For a dwindling number of Iraqi Jews, the holiday of Shavuot brings back each year the traumatic memory of one of the worst racial attacks in modern history. Over two days in 1941 around 800 Jews were murdered in their homes in Baghdad by a huge mob of Muslim rioters as the British army, forbidden from entering the city, looked on from the outskirts.
June 1 and 2 this year mark the 70th anniversary of what became known as the Farhud ("violent dispossession" in Arabic). As significant as Kristallnacht, the pogrom sounded the death-knell for the oldest community in the diaspora and was a clear demonstration of the hatred exported to the Middle East by Hitler. The Farhud brought to an end 2,600 years of Jewish settlement, yet little has been written about it...
See the account of these events by Sarah Ehrlich in the Jewish Chronicle. You can also listen to a 10-minute report by her on the BBC World Service website - see 'The Massacre of Baghdad's Jews'. Note that this happened in 1941, before the creation of the state of Israel. Note also that Sarah refers to stories of Muslims who, in the midst of the pogrom, 'act[ed] heroically to save their Jewish neighbours'.