Farhud

Farhud
Part of Anglo–Iraqi War
Mass grave for the victims of the Farhud, 1946
Location	Baghdad, Iraq
Date	June 1–2, 1941
Target	Baghdadi Jews
Attack type	Pogrom, massacre
Deaths	175 - 780 Jews killed Up to 300-400 rioters killed by authorities
Non-fatal injuries	1,000 injured
Perpetrators	Rashid Ali, Yunis al-Sabawi, al-Futuwa youth.

Farhud (Arabic: الفرهود‎‎) refers to the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1–2, 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali, while the city was in a state of instability. The violence came immediately after the rapid defeat by the British of Rashid Ali, whose earlier coup had generated a short period of national euphoria, and was charged by allegations that Iraqi Jews had aided the British. Over 180 Jews were killed and 1,000 injured, and up to 300-400 non-Jewish rioters were killed in the attempt to quell the violence. Looting of Jewish property took place and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed.

The Farhud took place during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Because of rioters lamenting the losses of the outgoing regime of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, who was an ally of Hitler's, it has been referred to as a pogrom which was part of the Holocaust, although such comparison has been disputed. It has also been called "the beginning of the end of the Jewish community of Iraq", propagating the migration of Iraqi Jews out of the country, although a direct connection to the 1951-2 Jewish exodus from Iraq is disputed. as many Jews who left Iraq immediately following the Farhud returned to the country and permanent emigration did not accelerate significantly until 1950-51. According to Hayyim Cohen, the Farhud "was the only [such event] known to the Jews of Iraq, at least during their last hundred years of life there".

The Jews lived in the land of Babylon for more than 2,500 years following the Babylonian captivity. There had been at least two earlier comparable pogroms in the modern history of Iraqi Jews, in Basra in 1776 and in Baghdad in 1828. There were many instances of violence against Jews during their long history in Iraq, as well as numerous enacted decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues in Iraq, and some forced conversion to Islam.