The Role of Iran’s Foreign Ministry in Saving Iranian Jewry in the Balkans and Vichy France during WW II

Azari Shahrezaei, Reza

The Role of Iran’s Foreign Ministry in Saving Iranian Jewry in the Balkans and Vichy France during WW II

Document Type : Scientific - research article

Author

Reza Azari Shahrezaei

Iran’s Contemporary History Researcher

Abstract

One can safely assume that many an incident in the history of Iranian Foreign Ministry have not received enough attention. One such endeavor on the part of Iran’s Foreign Ministry is its mission to save Iranian nationals, especially the Jewry, from the scourge of the War and the dangers of fascism. In recent years, incomplete and at times one-sided accounts of the mission for saving Iranian Jews have surfaced in Europe; the biased nature of such accounts is to the extent that the entire campaign for the protection of Iranian Jews is reflected as the deed of one certain person in France. Drawing on historical document the current article has attempted to render an alternative account stating that the campaign for saving Iranian nationals, especially the Jews, was not exclusive to France because Iranian nationals faced the same threats from Nazis in the Balkans and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was well aware of the danger and used all its diplomatic capacity in Europe to ward off the dangers of war and Nazism from Iranian Jews.

Keywords

Iran

Balkans

Vichy France

Second World War

Iranian Jewry

Ministry of Foreign Affairs