Nazi Germany and the Arab world

318 Pages·2014·1.5 MB·English

by  Nicosia

Nazi Germany and the Arab World
This book considers the evolving strategic interests and foreign policy
intent of the Third Reich toward the Arabic-speaking world, from
Hitler’sassumptionofpowerinJanuary1933to1944,ayearfollowing
thefinalAxisdefeatinandexpulsionfromNorthAfricainMay1943.
Itdoessowithinthecontextoftwocentral,interconnectedissuesinthe
largerhistoryofNationalSocialismandtheThirdReich,namelyNazi
geopoliticalinterestsandambitionsandtheregime’sracialideologyand
policy. This book defines the relatively limited geopolitical interests of
NaziGermanyintheMiddleEastandNorthAfricawithinthecontext
ofitsrelationshipswiththeotherEuropeangreatpowersanditspolicies
withregardtotheArabsandJewswholivedinthoseareas.
francis r. nicosia is Professor of History and the Raul Hilberg
Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of
Vermont. He is the author of Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi
Germany (Cambridge, 2008); the coeditor of Jewish Life in Nazi
Germany: Dilemmas and Responses (2010); and the coauthor of The
ColumbiaGuidetotheHolocaust(2000).NicosiawasaRevsonFellow
at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust
MemorialMuseumfrom2000to2001andaSeniorFulbrightResearch
Scholar in Berlin from 1992 to 1993 and from 2006 to 2007.
He received the Carnegie Foundation’s Vermont Professor of the
Year award in 2000 and the Holocaust Educational Foundation’s
DistinguishedAchievementAwardin2014.

Nazi Germany and the Arab World
FRANCIS R. NICOSIA
UniversityofVermont
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Nicosia,FrancisR.,1944–
NaziGermanyandtheArabworld/FrancisR.Nicosia.
pages cm
isbn978-1-107-06712-7(Hardback)
1. Arabcountries–Foreignrelations–Germany. 2. Germany–Foreignrelations–Arab
countries. 3. NationalsocialismandIslam. I. Title.
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For Joseph and Patrick
Die mohammedanisch-arabische Kulturperiode ist das Verbindungsglied zwischen der
untergegangenengriechisch-römischenundderaltenKulturüberhauptundderseitdem
Renaissancezeitalter aufgeblühten europäischen Kultur. Die letztere hätte ohne dieses
BindegliedschwerlichsobaldihreheutigeHöheerreicht.
(TheeraofIslamic-ArabculturerepresentsthelinkbetweenthefallenGreek-Roman
and generally the culture of antiquity, and the European culture that has blossomed
sincetheperiodoftheRenaissance.Withoutthislink,thelatterwouldnothaveeasily
reacheditshighpositionoftoday.)
August Bebel, Die Mohammedanisch-Arabische Kulturperiode, Herausgegeben und
eingeleitetvonWolfgangG.Schwanitz(Berlin:EditionOst,1999),169.
Als völkischer Mann, der den Wert des Menschentums nach rassischen Grundlagen
abschätzt, darf ich schon aus der Erkenntnis der rassischen Minderwertigkeit dieser
sogennanten “unterdrückten Nationen” nicht das Schicksal des eigenen Volkes mit
demihrenverketten.
(As a folkish man who estimates the value of humanity on racial bases, I may not,
simply because of my knowledge of their racial inferiority, link my own people’s fate
withthatoftheseso-called“oppressednations.”)
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Jubiläumsausgabe anläßlich der Vollendung des 50.
Lebensjahres des Führers (München: Zentralverlag der NSDAP/Frz. Eher Nachf.,
1939),655.
UnsereSenderwiegelndieAraberauf.JetztwollenwirmalOberstLawrencespielen.
(OurradiostationsareincitingtheArabs.NowwewanttoplayColonelLawrence.)
Joseph Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Elke Fröhlich Hrsg., Teil I,
Bd.9,BearbeitetvonHartmutMehringer(Berlin:K.G.SauerVerlag,1995),252.
Contents
Listof Illustrations page ix
Abbreviations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 Continuity and Departure: Imperial and Weimar Germany 18
ImperialGermanyandtheFirstWorldWar 18
TheWeimarYears 28
2 Hitler,Race,and the World Beyond Europe 46
RaceandtheEuropeanGreatPowers 46
Raceand“ColonialPeoples” 54
3 Germanyand theArab World, 1933–1937 62
Hitler’s“Englandpolitik” 62
ArabOvertures,NaziResponses 70
TheArabRevoltandGermanArms 79
AJewishState 89
4 The Coming ofWar, 1938–1939 101
ContinuityandDepartureinHitler’s“Englandpolitik” 101
Germany,Italy,andtheMiddleEast 116
ArmsExports 127
5 From the Peripheryto the Center, 1940–1941 135
FromthePeriphery 135
TotheCenter 154
6 The Axisand Arab Independence, 1941–1942 180
ArabLeadersinWartimeBerlin 180
TheElusiveAxisDeclaration 188
vii
viii Contents
AnticipationofVictory:Fall1942 204
TheMuftiandNorthAfrica 216
7 Collapse and Irrelevance, 1943–1944 222
NorthAfrica,Continuity,andCollapse 222
TheJewishQuestion,theMiddleEast,andPalestine 239
Postscript:Handschar 257
Conclusions 265
Bibliography 281
Index 293