Kurdish piece ignores archive's Jewish heirs

Saad Eskander, the Kurdish director of the Iraq National Library

This article in the Kurdish outlet of Rudaw on the 'Jewish archive' backs the unwavering view of Doris Hamburg of the US National Archives:  the archive is bound to go back to Iraq. The Kurdish director of the National Library in Baghdad,  Saad Eskander, is not only keen to put the returned archive on display, but regrets that it ever left Iraq. Missing from Judit Neurink's report is what the Iraqi Jews themselves think. They are treated as an obsolete and invisible community, although some of the archive's Jewish owners are still living.  (With thanks: Torbjorn)

My comment: Eskander is a mass of contradictions: on the one hand the archive should never have left Iraq, and that the Americans should have taught the Iraqis how to care for the documents - although Iraq demonstrably did not have the resources or the specialist equipment, let alone the expertise. On the one hand the archive is 'culturally worthless' and Iraq retained the most valuable pieces. On the other hand, these pieces remained neglected in the cellars of the National Library and Museum, 'where they still are', he admits. He is not interested in doing justice to the still living Jewish heirs outside Iraq, only in the political significance of the archive as an illustration of Saddam Hussein's crimes.

Rudaw reports:

ERBIL: "The army contacted the National Archives and told them what they had. When Hamburg arrived in Baghdad soon after, the wet documents had already started moulding in the heat of May.

“We did not know if someone had opened a tap,” Hamburg recalls 10 years later, on the phone in Washington. The documents needed immediate attention but salvaging them in Baghdad was not possible. So they were flown to the United States.

Most Jews left Iraq after Israel was founded in 1948 and only thousands remained after the big exodus that continued until 1952. Most who stayed left after anti-Jewish campaigns under Saddam in 1969 and the year after. Nowadays, only a handful of elderly Jews remain in Baghdad. What remains of the community can no longer be recognised as Jewish, following conversions to Islam or Christianity.(The latter is most unlikely - ed) 

Yet, for decades the Jews of Baghdad formed the economic and intellectual heart of the city, thanks to their roles as bankers, money changers, traders, doctors, thinkers and artists. Jews had their own schools and organizations. The documents found seem to stem mainly from organizations that were closed one-by-one in the 1960s and early the following decade. Because of their importance for researchers, the documents will all be freely available online, Hamburg says proudly.

A special exhibition was planned, but it is unclear when that will open due to the shutdown of the American federal government. After that, the originals will return to Iraq, Hamburg says.

“From the start, we have worked closely with the Iraqi authorities, and that’s what we agreed on.”

 "Director Saad Eskander of the National Library in Baghdad will be glad to receive the archives.

From the start, he was against their trip to the United States, although he admits that Iraq could not look after them in 2003. “Iraq was in a chaos. Nobody was interested in our cultural heritage.”

"Yet, the documents should have stayed, he says: “Instead of taking them away, the Americans should have taught the Iraqis how to repair and maintain them.

”When he was invited to the US to see what was happening to the documents, he admitted the National Archives had done a great job. But when the Americans asked to send more documents to restore, he refused. Instead, he set up the National Library’s own laboratory with help from abroad.

 “My staff can now do it by itself,” he says proudly. “And our documents can also be found on our website.”

 Eskander will use the return of the documents next year to put on a special exhibition. It will be “the first Jewish one in Iraq in many years. We want to show how multi-religious Iraq was, and what crimes have been committed by the former dictatorial regimes,” he says.

To the returning collection, the National Library will add its own Jewish documents, many of them received under Saddam’s rule. When Saddam confiscated the books and documents of the Jews who left the country, the most valuable pieces were kept.

“They went to us, and to the Iraqi Museum. Only a third went to the Mukhabarat,” Eskandar explains. But the library and museum were not allowed to study or handle them in any way. “We could read nor classify them. They have been kept in dark cellars for many years,” Eskandar says. In the Iraqi Museum, that is where they still are, he adds.

“In 2004, I had them taken out to be repaired and maintained.”For that reason he is not as impressed as the Americans about the cultural value of the returning documents.

 “That has been exaggerated greatly.” The fact that the Mukhabarat put them in the cellar, tells us the service did not value them highly, he says. "That does not make them worthless, he hastens to add. “The political value is huge. Because they show you how Saddam Hussein tried to destroy the cultural heritage of the Jews of Iraq.”

Read article in full 
jewishrefugees.