Citizenship & scapegoating · Iraq · 1921–1941

Nationalist rhetoric and Nazi influence narrowed a promising place in the new kingdom.

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1921–1941

Citizenship & scapegoating · Citizens are described as a foreign threat

Nationalist rhetoric and Nazi influence narrowed a promising place in the new kingdom.

A place in the kingdom

The Iraqi kingdom established in 1921 included Jews as citizens. Jewish residents participated in commerce, professions and public life. Their involvement belonged to a wider Iraqi society, and their political views differed. Citizenship offered a basis for belonging that later persecutors tried to override.

Propaganda connects local fears to a global enemy

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Nazi propaganda and relationships with Iraqi nationalist actors helped spread anti-Jewish claims. Those imported messages interacted with local politics and regional tensions. Baghdad’s history cannot be explained by copying a European sequence without examining who adopted the claims and why.

The accusation ignores citizenship

Antisemitic rhetoric portrayed Jews as agents of hostile outside interests. That collective story made established citizens appear foreign despite their local roots. It replaced evidence about individuals with an imagined shared allegiance, preparing a justification for exclusion when political conditions deteriorated.