Islam and Nazi Germany’s War - Hardcover

Motadel, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674724607 ISBN 13: 9780674724600

Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Winner of the 2014 Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History
In the most crucial phase of the Second World War, German troops, fighting in regions as far apart as the Sahara and the Caucasus, confronted the Allies across lands largely populated by Muslims. Nazi officials saw Islam as a powerful force with the same enemies as Germany: the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Jews. Islam and Nazi Germany's War is the first comprehensive account of Berlin's remarkably ambitious attempts to build an alliance with the Islamic world.

Drawing on archival research in three continents, David Motadel explains how German officials tried to promote the Third Reich as a patron of Islam. He explores Berlin's policies and propaganda in the Muslim war zones, and the extensive work that authorities undertook for the recruitment, spiritual care, and ideological indoctrination of tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers who fought in the Wehrmacht and the SS.

Islam and Nazi Germany's War reveals how German troops on the ground in North Africa, the Balkans, and the Eastern front engaged with diverse Muslim populations, including Muslim Roma and Jewish converts to Islam. Combining measured argument with a masterly handling of detail, it illuminates the profound impact of the Second World War on Muslims around the world and provides a new understanding of the politics of religion in the bloodiest conflict of the twentieth century.

About this title

About the Author:

David Motadel is Assistant Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Review:

“Motadel describes the Mufti’s Nazi dealings vividly, but he also excels in unearthing other odious and fascinating characters... Impeccably researched and clearly written, [his] book will transform our understanding of the Nazi policies that were, Motadel writes, some ‘of the most vigorous attempts to politicize and instrumentalize Islam in modern history.’”―Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

“[A] comprehensive and discerning history... Refresh[es] our understanding of Nazi Germany’s involvement with the Middle East and the wider Muslim world... [Motadel] offers a portrait of continuity in the West’s strategies for mobilizing Islam in wartime or for using Islam for its geopolitical ends―a history, on the whole, of continual failure... [A] sophisticated narrative.”―Steve Coll, New York Review of Books

“Islam and Nazi Germany’s War is the first book to provide an in-depth study of this complex relationship, charting its twists and turns as Hitler’s paladins sought to bring Muslims onside. It is academically impeccable, drawing on a wealth of archival resources in a multitude of languages, yet it wears its erudition lightly. In the current climate, a subject such as this might be considered controversial. Motadel, however, is never less than resolutely serious and rigorous. The whiff of sensationalism never offends the nostrils... Motadel’s book is a brilliantly original study that achieves that rare feat of combining rigor with accessibility. Most impressively, in the hugely crowded field of the second world war and Nazi Germany, it manages to explore an area of profound significance that had previously been overlooked.”―Roger Moorhouse, Financial Times

“Islam and Nazi Germany’s War is a valuable ground-breaking work, energetically readable and unabashedly complicated... Through an extensive amount of research in some fairly recondite primary sources, Motadel tells the story of Nazi Germany’s interaction with its Muslim conquests and would-be conquests in greater detail and with greater skill than any English-language historian before him. He stresses the at first odd-seeming fact that when it came to dealing with Muslims, the Nazis were almost jarringly accommodating... At heart, Motadel’s revelatory book describes a mutual bafflement, and in that sense alone it’s perhaps prescient. Either way, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War is an indispensable enlargement of our understanding of the Second World War’s Eastern European theater.”―Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly

“Motadel’s treatment of an unsavory segment of modern Muslim history is as revealing as it is nuanced. Its strength lies not just in its erudite account of the Nazi perception of Islam but also in illustrating how the Allies used exactly the same tactics to rally Muslims against Hitler. With the specter of Isis haunting the world, it contains lessons from history we all need to learn.”―Ziauddin Sardar, The Independent

“Thanks to David Motadel’s exhaustive scholarship we now have the first ‘comprehensive study of German policy towards Islam during the Second World War.’ In fact, it is even more than that, since it explores the roots of Nazi policy in Imperial Germany and the Great War and follows its tracks through the Weimar years into the Third Reich.”―David Cesarani, Literary Review

“Hitler’s failed effort to put Muslim boots on the ground still stands as the most far-reaching Western attempt to use Islam to win a war. Such is the judgment of David Motadel, the author of a new, authoritative book, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. Motadel’s detailed and fascinating explanation of how and why the Nazis failed to get Muslims on their side is a must-read for serious students of World War II, and it has an important message as well for our own policy in the Middle East.”―David Mikics, The Tablet

“In offering an interesting and important account of Islam in Nazism’s war, Motadel reveals a little-known chapter in the conflict. This is a nuanced and sensitive account of a topic that is too important to ignore.”―Robert Gellately, Times Higher Education

“Islam and Nazi Germany’s War by David Motadel...make[s] fascinating reading and highlight[s] the variety of ways in which the German state sought to subvert the Muslim soldiers’ professional loyalty to the Allied armies in the two wars... [Motadel] must be lauded for [his] painstaking research in producing [this] highly readable [volume] that include[s] relevant photographs as well.”―Muhammad Ali Siddiqi, Dawn

“There’s one Nazi propaganda battle you don’t hear much about. Now, Motadel details Hitler’s efforts to promote himself as a backer of Islam. The Nazis saw the Muslim people as sharing common enemies, including the British Empire and Zionism. ‘The peoples of Islam will always be closer to us than, for example, France,’ Hitler said. But despite the Third Reich’s best efforts, the Islam–Nazi relationship remained tempestuous. A new look at how World War II profoundly changed the Middle East.”―Billy Heller, New York Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0674724607
• ISBN 13: 9780674724600
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512