Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (16 page)

The Jews' path is always crooked. Now, son of the Arabs, you are in its path. Egyptians, Syrians, and Iraqis! Now they are lying to you about Nazi race hatred and anti-Semitism. They want to capture you for their front against the enemies of the Jews. They want to separate you from those who are also fighting in your interest against the holy alliance of the English and the Bolsheviks. "Anti-Semitism," yes, it's true that this expression comes from Germany. But it comes from a time in which the Jews hid behind their "Semitic" language and had not yet been clearly recognized as the general enemy of the peoples. How stupid it is to claim that Germany today directs this concept [anti-Semitism] against the Arabs. As every child in the world knows, Jews and Arabs have no cultural traditions in common. Indeed, by instinct and history, they are separate from one another at their very core!

The German racial idea, which the Jews are trying to turn upside down, strives to advance the racially superior, that is, the genuine and true component of a people. This does not only apply to the Germans. It recognizes that every people is God given, except for the corrupt, parasitic Jewish people. It is precisely those volkisch values which lead the Arab peoples to such heights that the Germans know how to appreciate, as is demonstrated by the scholarly writings of the young German generation who feel drawn to the Arabs....

... When the young people of Egypt, Syria, or Iraq have had the opportunity to spend time in Germany as students, business people, engineers, and civil servants, they found a welcome which demolished the Jewish lie about "racism." Ah, if only all of you could be guests in this Germany!

One day, Arab youth, you will face the question of your nation's essence [Volkstums] just as we have. It is up to you to decide if, in light of your national pride, you want to remain free from alien blood.... In any case, Germany will not adopt any prejudices toward you as a result of Jewish lies! Rather, Germany takes part in your struggle against the English and the Jews with warm sympathy and, God willing, soon with more than that.82

Another, untitled, text from von Neurath and Winkler of November 1941 integrated anti-Communism with appeals to Islam. It identified Germany as the only power on earth that could save humanity from the Bolshevik threat.

The flag of the Muslims is green. The prophet's flag is green. It has been so since the times of the foundation of the "surrender" (Islam) and it should remain so until the most recent judgment brings an end of days. However, in the meantime, false prophets have emerged which trample on the green flag with their feet. They have raised a red flag on the mast of their presumptuousness. This is the flag of murder and blood, the flag of hell, sponsored by the "godless ones" as they call themselves. In Russia they have forced millions of men under their devilish yoke. Indeed, they wanted to conquer further domination in the world for the red flag with hammer and sickle.

He who believes in God and prays will merit death.

He who owns a field will have it taken away.

He who owns a donkey will have it taken from his stall.

A but of straw and clay will be too much for its owner to allow him to keep it.

The goods of a businessman will now belong to the collective.

Whoever owns a store will see all his profits go to the commune.

The state civil servant cannot be a content official. He will be treated like a machine and his soul will be broken on the gears of a soulless apparatus.

You outside in the desert, sons of Arabs, he will also take from you your last camel, your home and your tent.

None of the commandments will apply any longer. Children raised by their parents will not be loyal to them any longer. Rather the sons will betray the fathers.

The young will be free to go their own way, far from the morals of the country and disloyal to the traditions of old.

There will be no more home life, no family, no longer orderly tribes. They promise instead mammoth cities with suffering the likes of which have not yet existed. In these cities you should really lose your God! 83

The text stated further that "the prophet of Bolshevism is England!"

Was it not England who brought the Russians to Iran, a peaceful Muslim country that is friends to all Arabs? Did not English power force Egypt to open diplomatic relations with the USSR, something that none of you thought or desired? The first deeds of these "prophets" are to announce their "God." More will follow only too quickly!

... As far as you look, you will find only one power which resists the devil on this earth. It is Italy's ally, Germany! With heroic courage and powerful force it has already gone into the hell of the monster, seized it and taken its measure.... Only Germany can save the world and it will also save you and your religion from subjugation under the threat of the red flag.84

The leaflet urged Arabs to think hard about who "your true friends are" and to do their duty for family, people, religion, and tradition. It concluded by quoting from the Koran: "Do not fear, for He [Allah] knows what you do not know! For in addition He declares that victory is near. 1185

The third of the Neurath-Winkler texts dealt with "The future of the Egyptian economy." It applied National Socialist "anticapitalism" to local circumstances. Why, the authors asked, in view of their centuries-old civilization and agriculture, were the Egyptian people impoverished? The answer: "Money, capital, and speculation dominate the world rather than the law of labor and of blood." Unnamed representatives of "high finance" undermined economic attempts to satisfy the welfare of the community. They sought "profit for a small clique of international beneficiaries" more preoccupied with stock exchanges than the production of cotton for its own sake. Now "the leader of the new Europe" respected the needs of the countries that grow, for example, cotton, wheat, and olive oil. In contrast to financial manipulations by "Jewish agents," this new (Nazi-dominated) economy regulated production and supply for years in advance. In Germany, "the power of financial speculation has been broken. Labor and performance are again the true sources of wealth." As a free country, Egypt needed to decide "if it wants to remain caught in the chains of AngloJewish capitalism" or if it would rather have an economy that restored order and human bonds. Didn't the Egyptians want the "fruits of your labor to benefit" them rather than foreigners? "Since the time of the Pharoahs, it was foreigners, Greeks, Romans, Turks, and the English who took the wealth of your country and of its inhabitants. But now, Egyptians, the day will come where you will live for yourselves and your land will be fruitful for you!"86 The proposed leaflet adapted the themes of right-wing and nationalist "German anticapitalism" to the Egyptian context.

American officials, aware of Nazi propaganda efforts, began to fashion a response. On November 14,1942, the OWI Overseas Operations Branch in Washington issued a Weekly Propaganda Directive regarding Nazi propaganda in the Middle East. Among other things, it ordered that Voice of America programs "must speak to the people of Palestine with greater tact and caution than elsewhere in the Middle East." The directive reflected a view among OWI officials that successful appeals to Arabs precluded support for Zionism. The directive's key sections read as follows:

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.87

In view of the importance placed on Koranic quotations in Nazi propaganda, it was notable that the OWI directive did not suggest challenging the interpretation offered in Nazi broadcasts. One OWI recommendation was to contrast "the terrible consequences of German rule upon her own allies and in the occupied countries with accounts of the benefits to be reaped by all people when victory is ours." American broadcasts, the directive continued, should "underscore the certainty of our victory. Here is our opportunity to show strength, a quality admired above all others by the Moslem world." Broadcasts should also stress American "philanthropic and educational enterprises in the past, which have benefitted Jews, Christians and Moslems alike," and emphasize that "rewards are to be expected as the peoples of Palestine" became more familiar with American technological accomplishments and political ideals of "freedom of all peoples." Americans understood the common "love of Moslems, Jews and Christians for the Holy City of Jerusalem." Referring to "a common tradition of religious toleration" among Muslims and Americans would work in the Americans' favor. Indeed, the United States could build its "best propaganda upon this common heritage."88

The OWI's "greater tact and caution" and its refusal to mention the subject of Zionism is an example of what the historian Shlomo Aronson has called the traps into which Jews fell during the war.89 Rather than directly confront Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda, the OWI memo advocated an American political warfare that distanced itself from Zionism. The author(s) of the memo assumed that Nazism's anti-Zionist propaganda had struck a responsive chord among "the Arab peoples." Hence American denunciations of Nazi persecution and extermination of the Jews in Europe as well as American support for "Zionist aspirations" could "not be mentioned" as this would "jeopardize our strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean." Allied propaganda should try to convince the Arabs that the Germans had a broad, not narrow, understanding of the meaning of "anti-Semitism," that is, that it was a form of racism directed against Arabs, Persians, and Muslims as well as against the Jews. Although the OWI officials referred to a "common culture of religious toleration" in "Moslem and American culture;" they did not advocate a direct confrontation with the antiSemitic propaganda coming from Berlin.

Judging from a report on Axis propaganda in the Muslim world published in December 1941, it is clear that military intelligence officials in Washington had acquired a basic understanding of the subject. The Arabs were united in their desire "to free their world from the domination of French and British masters. Arabs in Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Iraq are apparently blinded to Italian imperialism in Libya and Ethiopia and to German domination of Europe by their anxiety to get rid of British control." This blindness arose both from a desire to "play all European powers off against each other" and "from a naivete which assumes that anyone who is against Britain is automatically a friend of the Moslems. They fail to realize that, in case of a British defeat, there would be a substitution of Axis for British imperialism." "Dislike and mistrust of Britain" was strong "throughout the Arab world, as well as in Iran and India," for two reasons. "One is British support of the Jews in Palestine and of other minorities for the apparent purpose of dividing and ruling the Arab states; the other is the reluctance of Britain to grant independence to mandated territories." Arab mistrust of Britain in view of promises "broken in the past" made it "easy for Axis propaganda to stir up Arab feeling."90

The report addressed the way German Arabic radio broadcasts were playing on anti-imperial sentiments in the Arab world. "The Zeesen radio has lately been giving unusual attention to the exile and persecution of Arab leaders by Britain and this cannot help but have considerable effect upon the Arabs." The report cited two sources for the growth of anti-American sentiment in the Arab world. First there was "the expression by American public officials of sympathy with political Zionism." Such expressions led Arabs, especially in Palestine and Syria, "to suspect the United States of siding with the Jews against the Arabs in Palestine." Second, the "increasingly close alliance [of the United States] with Britain has led the Arabs to believe that we support Britain's policies in the Arab world." The Indians as well had become critical of the United States due to the exclusion of Indian independence from the clauses of the Atlantic Charter. These factors were "being fully exploited by the Zeesen radio broadcasts to the Near East and India as evidence of the hypocritical attitude of the United States in preaching independence and self-determination for minorities, on the one hand, while supporting British imperialism, on the other."91

The discussion of "anti-Jewish feeling" in the report expressed American ambiguities about the issue. Acknowledging that anti-Semitism (that is, hostility to Jews) has had "an important effect on the Arabs" in Syria and Saudi Arabia, the author(s) confidently asserted that there could be "no doubt that the situation created by the Zionist program in Palestine has caused the position of Jews to deteriorate throughout the Arab world." In North Africa, however, antiJewish feeling was distinct from the Palestinian problem. "Ever since the Arab invasion [of North Africa], the Jews have been a despised element of the population, and this antipathy has been increased since the nineteenth century by the undoubted part which the Jews have played in facilitating foreign control of both French and Spanish Morocco." The passage, by implying that anti-Semitic sentiment had some basis in the actions of the Jews themselves may have belied the existence of anti-Semitism among some American military intelligence of- ficials.92 Yet the report also noted that "Zeesen has recently been reading antiJewish passages from the Koran, emphasizing that the Jews are `enemies of Islam."' While Axis propaganda could not utilize anti-French sentiment "as long as German-controlled Vichy retains holdings in the Arab East," Axis anti-Bolshevism struck a chord among the educated and propertied classes, convincing Arabs that the Germans were "engaged in saving capitalist civilization from the menace of Bolshevism," and that a Nazi regime would "not seriously damage their position, whereas a Bolshevik regime would exterminate them and the system under which they are accustomed to live." Axis propaganda, according to the report, depicted the British as enemies of Islam. It nourished anti-Chris tian bias, nationalist xenophobia, and concern for Muslim minorities in Russia. Yet the author(s) thought it "doubtful whether such ridiculous appeals to presumed Moslem ignorance are going to help the Axis cause."93