Yes, more accurately nearly three millennia ago. The WWII analogy is inaccurate. There were/was at least one Iranian diplomat who aided French Jews. And in a sense Iran was a refuge post 1941 if anyone could get there. But that’s because the Nazi supporting Shah, forgot his name, was replaced when the Brits occupied the country in mid late 1941.
>>>”There were/was at least one Iranian diplomat who aided French Jews. And in a sense Iran was a refuge post 1941 if anyone could get there. But that’s because the Nazi supporting Shah, forgot his name, was replaced when the Brits occupied the country in mid late 1941.”<<<
His is Reza Shah, father of the last Shah who died in 1980.
The Iranian govt during WW2 was officially neutral. The Iranian govt started issuing Iranian passports to the Jews, which never mentioned religion. The Iranian govt, leveraging the concept of Aryan with the Nazis, and based on good diplomatic relations, asked the Nazis to leave the Iranian Jews alone, because they were “Iranians. The Nazis complied.
That meant many Jews were saved from being sent to the gallows, concentration camps or gas chambers. Point is the Iranian govt saved Jewish lives at that time best they could, without firing a single shot. Way I see it, kudos & much respect to them!