this is deja vu news live from berlin up next we have memories of baghdad's once vibrant jewish community that's right after the break i'm brian thomas for the entire news team thanks so much for being with us. for. europe a big idea. but what's become of it. will it look like tomorrow. camping for a better future isn't enough europe requires our culture sufficient. here's the elections 2019 may 26th on d w.

it's 2 in the morning and when chicago is getting ready to go to iraq. he's a jewish north london with a point to prove. who is going to even believe that there were jews in iraq. i can no longer carry on living as if the thing has happened and tell my son that he was born in finchley and this was where his us a story started. with both the possible of iraq and i will not let go.

edwin wants to buy a house north of baghdad. it's so that he can say the iraqi jews still have a stake in their home. because the dollar is a move like this is being taken as long as our house is being bought it was over iraq. we are still there. and that gives me the sense of belonging. for decades baghdad has meant violence. and the last place most people would want to call home especially the jews. but it wasn't always soon. diamond got no final and still i think i'm a lucky guy i got

a son and gamble of mine. i 1st came across the jews of baghdad when i was asked to catalog an archive. it belonged to the family of david dunn goal. when david's father was born there were 140000 jews in baghdad. they made up nearly half the city. few people in baghdad now remember them. through the houses and old synagogues are everywhere. edwin has arrived in baghdad looking for his roots. i feel. i haven't finished with this place. i always any thought was rape. there's a unfinished business here. i do. because when i go.

on the road are you kidding are you crazy. i feel. bad for our. edwin was he just being flowery. iraqi jews are the ones unsung. the ones who were captured and taken slaves. the ones who sang by the waters of babylon there we sat down and wept when we remembered zion. they stayed and wrote a great book of jewish lore the babylonian talmud. they were below the muslims in society but they ran their own a says as babylon became mesopotamia and as mesopotamia became iraq. back in london

i went to meet david goes on this. they were born on the banks of the tigris when iraq was ruled by the british. now in an dorinda in flats one above the other. this is my father the chief of iraq. it was hanging i was sitting here only in baghdad to show that life was good. this. in the. face. his speech was that. we don't have religions it's all iraqis jews and christians only you know it was a good time it was very it was better than. this paradise was created by the british who took but 1970.

this little boy being pulled along in it to a british time. constant david. on his father's farm near the town of. i want you and you do with the world. by far that have been the relation with their . i mean diverted you. to believe you they were like a brother but i say like a brother like a brother i mean there they come to all hole we were to the whole we were just like part of one house and my father. we were speaking to dish. there were the rule of. if you are in with the british the levee can be that the north will iraqi jews were in line with the british i met. in israel

and i many others like me the people close so the british you are. our responses are all you. do you are trying to tell us what to do we don't want any foreigners here we want to rule ourselves by. a lot and for free you have nothing to go go. but when british rule ended in 1902 the oilman didn't go home the m m i did king of this and on their country when directors of the air have to credit him company by shama shakes give the authentic that have touch. not to the pump station have any other kind of oil or yes it was independent. on terms of our trade. the reality last. was while the

government the british. but the british were not the only ones after iraqi oil. as disaffection with the british grew the germans promoted hitler as a liberator. and in 19331 camp was translated into arabic. i met sure menasha a he was a child in basra. there was a famous say. good in the sky. on the ground this year whether i missed out on a lovely summer or feel of a hit clubroom it sounds that bomb. the nazi's key arab supporter the grand mufti of jerusalem came to baghdad in 1039

. the jews did not understand what happened in iraq. with the mufti and with the influence of the nicest during the 30 years they are in danger to his heart and then just. to move to moved into this house on the banks of the tigris in baghdad next door to david's family the dangour was. in early 1941 the move to hitler. you're excellences great fear of. the palestinian problem has united all the arab states and the mutual hatred of the english and the jews. that abs are willing to shed their blood in the holy war and the oil flow for england. great futa

my wishes for a long life and chinese victory. the public mood in iraq turned against the monarchy and in much $941.00 the region fled with the boy king leaving iraq to the fascists and its oil to the germans. once again the british invaded to. do nothing about the 1st ever a little bit of an off the on everyday existence out of fear on. every other but if they don't the rebels all of a load of. the nationalists or they feed it completely by the end of night. they have fast gracious who is the object that can be a victim for this is a frustration the truce. i

met just bare on spend machine television. she was living in the suburbs and her family didn't realize. anything was wrong my grandfather went shopping he was beaten and very badly they called him you know our jewish you know our english and he was beaten and he was bleeding all over. that night a riot started. in jerusalem i found early i mean he was in the center of baghdad the muslims evaded the jewish quarter we knew of this way or the. bill will kill jews. all night we were up there on the roof. frightened to death waiting for something bad to happen they were banging on doors and breaking people

shouting crying. we heard the crowd coming on the stairs my father know it to the neighbors he said please give us every few. good neighbor called his god and they started to cross us to the other side. my uncle. who was a slaughter. is part of the business both of them they live together that die together. to share the class where they stopped the process and took it was outside and they killed our neighbors were muslims. and to my mother. and her family if we were very good friends. she's a breastfed me and god bless her calea as they came to our house

stronger and the big one mistress. there. i am ship brooke 50 that for 3 days. she saved our life. and. after 941 with the money to keep back in place iraq was a piece for the rest of the war. the mufti fled and went to palin. dangles bought the house where he lived and the kids got to play in the most he's got. the warhawk he's touched them. there were parties every night the community was living in a bubble. they were not touched by the holocaust and they were living as if there was no war and nothing has happened much. so my father was very happy to to

to stay all in baghdad. david should matias davydenko as neighbor in london as he was in baghdad when they were children there's always hope that a bad episode was a one off and it won't repeat itself. with the sudden mounds of wishful thinking that. was the truth and nothing. but the less well off jews were worried. they saw the right during the war as a warning. rarely joined a secret cell. phone road. there's hours who are bikini to bits. didn't begin the whole makes the shares

a do but no more loyal to him last sort of call the whole if you're arc will again lead to say. today he teaches kids at the babylonian museum mentality. and he's bringing his replica guns to tell them about how scientists working for the creation of israel came to trade them in fact out why he didn't tell a little more shoe industry can use. a given course if you. thomas kushal how to. cook we must conclude that. you should rush how much of a budget. there are. in there the river somewhere better far nobody lives there nobody not the soul of the. first lady then the wall that busy.

with the bacon eggs they were talking about this or it was like the end like ada but all the movie that so everybody was interested to go. in may 948 palestine was partitioned to make way for the new jewish homeland israel . the dream came true that the zionists. and a nightmare began for the jews still living in the arab world. from egypt from france jordan and from the north with support of other arab states palestine is invaded as the united nations looked for ways to stop the war. raging erupted out of palestine and ignited in the streets of iraq.

the fierce the tough and when israel won the war the iraqi government of that time mostly against the jews over there was a very difficult situation getting 950. jews were fired from government jobs and the people who today shops. jews closed their businesses they do not bear to go through the streets. they hang good don't do is free for the for the zionism i'm the man the rich do for conmen music. so everyone and the story that there was no way for us to live their. money open the door was. a deal funded by american zionist. with sweetness for the prime

minister's family allowed for the jews to renounce their iraqi citizenship and leave. at 1st the take up was slow. some people didn't want to go they had their jobs and their money and their houses . my parents were not violent they were jews. they have all the whatever it do you used to do in holy days and all and in the synagogue there were not really dying. but then a series of bombs went off in jewish districts of baghdad although the government accused and then hind to zionists for doing it in order to drive in the creation. no one believed them now they were afraid or they are throwing bombs in the

synagogue so we have to move so they went to register all of the 7000 when the register in the synagogue so we were about 220000. the minute they closed the list of all those who wanted to go to jerusalem they confiscated all the money in the banks or what you had you can't sell a moving you can sell your house you can sell not even a friend. and we left iraq with them pounds. throughout the summer of 1951 planes flew continuously from baghdad to tell of the. until 120000 iraqi jews were carried away. but the welcome

wasn't. they were expecting. looking like creatures from the arabian. it's a colorful site but scarcely a pretty one. a sort of weird costume ball on poles in front of you would be using bizarre but. it was. they concede that people have no cause to be so does not exist the our language is the language of the enemy and they define. black people. for whom some of these people may have been well to do or even well things like me until now for they are all penniless. basically the message just came back guys don't rush for god's sake we rush to this

place and we sitting in tents with a russian. in 1951 life a edwin's family under the money he was comfortable. to leave. alone with 7000 when. they stayed on. and when his left the safety of the hotel to look for his childhood home now sandwiched between the notoriously violent such a city and the river. the area is controlled by a shia militia. the taxi driver snafus and of course of a fortune. in the course of the last so much. a lot of what. a father was shot by leon will be. odd if

a. release. that cut them put them cut them up we would call. them adoption of that built. by the g. the b. other you know how that doesn't we could never. allow that bit other bits you know the. well the whole group will go. oh my god. oh my god out of the same. league floyd way way way way. as we know paul they got it how do you how difficult you know but sure but how do you think i would be out of by sheer numbers . why do you always have a noble mark on the book. well i would. like to. when i saw the house and heard. that you have to leave your old home.

like a criminal. is difficult to put myself into the cauldron of boiling motions. on bijou who always names here. as a kind of a feeling of. belonging. but there's just other mob it other than i'm going to but can they didn't change an issue. how'd of could be a goof what i left out of on the other shot of him in him should be you know most of it with his heart and on the heart and all of the love about that guy but the courage to do we would have shimon who has not edwin is still in his old neighborhood trying to find his family's synagogue it's called me a twig. and it's now the only maintained synagogue in iraq who uses.

the vehicle. may 28th is still standing. when saddam hussein needed to please the americans hearing street to be preserved. but it's too dangerous to choose to actually worship. baghdad was the center of the jewish world for over 1500 years. they were both in color mode involving only a cupboard. why has this is put so much into iraq. i can see it. with the fact that my grandfather is very dear. and that we've abandoned him and we just say goodbye but.

claim it's we. could buy everything. we don't know gave him look back. while it's things rose egyptian president as it makes a public appearance following caesar was. seen by the 1st one soon with took place my father could see that it was a momentous thing happening in the middle east. it was the 1st time that nationalism asserted itself i remember he was to listen to news day and night he couldn't get away from it one minute the women i mean probably david dunn the city of my mother who were not happy. you could feel

a kind of exile. behind the sort of facade of easygoing life. our house was on the river front and the royal palace was on the other side we work up to the sound of gunfire. at that thought it must have been a. sort of 1st light. the radio came on announcing the army had taken over. 2 years after a series in 1958 the monarchy in iraq was overthrown in a leftwing military coup. it had lasted 37 years.

and reassign just opposed his plan to end the republican rebels have offered $10000.00 pounds for his arrest. insisting the new one thing is a victim and is doable. this is i do karim qassam he was the leader of the revolt the idea that the king should be replaced by a republic was something strange to us and quite bewildering in some ways even though we knew very little about politics we knew something cataclysmic was happening. i was 3 years old when he could happen everybody rushed to the balcony to watch. the prime minister of iraq and there is sight they tied his body to a car and just the usual. revenge would pull his body through the

streets. back dad i remember my mother my grandmother screaming as the as the body was passed through all of the other and me squeezing between them to see what what was the commotion. king faisal the 2nd in the royal family were gunned down. and the crown prince's mutilated body was displayed on the walls of the ministry of defense. in 1959 david parents finally made the decision to leave iraq we came to england when we had finally got our entry permit. my father had hoped to make his life in the land his forefathers it was south. i never went back. after the revolution we had to bring it down we didn't want anybody to come and see we have

the king and on the war. with what it down when we're at it. and put it away in a store rule. $4000.00 jews stayed after the revolution . the 1st 6 months we thought we are going to be called when east. now if we want to learn about communism with those we're out of stuff we are going to be probably. the david calash had a dealership selling fancy american cars we have board about 70 or 80 dogs. when the revolution kid mean we thought nobody would dare to write in a big car you want to go in it's more otherwise there would kill you. you corrode we're leaving in 6 months the government the open embassies of the east russia embassy. china and these people they

are starving for american cars. with porn industry with every car the streets of beijing because of the short. break ups. in 1063 with the tacit support of the cia kasem was killed in another coup by the baath party who included some old wartime fascists and a young officer saddam hussein. israel was back as an issue. and within weeks jewish passports were taken away. i was lucky i was really lucky that i live. in march to have

a modest ideas he said. everything changed in 67 when the 6 day war started. to remember coming home from school my mother picked us up. i think in our face. the traffic was stopped by police. convoy with lots of soldiers holding their guns. iran is one of 5 states fighting his trail in the 6 day war in june 19th 67. i remember my brother distinctly say you know this is very bad for us if israelis win then they're going to come back and take their revenge on us and israelis knows well we're all gone as anyway. the israelis won. and the consequence is wearing me jet for the 2000 jews still living in baghdad.

people from the post office blocked on the door i opened the door myself of the house where the the colorful and so on and i just took them they pulled the cords from the wall and took all the instruments and they said i'm sorry but rules are rules jews are not allowed anymore the use of the telephone. my mother was placed immediately on the house that hasa arrest luckily she knew with the chief inspector of police back that he protected her. there was a lot of help from our muslim friends. in early $1969.00 the path leadership laid on an event in response to the 6 day war and its aftermath. saddam hussein now deputy leader was given the job of turning

it into a national festival they rounded up a number of people mostly jews and they accused them of being spies for israel and for the west when they said spy their member of my dad's complection chain he. was suddenly said. that doesn't sound good he knew that there probably meant the jews. show trial of the suspects was mounted in january. on the day of the trial i remember we were petrified all of us. suddenly we see them on television the doorbell rings and when the doorbell rings in the middle of the night even of for be for everybody look at the evening and for everybody the door the there's no reason for their doorbell to ring or less it's trouble that you're enough it was my say help they've taken either well could. they have come to ask you

to check. no matter what we try to how we tried we could not find out where he was. for me it was like almost the end of the world. a future time or in small groups another 1000 jewish men finest from their families . then came music danny's uncle. it was a notice like one of those adverts you sell an apartment on the 5th page of the site. the law his partner were found guilty yesterday of a spy and there will be. tomorrow morning. that was my turning point i guess. it was only one thought which is the

same thing of everybody who just $1000.00 left let's get up to. drew is one of a lot of possible so they could leave the country so there was no other option just . 7071 that your school was the year you're going to school every morning you count and you look around who is left in your classroom. my mother we had an idea that she was planning to run away. but not at all that ventures for some. very secure she tried to keep myself occupied. she was making dolls walkie men and women in customs. plans were to go on holiday as such to northern iraq it's beautiful it's lovely.

plus we ended share is pretty much safe because they didn't have any in a must to do was this. we knew that this was a proper way to escape. over $71.00 my father brought the family together and told us that. in 2 hours we depart the house where ever. we had to go through checkpoints tried to be cool. pretending to be your holiday and be jolly and you're looking at around that we're all sisters or younger

to a grandmother who was praying about lee. is it possible this soldier would suspect he has a family that look like you know jewish they look frightened. so when we crossed the border between arab iraq and kurdish iraq and the guy turned around and said you're ok no you've made it. it was just as amazing we knew that we we were free and were just ecstatic. did used to me. unity was now down to a few 100. to back but his attention drifted elsewhere. 11 years after aliens passport had been taken away her application for a new one suddenly went through. its work clothes into

we had less suitcases with us where went to a friend's house and the next morning we'll i think that the efforts and less. alien arrived in london on the 18th of december 974 leaving 280 jews in baghdad. once you leave the country and don't return to the 3 months and then all your property is confiscated. and you to see an isolator with your nationality and also their city off here. in 2003 iraq was once again invaded. and non-doing american alliance wanted to be rid of saddam hussein. i'm

going to be to edwin in northern iraq he's buying his house and have built the capital of the kurdish area. he wanted to join the last 5 to still living in baghdad but it's too dangerous that. which is not to say apple is safe for islamic states frontline is just a short drive from met bill such a center. half. hour ago but. probably a little real close. i bought this house and it is a step in my dream. you

know what maybe just maybe in 30405060 years time jews would reconnect with their both place. it could die with me. but if i don't see that my dream and my life tell me still i know i set it in motion. of course i know i'm going for bit for the believer i longed for but it does my body that. i knew all morning for that if you saw my true. but you don't go there. i don't want to go back.

there's a lot of people who left baghdad in the good times so they have a nice nostalgic memory of it. i know that my memory is just marred by loss of my uncle. iraq still in all blood. in our. it's like a distant bell ringing in the back of a heads always reminding us where we came from. i still miss that but. i wouldn't let the going out because it's all in the in. the places i know. i'm not the same. it's that sort of member. everything as it is or is it well as it was.

i was dreaming. who still needs the e.u. . and journey across 4 member states. critics and advocates of the e.u. speak out job what are people expecting. how is the e.u. doing as the european election approaches.

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literature list 100 german must reads. this is d.w. news live from berlin sri lanka imposes a curfew against after violence against muslims angry mobs have killed one person and attacked mosques and muslim owned businesses the on the rest follows the deadly easter attacks by it's. also coming up more deaths and sit down protests in the capital khartoum.