Los musulmanes en la guerra de la Alemania nazi

In the most decisive phase of World War II, after suffering the first military setbacks in the Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, setting aside its racist prejudices in favor of geostrategic pragmatism, tried to instrumentalize Islam to its advantage. From that moment on, Muslims from territories as diverse as North Africa, the Balkans or the Caucasus, where the troops of the Third Reich fought, became the target of Nazi propaganda. For the Nazi leaders most enthusiastic about this project, led by Heinrich Himmler, Muslims were a powerful force that had the same enemies as Germany: the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Jews. One of the objectives of this campaign was to recruit the maximum number of men for his war effort; another was to undermine the British and Soviet empires they were fighting. "Muslims in Nazi Germany's War" is the first comprehensive study of Berlin's ambitious attempts to forge an alliance with the Islamic world. Drawing on a thorough investigation of primary sources carried out in archives on three continents, David Motadel explains how the Third Reich tried to promote itself as a benefactor of Islam. It investigates the policies and propaganda of Berlin in the Muslim war zones and the intense work carried out by the Nazi authorities to recruit and give spiritual assistance and ideological indoctrination to the tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers who fought in the ranks of the Wehrmacht and in the SS. Combining reasoned arguments with a masterful treatment of detail, Motadel elucidates the profound impact World War II had on Muslims around the world and how the Middle East changed. The Nazi attempt to instrumentalize Islam will be followed by other powers during the Cold War.