In 1941 a Nazi-inspired pogrom broke out in Baghdad, Iraq. The Farhud (Arabic for “violent dispossession”) massacre targeted Iraqi Jews who had been in the country since the time of the Babylonian empire. Some six hundred Jews were massacred by Iraqi Muslims carrying knives, swords, and guns. A red hand (hamsa) sign was painted on Jewish homes to direct the crowds there. As one survivor told the BBC seven decades later, the crowd shouted “Allah” and “Cutal al yehud” (“Slaughter the Jews”). Hiding in a palm tree, the young Jewish boy watched the crowd set upon the house of his mother’s best
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