish propaganda
;
Anti-Zionism History 20th century
Abstract:
During 1939-45 the Nazi regime made an intensive effort to appeal to Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa. It did so by presenting Germany as a champion of secular anti-imperialism, especially against Britain, but also by a selective appropriation of the tradition of Islam in ways that suggested their compatibility with the ideology of Nazism. In these activities, Nazi officials cooperated closely with pro-Nazi Arab exiles in Berlin. The latter helped the Germans to adapt general propaganda themes to the religious traditions of Islam and political realities of the Arab world. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism were a point of confluence of Nazi ideas and interests with those of radical Arab nationalists and Islamic extremists. Nazi radio broadcasts and printed materials used anti-Jewish imagery and ideas to persuade Arabs to support the Nazi cause, and at the same time called on them to kill the Jews and thus to extend the Nazi "Final Solution" to the Middle East and Africa. Based on summaries prepared by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo of wartime Axis broadcasts, as well as on German archival sources, traces the transformation of Nazi Arab-language propaganda. The cooperation between the Nazis and Arab extremists, both secular and religious, made for the adoption by the latter of some Nazi antisemitic ideas and to the radicalization of anti-Jewish themes that had existed previously in the Islamic tradition.
DOI:
10.1017/S000893890999104X
URL:
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