We thought the end was near, says Farhud survivor

“The Farhud needs to be taught in schools and mentioned in textbooks and history books. I call on the Holocaust Commission announced by David Cameron earlier this year to incorporate the Farhud in its Holocaust memorial.

“The event shook the ancient Jewish community of Iraq to its foundations. Within ten years, it was gone.”

Daniel Khazoom remembers it well.

“They actually started planning for the final solution of the Jewish problem in Iraq,” said Professor Khazoom, who was eight years old when the Farhud hit.

Speaking to Jimena, a group that records testimony of Jews from Arab countries, he recalled walking by the Tigris river with his father and brother.

“I heard a shot. I did not know what it was. We desperately wanted to believe that it was nothing. I held my father’s hand, tightly. And I looked at my brother and he looked very worried. But he continued walking, and then there were the shots of a machine gun. We knew something was wrong. We hurried back to our home. And that night, it was a big night for us.

“We heard the shots. We heard the voice of the mob getting close. I never felt this helpless. Then the noise of the crowd grew closer. By the afternoon, they were one block away from us…

“It looked like the end was near.”

Then, a battalion loyal to king stopped the siege.

He continued: “It took days for us to come out of our homes. No one dared to get out. It took a while to learn about the devastation they inflicted on the Jewish community.”

Richard Verber, Board of Deputies senior vice-president, said: “Today is the anniversary of a pogrom in Baghdad that brought to an end more than two thousand years of peaceful co-existence.

"This painful episode in the history of Jews from Arab lands must not be forgotten. The Board will continue to work to increase awareness of the history of Mizrahi Jews and last December held an event at the Jewish Museum in association with Harif on this very issue.”