"In the early 1930s, Nazi Germany's anti-Semitic policies evoked a widespread, positive response among Arab nationalists across the Middle East." "During this decade, a plethora of political organizations and paramilitary youth movements modelled on Fascist and Nazi organizations sprouted up in the Arab world. In Iraq, there was the al-Futuwwa, a youth organization modelled on the Hitler Youth, and the influential, pan-Arab, Fascist al-Muthanna Club, both openly supportive of the Nazis..." "In December 1937, the high-ranking Nazi officer, Baron Baldur von Schirach, arrived in Damascus and held a lengthy meeting with Said Fattah al-Imam, head of the Association of Graduates...