| Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World Subjects: World War 1939–1945 -- Propaganda -- Arab countries; Nazi propaganda -- Arab countries -- History -- 20th century; Antisemitism -- Arab countries -- History -- 20th century; Holocaust Jewish (1939–1945); Germany -- Politics and government -- 1933–1945; This groundbreaking history connects Nazi Germany's Arabic-language propaganda during World War II to anti-Semitism in the Middle East in the decades since. Herf explores the intellectual, political, and cultural context in which German and European radical anti-Semitism was found to resonate with similar views rooted in a selective appropriation of the traditions of Islam. Pro-Nazi Arab exiles in wartime Berlin, including Haj el-Husseini and Rashid el-Kilani, collaborated with the Nazis in constructing their Middle East propaganda campaign. By integrating the political and military history of the war in the Middle East with the intellectual and cultural dimensions of the propagandistic diffusion of Nazi ideology, Herf offers the most thorough examination to date of this important chapter in the history of World War II. Importantly, he also shows how the anti-Semitism promoted by the Nazi propaganda effort contributed to the anti-Semitism exhibited by adherents of radical forms of Islam in the Middle East today. Jeffrey Herf is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Maryland in College Park. |