LDS Freedom Forum

Advocating the common Aryan ancestry of 'the two Nations.' In 1936 then, the Reich Cabinet issued a special decree exempting Iranians from the restrictions of the Nuremberg Racial Laws on the grounds that they were 'pure blooded Aryans' (Lenczowski. 1944, p. 160). And in 1939, the Nazis provided Persians with what they called a German Scientific Library. The library contained over 7.500 books carefully selected "to convince lranian readers...of the kinship between the National Socialist Reich and the "Aryan culture" of Iran" (Lenczowski. 1944, p. 161). In various pro-Nazi publications, lectures, speeches, and ceremonies, parallels were drawn between the Shah of Iran and Hitler, and praise the charisma and virtue of the Fuhrerprinzip (Rezun. 1982, p. 29).



Hitler became a national hero of Iranians and all so-called 'oppressed Aryan peoples. For instance, a journal titled "Nameh-ye Iran-e Bastan" (the Journal of Ancient Iran) identified Hitler as "one of the greatest men in the world": Adolph Hitler, this great scholarly man of the Aryan race, has destroyed a 200-years old plan of the Jews against nationality in the world, against nationalism, and particularly the Aryan races on earth...and has created a new day for the new world.

Regarding the Nazi symbol of the swastika, the journal wrote in issue 28, Mordad,1933: It is truly rejoicing to see that the symbol of Iran from 2000 years before Christ has today become a symbol of pride for the Germans, who are of one race and ethnicity with us (cited in JAMI, 1983, pp. 74-5)


Again, in issue 35, Mehr 1333, in an article titled "Why We Are Superior?" the journal wrote: the sign of Aryan triumph (swastika) is everywhere Aryan and respectable, be it on ceramics of Isfahan's Masjid-e Shah or on the columnn of Darvazeh Dovlat in Tehran; or be it placed on the flag of Germany or embellish the arm of Hitler:' From ancient times the Black dress has been an exclusive property of the Iranic race.

In fact the ideology of Aryan racial superiority was nurtured and advocated by a vast majority of Persian elites and intellectuals.
1939, Berlin, Germany: From left, Iranian Ambassador to Germany and Speaker of Iranian Parliament visiting Hitler, the German Chancellor.

During this time the Allies grew suspicious of Iran's and Germany's loyalty to each other. “Germany was our age-old and natural ally, Love of Germany was synonymous with love for Iran. The sound of German officers' footsteps was heard on the shores of the Nile. Swastika flags were flying from the outskirts of Moscow to the peaks of the Caucasus Mts. Iranian patriots eagerly awaited the arrival of their old allies. My friend and I would spin tales about the grandeur of the superior race. We considered Germany the chosen representative of this race in Europe and Iran its representative in Asia. The right to life and role was ours. Others had no choice but submission and slavery. We discarded the old maps and remade Iran into a country larger than what it was in Achaemenian times.”