Living Propaganda and Self-Serving Recruitment: The Nazi Rationale for the German-Arab Training Unit, May 1941 to May 1943

Abstract

In 1941 Hitler set aside racial purity restrictions for the Wehrmacht to form the German-Arab Training Unit. New sources reveal Arab recruitment was self-serving, meant to bolster Nazi propaganda and foment anti-Allied Arab violence. Racism towards Arabs was pervasive throughout the Nazi regime and the Wehrmacht, stemming from Nazi ideology and older colonial attitudes. Consequently, the unit’s two-year history from May 1941 to May 1943 was defined by tension between retaining racial segregation and feigning collaboration. The results were command indecision, neglect, reticence to deploy into combat, and reluctant expansion, which together created dysfunction and disorder in the unit.