NAZI Racial Assessments: The Arabs


Figure 1.--The German scrip reads, Der Jude ist ein Bastard" (The Jewisa bastard). Despite the fact that the Arabs and many other Muslim people were considered 'untermensch' and NAZI racial targets, there was considerable Arab support for Hitler during World War II. Part of this was anti-British feeling, but anti-Semitism ws also a factor. It does not sem to have phased the Arabs that they were also a Semitic people and by definition a racial target. Ntice how the Arab portrit the NAZIs cjose for this poster is indestinguishable from Jewish images except for the headdress. Leading Arab figures like the Palestinian Grand Mufti and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Jawdat al-Aiyubi spent the War in Berlin making NAZI propaganda broadcasts and urging the NAZIs to kill more Jews. Even today Hitler is a popular figure in the arab world and 'Mein Kampf' apopular seller in book shops.

Here we are unsure about the specifics of NAZI racial doctrine. We know that the NAZIs defined Jews in racial terms. We also know that the NAZIs made other Semites, the Arabs, allies in World War II. I do not know at this time, the racial theory they must have developed explaining why Jews were dangerous and Arabs acceptable. We suspect that had the NAZI won the War that the Arabs would have been very surprised at what the New Order meant for them. Arab and Jewish ethnic backgrounds are very similar. Most Arabs and many Jews are of the same ethnic family--the Semites. Hebrew and Arabic are related Semitic languages. Many Arab Palestinians and Israeli Jews have common ethnic origins. Some Arab Palestinians are related to Isreli Jews because some Jews converted to Islam after the Arab conquest. In the same sence some ancient Canaanites (an Arab people) had earlier converted to Judaism. Jews and Arabs are thus closely related ethnically. Interestingly the persecution of the Jews is traditionally defined as anti-Semitism or policies targeting semetic peoples. This actually is a flawed term. Because of the various diasporas, the Jewish people were spread out throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. While Jewish communities were successful in maintaining their religious identity for three millenia, there was always some degreee of assimilation and inter-marriage with the lasrger populatuon in which they lived. Thus Jews are much less ethnically Semetic than Arabs. This mixing of course made NAZI anti-Semitism particularly non-sensical. While they attacked European Jews, NAZI propaganda appealed to Arab nationalism and the Arabs were much more ethnically pure Semites than the Jews. The varied ethnicity of Jews is one reason the NAZIs decreed laws requiring Jews to wear yellow stars. Many Jews had varied ethnivity and did not look like the NAZIs though Jews should look. The Arabs on the other hand did have the Semetic features the NAZIs so despised. I do not know if DNA studies have addressed this subject. Notice that while the NAZI anti-Jewish propaganda (films, book and newspaper illustrations, and posters) often had distored images of Jewish "racial" features. The Arab anti-Jewish propaganda does not feature these images because they are also Arab facial features.

Germans and Arabs

Germans and Jews have a long history. The same is not true with the Arabs. Almost no Arabs lived in Germany. The Germans before World war I did develop economic, commercial, and military relations with the Ottoman Empire which before the War included a substantial part of the Arab world. The Ottomans joined the Germans in World War I (October 1914). The Arabs in Saudi Arabia rose against the Ottomans who had German military advisers. But the Arabs in other Ottoman provinces did not rise against the Ottomans. Thus the British were not seen by many Arabs as linerators. The Ottomans were Muslims and the Sultan a religious leader. Thus being part of the Ottoman Empire did not seem like a foreign occupation in the way the British occupastion did. And thus German support for the Ottomans was not viewed as an action against Arabs. By the same token, there was mo negative attitude on the part of Germans toward the Arabs. In fact many Germans had positive attitudes toward the Arabs. German anti-Semitism seems to directed oinly at Jews and not Arabs. Here Karl May (1842-1912) may have been an influence. May only wrote adventure books for boys about the American West and created Indian characters like Winnetou and Old Shatterhand without ever having visited America. May also wrote books about noble Arabs like Kara Ben Nemsi and others. May was enormously popular in Germnany. May was none of Adolf Hitler's favorite authors. A Dutch reader writes, "I absorbed them all when I was a boy (in Dutch translations). I am sure that more than half of all European children read May's books."

NAZI Racial Evaluation of the Arabs

Here we are unsure about the specifics of NAZI racial doctrine. A great deal was published about race during the NAZI era. Only paet of it was picked up on by Goebbels propaganda operation. It was obviously inpolitic to make an issue of the race of their Japanese ally. We know that the NAZIs defined Jews in racial terms as Semites. They were one of many peoples classified as Untermenchem (subhuman). Arabs of course are also Semites. NAZI racist science claimed that the Jews had genitically carried diseases. One wonders why the Arabs did not carry these diseases. Of course the NAZIracist science was a pseudo science so they could invent an Arab people free of such contamination. We do not know at this time, the racial theory the NAZIs may have developed explaining why Jews were dangerous and Arabs acceptable. We suspect that had the NAZI won the War that the Arabs would have been very surprised at what the New Order meant for them.

Political Propaganda

The NAZIs made other Semites, the Arabs, allies in World War II. The NAZIs were quite willing to make exceptions to their racial mythology when they found it convenient. Thus the Croats were made "honorary: Aryans. The Slovaks who were more accomodating than the Czechs were treated less harshly. And of course the NAZIs signed an alliance with the Japanese. NAZI propagand also sought to exploit the anti-British and French feeling of the Arabs as a result of colonial rule after World War I. NAZI propaganda was essentially an attack on colonialism, meaning the British and French. (Ignored were the Italian colonies.) NAZI propaganda promised the Arabs liberation" from the French and British. Of course the NAZI while anti-British and French were hardly opposed to colonialism. It happened that as a result of World War I that they had no colonies in the 1930s. The whole idea of World War II, however, was to create a vast empire for NAZI Germany. The Arabs like most people reacted to their immediate circumstances and thus even Arab leaders like the Grand Mufti consumed with hatred toward the British and Jews had no real understanding of what NAZI rule would have meant for a Semetic people.

Axis Complication

The NAZIs did not fully capitalize on the opportunity achieved by the effectiveness of their propasganda. There were two reasons for this. First, The real opportunities to move into the Middle East came after the Balkan Campaign (April 1941). And at this time Hitler's focus was primarily on Barbaeossa, the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. Some advisers like Admiral Raeder attempted to interest Hitler in a Mediterranean strategu\y, but Hitler would have none of it. His focus as in Mein Kampf was on the East. As a result of the costly seizure of Crete, he was uninterested in any new adventures on the perifery of the NAZI empire. He wanted no further distractions from Barbarossa. Thus when the Arab coup occurred in Iraq, German assistance was minimal. Second, Hitler had agreed to give his Axis ally Mussolini precedemce in the Middle East.

Arab and Jewish Semetic Ethnicity

Arab and Jewish ethnic backgrounds are very similar. Most Arabs and many Jews are of the same ethnic family--the Semites. Hebrew and Arabic are related Semitic languages. Many Arab Palestinians and Israeli Jews have common ethnic origins. Some Arab Palestinians are related to Isreli Jews because some Jews converted to Islam after the Arab conquest. In the same sence some ancient Canaanites (an Arab people) had earlier converted to Judaism. Jews and Arabs are thus closely related ethnically.

European Jewish Ethnicity

Interestingly the persecution of the Jews is traditionally defined as anti-Semitism or policies targeting semetic peoples. This actually is a flawed term. Because of the various diasporas, the Jewish people were spread out throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. While Jewish communities were successful in maintaining their religious identity for three millenia, there was always some degreee of assimilation and inter-marriage with the lasrger populatuon in which they lived. Thus Jews are much less ethnically Semetic than Arabs. This mixing of course made NAZI anti-Semitism particularly non-sensical. While they attacked European Jews, NAZI propaganda appealed to Arab nationalism and the Arabs were much more ethnically pure Semites than the Jews. It was the Semetic ethnicity by which the NAZIs defined the Jews and not the European ethnic component. Thus by all logic it would be the Arabs that would be more degenerate than the Jews. But of course NAZI racism was never about logic or science.

Facial Features

The varied ethnicity of Jews is one reason the NAZIs decreed laws requiring Jews to wear yellow stars. Many Jews had varied ethnicity and did not look like the NAZIs though Jews should look. The Arabs on the other hand did have the Semetic features the NAZIs so despised. Notice that while the NAZI anti-Jewish propaganda (films, book and newspaper illustrations, and posters) often had distored images of Jewish "racial" features. The Arab anti-Jewish propaganda does not feature these images because they are also Arab facial features.

DNA Studies

I do not know if DNA studies have addressed this subject. The Human Genome Project has determined that all human beings are, genomically-speaking, almost “identical twins”. This essentially means that the notion of “race” that the NAZIs used is scientifically inaccurate and an obsolete concept. There have been DNA studies conducted to assess demographic shifts and migration in pre-historic times. Such studies could assess the level of affinity between Jews and Arabs. There are, however, politucal concerns associated with such studies and I am unsure if they have been carried out.






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Created: 11:48 PM 11/1/2005
Last updated: 12:33 AM 7/26/2009