All language subtitles for Remember.Baghdad.2016.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[sombre music playing]

[Fiona] It's two in the morning.

Edwin Shuker is getting ready
to go to Iraq.

He is a Jewish North Londoner
with a point to prove.

[Edwin] Who is going to even believe
that there were Jews in Iraq?

I can no longer carry on living

as if nothing has happened and tell my son

that he was born in Finchley

and this was where his ancestry started.

We are part and parcel of Iraq,
and I will not let go.

[Fiona] 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 homeland.

[Edwin] As long as a move like this
is being taken,

as long as a house is being bought,

the Jews of Iraq, we are still there,

and that gives me the sense of belonging.

[helicopter whirring]

[explosions]

[Fiona] 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 so.

♪ Got no diamonds, got no pearls ♪

♪ Still I think I'm a lucky girl ♪

♪ I got the sun in the morning
And the moon at night ♪

♪ I got the sun in the morning
And the moon at night ♪

♪ Got no mansion ♪

[Fiona] I first came across
the Jews of Baghdad

when I was asked to catalogue an archive.

It belonged to the family
of David Dangoor.

There were hours of home movies
and thousands of photographs.

My mum used to carefully write

what the event was.

[big band music playing]

[David D.] They had a lot of parties.

[Fiona] I found myself looking at
frothy scenes of an affluent modern life.

And they were jumbled in with pictures
where David's family

looked to me like traditional Arabs.

[David D.] The family started
more religious than most

because my great grandfather
had been the chief rabbi

and had been a rabbi all his life.

But in my parents' generation,

people began to feel religion
was something

umm, of the past.

Life was good for them in Baghdad.

[Arabian music playing]

[David D.]
People started moving out of the ghetto

and my family was one of those.
They bought a house on the river.

And this is my mum and dad,
walking arm-in-arm.

[Fiona] One day, Naim and Renee Dangoor
got a spectacular invitation.

It was New Year's Eve,
late on New Year's Eve

that my father said to my mum

there was a very fancy party
at the Amana Hall

with members of the royal family
and the government there.

When they walked in,
there was a competition going on.

[waltz music playing]

Something that hadn't happened before
in Baghdad,

Miss Baghdad. And they were down
to the last five girls… finalists.

The Regent and ministers said,
"We can't let this competition carry on,

unless this young lady agrees to join
the final five."

And, sure enough,
she was chosen as the winner.

The crown prince gave her the sash
and a statuette

and she was in the newspaper
the next day.

-[man speaking indistinctly]
-[laughter]

[string music playing]

[Fiona] This is David's Monday
evening volleyball game in London.

All friends, all Jews from Iraq.

Scoop, scoop, scoop.

[Fiona] But count them.

There are more Iraqi Jews on this court
than there are in the whole of Iraq today.

[city bustling]

[Fiona] When David's father was born,
there were 140,000 Jews in Baghdad.

They made up nearly half the city.

Few people in Baghdad now remember them,

though their houses and old synagogues
are everywhere.

Edwin has arrived in Baghdad
looking for his roots.

[Edwin] I feel I haven't finished
with this place.

I owe it and it owes me.

There is unfinished business here.

I don't even know the dangers
lying around,

because when I tell people
I've been here and I've been there,

and they say, "My God. On your own?
Are you kidding? Are you crazy?"

[Arabian music playing]

[Edwin] I feel as if I am a Jew
living in Baghdad forever.

[Fiona] Edwin wasn't just being flowery.

Iraqi Jews are the ones in the Psalms,

the ones who were captured
and taken as slaves,

the ones who sang, "By the waters
of Babylon, there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion."

They stayed and wrote the great book
of Jewish Law,

the Babylonian Talmud.

They were below the Muslims in society,
but they ran their own affairs

as Babylon became Mesopotamia,
and as Mesopotamia became Iraq.

Back in London, I went to meet
David Dangoor's aunts.

They were born on the banks of the Tigris
when Iraq was ruled by the British.

Now Eileen and Doreen live in flats,
one above the other.

[Eileen] Careful, careful.

[Eileen] This is my grandfather,
the Chief Rabbi of Iraq.

It was hanging
in our sitting room in Baghdad.

-[Eileen] To show that life was…
-[Doreen] Good.

[Doreen]
The king, of course, in the middle.

[Eileen] King Feisal the First.

His speech was that Iraq now,

we don't have religions,
we are all Iraqis, Jews,

Muslims and Christians, we are all Iraqis.

It was a good time.

It was very… It was paradise.

[Fiona] This paradise was created
by the British, who took Baghdad in 1917.

Conquest was not as easy as they hoped,

but once there was peace, in 1921,

the state was formed and they
imported a Saudi Prince to be king.

The British called the new country Iraq.

This little boy being pulled along
in a toy British tank

is Eileen's cousin, David Khalastchi,

on his father's farm near the town
of Babylon.

I loved it.
I won't change it for the world

and this is really my happiest memory.

[Fiona]
The British wanted to develop Iraq,

and the Khalastchis went into business

with the tribes living on the land
around Babylon.

My father had fantastic relation
with the head of the tribe.

I mean, if I tell you,
you cannot believe it.

[David K.] They were like brothers,

and when I say like brothers,
like brothers!

I mean they are, they come
to our home, we go to their home.

We were just like part of one house.

[intriguing string music playing]

[Fiona] David Khalastchi lives
near Ascot, in England.

[David K.] At that time, in Iraq,

very few people, they can speak English

and a number of Jewish people,

they can speak English.

And my father, luckily,

we were, he can speak English.

[Fiona] And if you spoke English,
you could be part of the new economy.

[David K.] We brought the machinery
from England.

The power of the English, very strong,
they were the rulers.

And if you are in line with the British,
there's nothing can beat that.

[Fiona] But not all Iraqi Jews
were in line with the British.

I met Salim Fattal in Israel.

[Salim] I, and many others like me,

in the poor class,
thought the British, you are…

robbing our resources,

our oil, [stammers] and you…

you are trying to tell us what to do.

We don't want any foreigners here.

We want to rule ourselves by ourselves.

Do not interfere. You have nothing to…
go home.

[Fiona] But when British rule
ended in 1932,

the oilmen didn't go home.

[reporter] The young, air-minded king
of this little-known country

meets with directors
of the Iraq Petroleum Company,

while shama al-sheikhs
give the authentic desert touch.

Now to the pump station.
Four million tons of oil a year…

It was independence

on terms, I would say.

Umm, the real masters
were not the government,

the British.

[Fiona] 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 1933, Mein Kampf was translated
into Arabic.

I met Shaul Menashe,
who was a child in Basra.

[Shaul] There was a famous saying,

"God in the sky and Hitler on the ground."

[translates in Arabic]

It sounds like a poem.

[Fiona] The Nazi's key Arab supporter
came to Baghdad in 1939,

at the start of the Second World War.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

shared the German desire to kick
the British out of the region.

And like them, he hated the Jews.

The Germans had been funding his campaign
to fight the imminent creation of Israel.

Now he was in Iraq
to help Hitler to win the war.

The Jews did not understand what happened
in Iraq.

With the Mufti and the influence
of the Nazis during the '30s,

they are in danger,
the Jews are in danger.

[Fiona] Slowly, the atmosphere
in Baghdad started to change.

The Mufti moved into this house,
on the banks of the Tigris in Baghdad,

next door to David's family, the Dangoors.

David's aunt Eileen was a teenager

when anti-Jewish attacks
started happening nearby.

[Eileen] Once my brother, then myself,

we went out for a walk on the riverside,

and then a bicycle passed by,

and suddenly I felt something hot
on my back.

It was burning, my dress was burning.

He threw acid on me.

Immediately, my brother tore my dress.

It happened to a few girls.

[clicking]

[Fiona] In early 1941,
the Mufti wrote to Hitler.

[man] "Your Excellence Great Fuhrer,

the Palestinian problem has united
all of the Arab States

in a mutual hatred of the English
and the Jews."

"The Arabs are willing to shed their blood
in the Holy War,

and end the oil flow for England."

"Great Fuhrer, my wishes for a long life
and shining victory."

[Fiona] The public mood in Iraq
turned against the monarchy,

and in March 1941,
the Regent fled with the boy king,

leaving Iraq to the fascists
and its oil to the Germans.

Once again, the British invaded.

[reporter] A few Nazi
Messerschmitts came over,

probably from Syria.

These were driven off and the RAF remained
in control of the Iraq skies.

Heavy losses were inflicted on the rebels
on the Fallujah Road.

[Fiona] Within a month,
the British had secured the oil fields

and had control of the country.

But they didn't want to look
like an occupying force,

so they stopped outside Baghdad and waited
for the return of the pro-British king.

British sympathisers inside Baghdad
were in danger.

The Nationalists were defeated completely
by the end of May.

They have frustrations,

who is the object that can be the victim

for this frustration? The Jews!

[Fiona] I met Esperance Ben Moshe
in Tel Aviv.

She was living in the suburbs,

and her family didn't realise
anything was wrong.

[Esperance] My grandfather went shopping,

he was beaten very badly.

They called him, "You are Jewish,
you are English".

And he was beaten
and he was bleeding all over.

[Fiona] That night, a riot started.

In Jerusalem, I found Eli Amir,
who was in the centre of Baghdad.

[Eli] The Muslims invaded
the Jewish Quarter.

We knew that they, this way or the other,

they'll, they'll kill Jews.

-[crowd clamouring]
-[glass breaking]

[Esperance] All night,
we were up there on the roof,

frightened to death.

Waiting for something bad to happen.

There were banging, doors were breaking,

people shouting, crying.

[crowd clamouring]

We heard the crowd coming on the stairs.

My father knocked to the neighbour,

he said, "Please, give us refuge."

The neighbour called his guard

and they started to cross us
to the other side.

-[glass breaking]
-[women screaming]

My uncle, was slaughtered there,

and his partner of the business,
both of them.

They lived together, they died together,

in Babasher, the place
where they stopped the buses,

and took the Jews outside
and they killed them.

Our neighbours were Muslims,

and my mother and her neighbour,

they were very good friend.

She breastfed me,

God bless her, Helijah is her name,

came to our house, she was a strong one,
a big one,

and she stood there.

And she protected us for three days.

She saved our life.

[Esperance] The next day,

they said about 180 people were killed

and almost two thousand people
were injured.

[Fiona] When the royal family
returned with the boy king,

finally, the British went into Baghdad.

[Salim] The British betrayed the Jews
in 1941.

They could have stopped
when it just had started.

The Jews felt that the British
betrayed them

because the Jews, we were supporting them.

[melancholy music playing]

[Fiona] After 1941,
with the monarchy back in place,

Iraq was at peace for the rest of the war.

The Mufti fled and went to Berlin.

The Dangoors bought the house
where he lived

and their kids got to play
in the Mufti's garden.

[introspective music playing]

[David S.] The war hardly 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 stay on in Baghdad.

[Fiona] David Shamash
is David Dangoor's neighbour 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.

When times were tough,
and they wanted to leave,

they weren't able to,
the doors were barred to Jews,

but when things improved
and they could leave,

they said, "Why leave now?"

[David D.] There's a certain amount
of wishful thinking

that blurs the truth a little.

[Fiona] But the less well-off Jews
were worried.

They saw the riot during the war
as a warning.

Zvooloon Hareli joined a secret cell.

[Zvooloon, in Hebrew]
The riot was a shock.

And in high school,

all 15- and 16-year-olds were saying,

[in English] "No More! [in Hebrew]
No more!" We need to do everything we can

to leave Iraq and move to Israel.

[Fiona] Today he teaches kids
at the Babylonian Museum in Tel Aviv,

and he's bringing his replica guns

to tell them about how Zionists
working for the creation of Israel

came to train them in Baghdad.

[in Hebrew] This is a national conference
attended by representatives

from all branches.

She was the general secretary
of the Young Pioneer Movement.

He is from Kirkuk, from Basra,
Kirkuk, Baghdad.

This is me with the moustache.
I represented Baghdad.

And it was all done secretly.

[Fiona] The keen young Baghdadi Zionists

were essential to the Jewish leader
David Ben Gurion.

He was building his new country
and he wanted a million immigrants

to people it and to defend it.

Ben Gurion at the time thought,
"Don't argue with me,

bring them, bring the Jews here

because we don't know
what will happen tomorrow.

Today I know we can bring them,
so let's bring the Jews here."

[Fiona] Esperance Ben-Moshe
decided to learn Hebrew,

the chosen language of the new state.

[Esperance] I don't know who the people
were that came to study with me.

We went far, far away
in the desert somewhere,

near [stammers] the river,

somewhere very far, nobody lives there,
nobody, not a soul there.

It was like the end of the world there.

We had picnics.

They were talking about Israel,
it was like Garden Eden,

like Eden, the Garden of Eden. [chuckles]

So everybody was interested to go.

[Fiona] In May 1948,

Palestine was partitioned to make way
for the new Jewish homeland, Israel.

[Israel anthem playing]

[man, in Hebrew]
We hereby declare the establishment

of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel,

named the State of Israel.

[Fiona] The dream came true
for the Zionists

and a nightmare began for the Jews
still living in the Arab world.

[reporter] From Egypt,
from Transjordan and from the North,

with support of other Arab states,
Palestine is invaded,

as the United Nations look for ways
to stop the war.

[Fiona] Rage erupted out of Palestine
and ignited in the streets of Iraq.

[people clamouring]

The first thing that happened,

when Israel won the war,

the Iraqi government at the time
was really against the Jews of Iraq,

they were in a very difficult situation
until 1950.

[Fiona] In a punitive atmosphere,
Jews were fired from government jobs

and the people boycotted their shops.

The Jews close their businesses,

they do not dare to go to the streets.

They hanged two Jewish people for Zionism

and another two for Communism.

So everyone understood

that there was no way for us
to live there.

[Fiona] Money opened the doors.

A deal funded by American Zionists,

with sweeteners
for the Prime Minister's family,

allowed for the Jews to renounce
their Iraqi citizenship, and leave.

At first, the take up was slow.

[sombre music playing]

[Esperance] Some people didn't want to go,

they had their jobs and their money
and their houses.

My parents were not Zionist,
they were Jews.

They… they pray.

They have all the, whatever a Jew

used to do in holidays and all
and in the synagogue,

they were not really Zionist.

[Fiona] But then a series of bombs
went off in Jewish districts of Baghdad.

Although the government accused
and then hanged two Zionists

for doing it in order to drive emigration,

no one believed them.

[Esperance] Now they were afraid.

"Oh, they are throwing bombs
in the synagogue,

so we have to move."

So they went to register.
All of them, 70,000,

went to register in the synagogue.

So we were about 120,000.

The minute they closed the list

of all those who wanted to go
to Jerusalem,

they confiscated all the money
in the banks.

All what you had, you can't sell anything,

you can't sell your house, you can't sell,
not even a pen.

You know, and that's all.

And we left Iraq with ten pounds.
[chuckles]

[Eli] At long last, we have a country
that they welcome us to come!

They were happy to the sky.

[Fiona] Throughout the summer of 1951,

planes flew continuously from Baghdad
to Tel Aviv,

until 120,000 Iraqi Jews
were carried away.

But the welcome
wasn't what they were expecting.

[reporter] Looking like creatures
from the Arabian nights,

it's a colourful sight,

but scarcely a pretty one.

A sort of weird costume ball unfolds
in front of you,

amusing, bizarre, pathetic.

[Eli] It was terrible.

They considered us people
who have no culture.

Arabic culture does not exist.

The… our language is the language
of the enemy.

[Eli] They define us as Arab Jews.

Black people.

[reporter] Some of these people
may have been well-to-do or even wealthy,

but you can't tell now,
for they are all penniless.

Basically, the messages came back,
guys don't rush for God's sake.

We rushed to this place
and we are sitting in tents with a ration.

[Fiona] In 1951,

life for Edwin's family
under the monarchy, was comfortable.

No need to leave.

Along with 7,000 well-off Jews,
they stayed on.

[Edwin] People have the opportunity
to leave when the times are good.

And when times are good,
people don't want to leave. Full stop.

Basically, when the times are bad,

they always wish they had left
when times were good.

We were all gamblers
and which gambler leaves

while he was on a roll?

[suspenseful music playing]

[Fiona] Edwin has left
the safety of the hotel

to look for his childhood home.

Now sandwiched between the notoriously
violent Sadr City

and the river.

The area is controlled by a Shia militia.

The taxi driver is nervous.

[driver, in Arabic]
I'm worried about coming here.

It could go wrong.

[Edwin speaks Arabic] Allahu akbar.

[in Arabic]
So this is the street where I grew up.

Slowly, slowly, it's going to be
on your left.

Forwards, go forward,
go forward, my friend.

This white building,

I don't know what it is. It's new.

Ah, that's new.
Because where we're supposed to be…

That's the house! That's the house.
This, this, this. Yes, yes, yes.

Stop, stop, stop.

[in English]
Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god.

[driver, in Arabic] House for sale.

[in Arabic] I'll go and buy it!

[Edwin, in Arabic] And this new building,
it used to be a garden.

[driver speaks in Arabic]

[Edwin, in Arabic] And that garden,
it used to have four nabug trees.

And I came today to see the nabug.
There's no nabug!

[exclaiming]

[conversing in Arabic]

[Edwin, in English]
When I saw the house, it hurt

that you had to leave your own home

like a criminal.

It's difficult to put myself
into that cauldron of boiling emotions.

[sombre music playing]

[Edwin] I'm the Jew who always lived here.

It's a kind of a feeling of belonging.

[Fiona] The Iraq Baghdad's Jews
belonged to in the early '50s was booming.

Unlike their cousins in tents
outside Tel Aviv,

their lives were good.

Oil was flowing out
and money was flowing in.

Iraq had the first TV station
in the Middle East,

and a new consumer market to feed.

The families of David Dangoor
and David Shamash were riding the wave.

[David D.] My father built up
so many businesses in Iraq.

[David S.] With his family or on his own?

No, he took a Muslim partner,
Ahmed Safwat.

They set up a match factory together,
a furniture factory,

and they also got the concession
for Coca-Cola for the whole of Iraq.

[blissful music playing]

[David D.]
When I should have been doing homework,

my dad would take us to the office,

which was in the commercial district
of Baghdad.

For a child, all the bright lights
of the early evening,

the new lit advertising hoardings
for Kolynos toothpaste

and Coca-Cola.

My father was looking forward
to a bright future.

-[blissful music playing]
-[explosions]

The army was strong,
the economy was strong,

the country was getting rich quickly.

They could see no shadow at all
in the horizon.

[David S.] My father was asked
to represent the Jewish minority.

He became an MP.
I think he was quite well-off.

In appearance, they wanted to have
representations from the minorities.

I'm sure the Christians also had MPs.

[fanfare music playing]

They were trying to follow
the British system,

as much, although I think
it was a one-party government.

[blissful music playing]

[David S.]
We had a lot of Muslim ministers

coming to our house to have dinner
and play cards.

It was an open house.

We used to get up in the morning,

the coffees were being served
and they were still playing cards.

[Danny] No, me, twice? No one.

-[man 1] Oh, you brought that card?
-Sure, I did.

Once, once, I said once.

-[man 1] You said twice.
-And then I said, "No, once."

-I am going to get it all back.
-[man 2] Hey!

[Fiona] And the Iraqi Jews
of London are still playing cards.

This group meets once a week.

I have always cheated for you. [laughs]

[Fiona] Danny Dallal grew up
in a mixed neighbourhood of new Baghdad.

There were three Jewish houses
on our street

but there was 30, 40 houses in the street.

[Danny] On our birthdays, I remember,
we used to have all our neighbours over

and there was Christians,
there was Shi'as and, you know,

lovely, lovely people, friends,
real friends, proper friends.

But everything, for all intents
and purposes, is a Jewish surrounding.

My dad was a director of a company
and they imported tyres from Japan.

My Uncle, Isaac,

he used to have a factory,
a chocolate factory.

Now can you imagine having an uncle
with a chocolate factory?

I remember going with him,
he took us to the factory

and I have seen a bathtub
full of chocolate.

Even bigger than a bathtub.

Just the… the drops that came out
of the bathtub were this big,

that much solid chocolate,

umm, so that made him even more
of a lovely uncle.

[Danny] I loved him an awful lot.

♪ Blue skies smiling at me ♪

[Fiona]
There was a social revolution going on.

Jews and Muslims were enjoying
the same pleasures

as the British and Americans.

[Danny] There were clubs there.

You know, my uncle used to go regularly.
It was a lot of fun.

I mean, we were members
of the Mansour Club,

and there was another club
called the Alwiya Club.

These are clubs established,
I would imagine, by the British,

for the elite.

You know, the Mansour Club
had four tennis courts,

and if you can afford it,
you are just a member of these clubs.

♪ Shining so bright
Never saw things going so right ♪

♪ Noticing the days hurrying by ♪

[galloping]

[Edwin, in Arabic] You know the synagogue?

[driver] Yes, I do.

[Edwin] We used to walk from the synagogue

and I'm trying to find another side turn
that I know.

We used to walk through on Saturdays
and Holy Days.

[driver] This is the turning?

[Edwin] I can't really remember.
I remember my grandfather was with me

as we walked along here.
And now we turn right.

[Fiona] Edwin is still
in his old neighbourhood,

trying to find his family's synagogue.

It's called Meir Tweg,

and it's now the only maintained synagogue
in Iraq.

[Edwin, in Arabic] One moment.
Go forward, go forward.

[temple music playing]

[Fiona] Meir Tweg is still standing.

When Saddam Hussein needed to please
the Americans,

he arranged for it to be preserved,

but it's too dangerous
for Jews to actually worship there.

[Edwin, in English]
Baghdad was the centre of the Jewish world

for over 1,500 years.

They wrote the Talmud,
the Babylonian Talmud.

My ancestors put so much into Iraq.

[temple music continues playing]

[Edwin] I can't live with the fact
that my grandfather is buried here,

and that we've abandoned him and we are
just saying, "Goodbye Baghdad.

Goodbye Meir Tweg. Goodbye everything",

and we no longer even look back.

[people clamouring]

[reporter] Wild acclaim
follows Egyptian President Nasser

as he makes a publicappearance
following his seizure of the Suez Canal.

Seen by the fervently nationalistic…

When Suez took place,

my father could see
that it was a momentous thing

happening in the Middle East.

[clamouring]

[David S.] It was the first time
that Nationalism asserted itself.

I remember he used to listen
to the news day and night.

He couldn't get away from it one minute.

[Fiona] After Nasser seized
the Suez Canal in 1956,

the site of the defeated Western troops
packing their bags polarised reactions.

The women,
I mean probably David Dangoor's mother

and certainly my mother, were not happy.

You could feel a kind of anxiety

behind the sort of façade
of easygoing life.

[sombre music playing]

[gun firing]

[David D.] Our house was on the riverfront

and the Royal Palace
was on the other side.

We woke up to the sound of gunfire.

[imitates gunfire] It must have been…

sort of first light.

The radio came on announcing
the army had taken over.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Fiona] Two years after Suez in 1958,

the monarchy in Iraq was overthrown
in a left-wing military coup.

It had lasted 37 years.

[clamouring]

[reporter]
Veteran Premier Nuri al Said is deposed,

he has fled and the Republican rebels
have offered 10,000 pounds for his arrest.

The crown prince is dead.

Only one thing is certain.
The Kremlin is jubilant.

[fanfare music playing]

[David D.] This is Abdul Karim Qasim,
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 three years old
when the coup happened.

Everybody rushed to the balcony to watch

the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri Said.

They tied his body to a car
and just the usual Arab style revenge,

would pull his body through the streets
of Baghdad.

I remember my mother, my grandmother

screaming as the body was past
through our… [stammering]

…and me, squeezing between them to see
what was the commotion.

[Fiona] King Faisal II
and the Royal Family were gunned down,

and the crown prince's mutilated body

was displayed on the walls
of the Ministry of Defence.

[David D.] The king used to be
on the cover of our exercise books,

and when we went back in September,
all the exercise books had been reprinted.

The original cover
has been put on the inside now,

and while it would be difficult to see,

you can make out the figure
of King Faisal II of Iraq.

The cover has been reversed,
and on the front,

it has… [speaks in Arabic]

[in English] "The schools
of the Republic of Iraq."

[sombre music playing]

[David D.] When the king had been
brutally killed,

my mother said, "I don't want to live
in a country that can do this

and drag their bodies through the street."

My father had hoped to make his life
in the land of his forefathers.

He was… upset.

[sombre music playing]

[Fiona] In 1959, David's parents
finally made the decision to leave Iraq.

[David D.] There were travel restrictions
after the revolution.

We went to Lebanon for a year,

and after that year we came to England
when we had finally got our entry permit.

I never went back.

[string music playing]

[Eileen] After the revolution,
we had to bring it down.

We didn't want anybody to come and see
we had the king hanged on the wall.

We put it down, we wrapped it

and put it away in a storeroom.

My father had his work in Baghdad,
and he never thought of leaving.

We loved our country and we stayed there.

[doorbell dings]

Hello, Freddy!

[conversing in Arabic]

[Freddy, in English] Ah, thank you.

[Fiona] Freddy Khalastchy is Eileen's son.

Four thousand Jews stayed
after the 1958 Revolution.

I asked Freddy what his family thought
of the new leader, Kassem.

He was really trying to help

the poor people build new houses,
build hospitals,

and in the five years
that he was in power,

he did a lot.

They decided to stay because things,
more or less, were good.

They didn't feel that they made a mistake.

The first six months,
we thought we are going to be communists.

Now, every one want to learn
about communism,

we thought we are stuck,
we are going to be communists.

[Fiona]
But David Khalastchi had a dealership

selling fancy American cars.

[David K.] We have got
about 70 or 80 cars.

When the revolution came in,

we thought,
"Nobody will dare to ride in a big car,

you want to go in a small car,
otherwise, they will kill you."

You cannot believe it, in six months,

the government,
they opened Embassies of the East,

Russia embassy, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, China,

and these people,
they are starving for American cars.

[upbeat music playing]

[David K.]
We couldn't dream we sell every car

within a few months' time.

We have got about 70, 80 cars.

We sold all of them. The full prices.

We have got the best five years
of our life at that time.

No difference between Muslims,
Jewish, Christian

with all the minority.

This is Iraq for all Iraqi.

[sombre music playing]

[upbeat music playing]

[reporter] The streets of ancient Baghdad

become the scene of a short
but decisive revolution

that topples the pro-communist government
of Premier Abdul Karim Kassem.

[Fiona] In 1963,
with the tacit support of the CIA,

Kassem was killed in another coup
by the Ba'ath Party,

who included some old wartime fascists,

and a young officer, Saddam Hussein.

[ominous music playing]

[Fiona] Israel was back as an issue

and within weeks,
Jewish passports were taken away.

[Danny] Our ID used to have a stamp
on it saying "Jewish".

This driving licence doesn't,
it wasn't required.

They stopped everybody for ID
and this would come in very handy.

You could be Christian,
you could be anybody.

So we used to produce it
wherever we go in the street.

We needed it just to, to kind of,
hide our identity.

[David K.] I was lucky.
I was really lucky that I left.

In March, 12th of March 1967,
I got a permit to leave.

I was so pleased, I couldn't believe it.

And then within a week,
I left the country.

And when I left,

I have got all my partners,
they are Muslims,

and when I left, all of them,

they came to the airport
to tell me goodbye.

And It was very, very sad feeling.

My driver start to cry in the car,

he say, "I hope you will come back."

We have such a good relation.

But it happen after three months.

The June War had started,
and the situation in Iraq for the Jews,

it was undreamable, unthinkable.

[explosions]

[Danny] Everything changed in '67
when the Six-Day War started.

I particularly remember coming home
from school,

my mum picked us up, panic in her face.

The traffic was stopped by police,

an army convoy with lots of soldiers
holding their guns high.

They were celebrating
because they finally,

I suppose the way they saw it, were going
to liberate Palestine from Israel.

They, they never called it Israel.
They called it entity.

[Fiona] Iraq was one
of five Arab states fighting Israel

in the Six-Day War in June 1967.

[reporter] The tension in the Middle East
develops into full-scale war,

with reports of heavy fighting
between Israeli and Egyptian forces

along the Gaza Strip and the Sinai border.

[explosion]

[Danny]
I remember my brother distinctly saying,

"You know, this is very bad for us."

"If the Israelis win, then they're going
to come back and take their revenge on us,

and if the Israelis lose,
well, we're all goners anyway."

[cheering]

[Fiona] The Israelis won.

And the consequences were immediate

for the 2,000 Jews still living
in Baghdad.

People from the post office
knocked on the door.

I opened the door myself,

and they asked me where the telephones are
and I just took them.

They pulled the cords from the wall,
and took all the instrument and they said,

"I'm sorry, but rules are rules.

Jews are not allowed anymore
the use of a telephone."

[sombre music playing]

We had many more visitors
than we would normally have,

because mum can't chat
on the phone anymore.

[Eileen] You know, we had very nice
Muslim neighbours.

They came and they say,
"We give you the key of the house."

"Whenever you want to use our telephone,

come and use our telephone."

We said, "No, thank you,
we don't take a key,

but nobody has a telephone,
to whom shall we phone?" [laughs]

There's no one that we can phone.

On the radio and on the television,

you are portrayed as somebody
who's sending messages to the enemy

and what they call altamur kebarneh,
the fifth column.

My mother was placed
immediately under house, house arrest.

Luckily, she knew the chief inspector
of police in Baghdad.

He protected her.

Two or three times,
the inspector of police

intercepted the order and tore it up.

There was a lot of help
from our Muslim friends.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Danny] You had this feeling that all eyes
were upon you all the time.

We can't afford to look
like Jewish kids out on the street.

So in the street we start speaking Muslim.

We used to change names,
you don't call Mayer,

that's a Jewish name,
we are Jews, you don't do that.

So we changed his name to Maher.

We'd avoid sticking out,
we'd avoid contact.

[boys speaking indistinctly]

[people cheering, clapping]

[Fiona] In early 1969,
the Ba'ath leadership laid on an event

in response to the Six-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.

But when they said spies, I remember
my dad's complexion changed.

He… you know, he was, suddenly he said,
"Uh-oh,

that doesn't sound good."

He knew that they probably meant the Jews.

[Fiona] A show trial of the suspects
was mounted in January.

[Danny] On the day of the trial,
I remember we were petrified, all of us,

because they said on the newspaper
the day before

that there was going to be
some Jewish people in there,

and suddenly we see them on television.

The prosecution was demanding
already the death sentence.

We were all just watching television,

the doorbell rings, and when the doorbell
rings in the middle of the night,

even though for me,
even nine o'clock in the evening

and for everybody,

the door… there is no reason
for that doorbell to ring

unless it's trouble, and sure enough,
it was my aunt saying,

"Help, they've taken Isaac", my uncle.

They had come to ask him to chat.

[ominous music playing]

[Fiona] The next day,
there was a huge celebration

in Baghdad's Tahrir Square.

[Edwin] It's a national holiday,
so there's no school

and I just recall how happy,
how deliriously happy we were.

[people cheering]

[Edwin]
And they said that we should be listening

to find out the great news

that a spy ring was sentenced to death
by hanging,

and now the great Iraqi people
are invited to rejoice.

[Eileen] Even the president went.

One who was under-age, he was 16 I think,

they told him, if he says that he is 18,
they will release him.

So he believed them,
he said he's 18 years old

and then they hanged him all the same.

[Edwin] We started recognising the people,
of course,

and my mother just started…

started tearing her hair and screaming.

The television was broadcasting
the entire scene live.

[Danny] Every single day brought stories
and brought hopes.

No matter what we tried,
no matter how we tried,

we could not find out where he was.

[sombre music playing]

For me, it was like almost the end
of the world.

[Fiona] There was a continuous stream
of disappearances and hangings.

A few at a time, or in small groups,

another 90 Jewish men vanished
from their families.

Then came news of Danny's uncle.

[Danny] It was a notice, like one of those
adverts you sell an apartment.

On the fifth page in a side column,

"Isaac Dallal and his partner
were found guilty yesterday

of spying and they will be hanged
tomorrow morning."

[Danny] I remember staying up all night

just hoping…

[exhales] …hoping for an earthquake,

something logical, you know,
like an earthquake,

another coup d'état…

something.

But of course it did happen,

he was hanged, and even after that,
nobody got to see his body.

[sombre music playing]

[Danny] That was my turning point,
I guess.

There was only one thought,
which is the same thing everybody had,

one thought left, "Let's get out".

Jews were not allowed to have passports
so they couldn't leave the country.

So there was no other option,
just to flee.

[Danny] '70, '71, that year at school

was the year you go into school
every morning.

You count and you look around
who's left in your classroom.

My mother, we had an idea
that she was planning to run away,

but not at all an adventurous person.

Very insecure.

She tried to keep herself occupied.

She was making dolls of Iraqi
men and women in costumes.

[Danny] At the time, I saw my parents
as being guilty of having stayed.

So the pressure of kids

and, and their relationship
with their parents,

was huge.

"Mum, when are we going?"

Day in, day out, day in, day out.

Huge pressure on parents.

It tore families apart.

[Danny] Plans were to go on holiday,
as such,

to northern Iraq.

It's beautiful, it's lovely.

[Arabic woman singing]

[Danny] Once we're in the Kurdish areas,

we're pretty much safe because
they didn't have any animosity towards us.

We knew that this was a proper way
to escape.

[Edwin] August '71,

my father brought the family together,
and told us that it's our turn.

In two hours, we depart the house forever.

My grandmother, she frantically
was scrubbing every corner…

and spent most of the two hours
cleaning the house.

[Danny] Your home has to be your proof,
your alibi

that no, you were not trying
to escape the country.

You would leave it exactly like you were
coming back in about an hour or two.

-[ominous music playing]
-[keys jingle]

[Eileen] They close the door, and they go.

They don't tell anybody, just in case.

[Danny]
You do not tell your closest friend.

[Eileen]
Just in case they spread the word,

and then they would be caught.

[Danny] There was no doubt, it was
definitely a question of life or death.

-[drum music playing]
-[car zooming]

[Edwin] We had to go through
various checkpoints,

you try to be cool and calm

and pretending that you are on holiday
and you're jolly.

And you're looking around at your sisters

who are younger and your grandmother

who is praying loudly and…

Is it possible that this soldier
wouldn't suspect this family

that look like, you know, Jewish,
they look frightened.

[Danny] Come darkness, we got on a Jeep
and there was a friend of mine,

a classmate of mine who appeared
out of nowhere sitting in front of me.

We think we have it all planned,
and we know what's happening

but here we are in a, in a car
with a total stranger.

You know we've never met this guy,
he is, after all, a smuggler.

This is a dangerous situation.

They were driving all night, east,

through the mountains and you could see
lights on the hills,

you know, indicating the route.

There were loads of people in the car,
seven or eight people,

so when we crossed the border
between Arab Iraq and Kurdish Iraq

and the guy turned around
and said, "You're okay now,

you've made it,"

it was just… it was amazing.

[Danny] We knew that we, we were free
and we were just ecstatic.

-[ambient music playing]
-[car approaching]

Once they have escaped,
you couldn't communicate with them, no.

The person in charge,
he comes back with a message.

The message is half the dinar
that they took with them.

[Eileen] They leave one half
with the people in Baghdad,

so we know that they arrived safely.

[Fiona] Did you think of trying to escape?

No. We were afraid to do that. [chuckles]

[Fiona] The Jewish community
was now down to a few hundred.

The Ba'ath Party's attention
drifted elsewhere.

Eleven years after Eileen's passport
had been taken away,

her application for a new one
suddenly went through.

[Eileen] We closed the door.

We had our suitcases with us.

We went to a friend's house

and the next morning,
we went to the airport and left.

[blissful ambient music playing]

[Fiona] Eileen arrived in London
on the 18th of December 1974,

leaving 280 Jews in Baghdad.

[Freddy] Once you leave the country
and don't return within three months,

then all your property is confiscated.

-[Eileen] And you lose your nationality.
-[Freddy] And you lose your nationality.

You're not considered Iraqi any more.

[Eileen] Three months.

[blissful music playing]

[Eileen] This is a miniature
of the Tigris. [laughs]

[explosions]

[Fiona] In 2003,
Iraq was once again invaded.

An Anglo-American alliance
wanted to be rid of Saddam Hussein.

And a wisp of the past rose
from the conflict.

[David] My father was interviewed
on the eve of the war.

They asked him for some photos,
and this was one of the ones he gave.

My mother winning Miss Baghdad 1947.

An Iraqi newspaper in Britain
picked up this picture,

they coloured it in a little,

giving her a yellow sash
and an orange-pink dress,

and they published it

with a sort of wistful commentary
underneath,

saying… [speaking in Arabic].

[Danny translates] "Baghdad used
to be a city of peace and tolerance

where people enjoyed calmly drinking
their coffee,

strolling with ease, retiring at night
with confidence

and waking up in the morning
with a new hope.

People were really living the good life."

Now, my mother appears in about
two and a half thousand websites.

She's become a symbol of what they see
as the best days of Iraq.

-[stroller wheels clanging]
-[PA system dings]

[Fiona] I'm going to meet Edwin
in northern Iraq.

He is buying his house in Erbil,
the capital of the Kurdish area.

He wanted to join the last five Jews
still living in Baghdad,

but it's too dangerous there,

which is not to say Erbil is safe.
Islamic State's front line

is just a short drive
from Erbil's city centre.

[blissful music playing]

[Edwin] I stayed the course so far.

And in spite of the incredible fantasy
of it all,

so far, so good.

-Hello, good morning.
-Hello, good morning, sir.

Hello, hello, hello.

[in Arabic] How are you?
Honoured to meet you.

[conversing in Arabic]

-What shall we speak? Arabic or English?
-Arabic or English is fine.

[Edwin, in English]
It's a heightened sense of living.

It's a, it's a kind of a fear

mixed with excitement,
mixed with belonging.

No matter what the danger is,
the mind adjusts itself and so did I.

But, yes, I have to deal with it,
like everybody else is dealing with it.

[in Arabic] Allah! I love you! I love you

and I love everyone who loves you…

[in Arabic] We would like to encourage
people to come to Iraq,

to this complex, specifically,
and to this region.

[Fiona] Edwin's on his way
to see the house that he bought off plan.

Now, he owns a piece of Iraq.

Wow!

[speaking in Arabic]

[speaking in Arabic]

[Edwin, in English] I bought this house.
It is a step in my dream.

[ambient music playing]

[Edwin] You know what? Maybe, just maybe,

in 30, 40, 50, 60 years' time,

Jews, would reconnect
with their birthplace.

It could die with me.

But If I don't see my dream
in my lifetime,

at least I know I set it in motion.

[sombre music playing]

[peaceful music playing]

Of course, I'm longing for the,
for the river there,

I'm longing for Baghdad, my Baghdad.

And you mourning for that,
it is so natural.

But you don't go there.

[David D.] 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.

[David D.] Iraq is still in our blood,

in our bones.

It's like a distant bell ringing
in the back of our heads,

always reminding us where we came from.

I still miss Baghdad.

I wouldn't like to go now
because it's all in ruins.

The places I know are not the same.

So it's better to remember everything
as it is.

-[Freddy] Or as it was.
-As it was, sorry. [laughs]

I was dreaming. [laughs]

[sombre music playing]