Saturday, July 13, 2013

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The Roots of Antisemitism in the Middle East

“When I witnessed the events in Imbaba, I realized [the Jews were behind them],” wrote journalist Safaa Saleh on May 13, 2011 in the Egyptian government newspaper Al-Gumhouriyya following clashes between Copts and Muslims in Cairo’s Imbaba district that had claimed twelve lives. “There is no disaster in the world that was not caused by the Jews”, declared Saleh, calling in evidence a star witness: “Hitler said, ‘I could have exterminated all of the Jews, but I left some of them [alive] so that the world would know why I exterminated them"

http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/the-roots-of-antisemitism-in-the-middle-east-new-debates

Monday, July 8, 2013

Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust

Based on research in about fifty archives worldwide, Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust analyzes the minority politics of the Turkish republic and the country's ambivalent policies regarding Jewish refugees and Turkish Jews living abroad. Although Turkey stayed neutral during World War II, the country's policies proved crucial not only for the 75,000 Jews who lived in Turkey, but also to the 25,000 Turkish Jews living throughout Europe and the tens of thousands of Jews who desperately sought refuge in Turkey or transit to refuge elsewhere. Contrary to the official Turkish self-portrayal, this comprehensive study by Corry Guttstadt shows that Turkey was far from welcoming toward the Jews during the Holocaust era.