Jews outside Europe under Axis occupation suffered greatly during World War II.
While there is academic consensus that the extermination of the non-European Jews was a long-term goal for the Nazi regime, it is less clear whether there were any imminent plans or policies to that end. Although there is no unanimity among historians on this point, historian Matthew Ghobrial Cockerill writes that "The purported evidence for planned extermination operations outside of Europe is unpersuasive."
Nazi Germany discriminated against and persecuted people on the basis of their race or ethnicity (actual or perceived), religious affiliation, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and, where applicable, mental or physical disabilities. Discrimination was institutionalized through legislation under the Nazi Party and perpetrated at an industrial scale, culminating in the Holocaust. Men, women, and children who were deemed mentally or physically unfit for society were subject to involuntary hospitalization, involuntary euthanasia, and forced sterilization.
The vast majority of the Nazi regime's victims were Jewish, Romani, or Slavic. Jews, along with some Romani populations, were deemed unfit for society on racial or ethnic grounds and largely confined to ghettos, then rounded up and deported to concentration or extermination camps. The beginning of World War II marked a colossal escalation in the Nazis' efforts to eliminate "inferior" communities across German-occupied Europe, with methods including: non-judicial incarceration, confiscation of property, forced labour (and extermination through hard labour), sexual slavery, human experimentation, malnourishment, and execution by death squads. For Jews, in particular, the Nazis' goal was total extermination—the genocide of the Jewish people, first in Europe and eventually in other parts of the world. This was presented by Adolf Hitler as the "Final Solution" to the Jewish question.
The Farhud (Arabic: الفرهود, romanized: al-Farhūd) was a pogrom carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on 1–2 June 1941 (coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot), immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a power vacuum that followed the collapse of the pro-Fascist and pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani while the city was in a state of instability. The violence came immediately after the rapid defeat of Rashid Ali by British forces, whose earlier coup had generated a short period of national euphoria, and was fueled by allegations that Iraqi Jews had aided the British. More than 180 Jews were killed and 1,000 injured, although some non-Jewish rioters were also killed in the attempt to quell the violence. Looting of Jewish property took place and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed.
On account of the role of Axis and pro-Axis elements in inciting and eventually carrying out the pogrom, it is often argued to have constituted the extension of the Shoah in Iraq, though this classification, and even its inclusion as part of the wider Holocaust, have been disputed. In any case, as with other persecutions of Jews outside of Europe, it is often overlooked when compared to the Holocaust in Europe, especially outside of Israel (where the vast majority of Iraqi Jews, as well as their descendants, currently live).