Goebels Sent 6,000 Radio Broadcasts To The Arab World During WWII

In his new book, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World Jeffrey Nerf reveals that between 1939 and 1945--6,000 transmissions were produced under Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels and sent around the Arab world.

Some examples:

• "Your only hope for rescue is the destruction of the Jews before they destroy you!" Hitler said in a 1942 message, one of thousands broadcast across the Middle East in an attempt to woo the Arab world.
  
• In a broadcast aimed at provoking an anti-Semitic uprising in Egypt, he said: "A large number of Jews who live in Egypt, along with Poles, Greeks, Armenians and Frenchmen, have guns and ammunition.
  
• "Some Jews in Cairo have even asked the British authorities to set up machine guns on the roofs of their houses," he claimed.

Though the Nazi propaganda inflamed an already volatile situation, Nerf makes clear that the Nazis did not start the problem of Islamist anti-Semitism:

"The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians would have been over long ago were it not for the uncompromising, religiously inspired hatred of the Jews that was articulated and given assistance by Nazi propagandists and continued after the war by Islamists of various sorts," said Jeffrey Herf, a history professor at the University of Maryland.

In his new book, "Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World", Mr Herf argues that Nazi propagandists offered a message that neatly dovetailed with underlying prejudice.

"Islamic fundamentalism, like European totalitarianism in the 20th century, was and is a mixture of very old and very modern elements.

"It is also a product of a mixture of some indigenous currents in the history of Islam with the hatred of democracy, liberalism and the Jews that were so central to National Socialism.

Historically, prior to rise of Hitler, Islamists were perfectly capable of making false accusations against Jews in order to incite riots--one example being the Hebron massacre of 1929.

Andrew Bostom's The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts To Solemn History is a resource book full recorded incidents throughout of such incitement of Muslims against Jews throughout Islamic history.

Nerf's discovery is helpful in demonstrating the kindred spirit that existed between Islamists and the Nazis during that time.

Technorati Tag: Goebbels and Nazis and Islamists.