Feldgrau.net

Hi,
Does anyone know about Iranians (Persians) serving in German army ?
I suppose in Felmy's unit, fighting in Causasus, there were some Iranian
volunteers. The Felmy's unit was supposed to exploit success of German offensive and enter terrotory of Iran. As far as I know Hitler officially declared Iranians as Aryans. Did any other Persian units exist in German
army.

Hi Wittold,

It didn't need Hitler to declare the Iranians to be Aryans. They are accepted as Aryans, or Indo-Europeans, by ethnologists everywhere. You only have to consult a dictionary to see that the Persian words for mother, father, daughter, door, etc., are related to Germanic and Latin languages.

Cheers,

Sid.

Hi Sid,
You are right. There is no doubt Iranians are Aryans (BTW I speak farsi).
But I would like to quote small piece of book "Modern Iran" by L.P. Elwell- - Sutton (first published 1941):
"Schacht (Governor of Reichsbank) visited Iran during his tour of the Near East in 1936, and was rather coldly recieved (owing in part, it is thought, to the fact that Iranians had not at that date been officially exempted from Nuremberg anti- Semitic laws)...
and one more from book "Russia and the West in Iran" by George Lenczowski (published 1949)
"To remove any causes for misunderstanding under the Nuremberg Racial Laws, a special decree of the Reich cabinet in 1936 exempted the Iranians, as "pure Aryans" from their restrictive provisions".
But what about Iranians in German forces?

Cheers,

Witold

Hi Wittold,

Interesting stuff.

Alas, I know nothing about Iranians in the Wehrmacht.

However, if memory serves me correctly, some parts of the southern USSR (known as "Turan" to the Iranians?) contained Persian speakers. If the Germans captured enough of these, perhaps Persian-speakers, if not actual Persians, served amongst the Osttruppen. I will have a look at a linguistic map. I suppose technically, if they were Aryans, they shouldn't have appeared amongst the Osttruppen, but in some other volunteer organisation.

As a matter of interest, as a Farsi speaker, are you aware if the Iranians ever published an official history of their part in WWII?

Cheers,

Sid.

Hello,
I knew about an Italian Navy mission in Iran before the Second World War. Air force too had to sell in 1938 some FIAT BR. 20 bombers but Mussolini vetoed the bargain in Jan. 1938 as USSR had opposed the idea and the Duce decided that Iran would be the ideal price for Moscow coo peration for the new M.E. order he envisaged since 1933 following Gen. Alberto Pariani "great plan" (the fact that Pariani had developed these ideas during his long Albanian mission according the influence of a group of czarist Russians who seved as personal freikorps and pretorian guards of the President and later King Zogu and who were discovered, by the Germans, in 1944, to be on the Soviet Union payroll since more than 20 years is an other matter).
The Italian Ambassy was very active there too until the common British and Soviet invasion of Aug. 1941 and the Gran Muftì was saved and bring in Europe by the Italian diplomatic personnel, first of all the secretary Conte Mellini Ponce de Loen.

Bye EC

I don't know specifically about Iranians, but apparently there were some mid-easterners initially serving with Sonderverband 288 (see some info here: http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=29 ) Also, I think the Germans created some form of small 'Arab Legion' company or battalion sized unit.

Hi,
Tajik language is very close to Persian language. They can easily understand each other. Before Bolshevik revolution Tajiks had very strong position among other Central Asian nations. However due to their fierce resistance (Basmachi movement) against Soviet rule, they were severly repressed and reduced to small Soviet Republic of Tajikistan (losing Samarcand).

I suppose Tajiks were included in Turkomen units (for instance 162 Infantry Division) and Brandenburgers.
As Azeris constitute a substantial community in Iran, Germans could recruit them as well. There were several Azeri units in Osttruppen ans SS.

I have a book on history of Iranian army (title "Four thousand years of Iranian Army"), but chapter on Iranian army in II WW is very modest.
I have to look for other sources.

There are two interesting sites concerning II WW in Iran: http://users.sedona.net/~sepa/sunrise.html
It is a little about so called "Iranian Pearl Harbour"

http://www.militera.lib.ru
It is a russian website with plenty of documents and books and among
them the diary of SS-officer (Mayr), working on a secret mission in Iran.

Cheers,

Witold

Antonio Munioz published and wrote a book a few years back for Axis Europa titled somthing along the lines of "Lions of the Desert". The book is short, due to real lack of information, but nonetheless very informative. Also I believe that it is out of print, but if you search an ebay.com or yahoo.com auction I'm sure you could pick it up used for a thrifty price.

Take it easy....

There was (and is) a sizeable Iranian minority in Armenia and Azerbaidjan, but my guess is that they would have served with Armenians and Azeris, rather than in their own special units. Maybe small companies were formed.

I am not sure where I read it, but it's possible that Abwehr employed Iranians as their agents before the war when sentiments were high against the British in Middle East.

Panzermahn