This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, but it also marks the demise of the last Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa. In Iraq, the Ba’ath regime wreaked its revenge on the last 5,000 Jews for the defeat of the Arab armies by Israel. In January 1969, nine Jews were executed and their bodies strung up in Baghdad’s Liberation Square. Dozens of Jews were arrested and never returned to their families. Terrorised Jews, their phones cut off, bank accounts frozen, expelled from universities and jobs, were denied passports to leave Iraq.
View of the Tigris river, Baghdad
In 1971, a ceasefire was signed between the Iraqi regime and Kurdish fighters. An opportunity opened up for Jews to escape illegally through Kurdistan into Iran.
Vivien Mazin and her family were desperate to leave Iraq. They wanted to join an older sister in England with two young children. The sister was suffering from cancer. Leaving their sick father behind in Baghdad, Vivien, her mother and sister took the smuggling route into Kurdistan. They were arrested and thrown into jail. Appeals to Amnesty International in London for their release fell on deaf ears. Had they even heard of the plight of Iraqi Jews?
Eventually Vivien, her mother and sister were released but found that strangers had moved into their house. They rented premises until they managed to leave with a passport in November 1971. Vivien’s brother had been successfully smuggled out to Iran in June that year.
While she was in Baghdad, Vivien was asked to replace teachers at the Frank Iny Jewish school and teach subjects like Accounting and Economics she knew little about. Every morning, another student would be missing in the classroom, their desk vacant.
Families slipped out to Kurdistan, as if they were going on holiday. They just locked up their houses and left in the dead of night, never to return. Because the smuggling operation was secret, nobody, not even the milkman, could be told. Vivien recalls milk bottles accummulating on the doorstep of Jewish homes. She felt sorry for the milkman, who would never be paid!
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