Joseph Samuels was born in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Baghdad in December of 1930, into a city that was multicultural and friendly to Jews. Iraq, however, allied itself with the Nazis leading to the Farhud (“violent dispossession”) Massacre in June, 1941. In a pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad, hundreds of innocent people were massacred and thousands injured on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Joseph was ten just years old at the time.

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His family had moved away from the Jewish quarter of Baghdad in 1940, allowing them to escape most of the violence, but they still took precautions to protect themselves if a mob came to their home. Joseph remembers taking boiling water to the roof to pour onto looters that attempted to enter the house. 

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After the massacre, Joseph’s family remained in Iraq for several years where they prospered. Joseph wanted to live in America, where he was accepted to three universities, but the Iraqi government prevented him from moving by demanding a prohibitive fee. Instead, Joseph snuck out of Iraq with smugglers, eventually reaching Israel where he joined the navy. Following his military service, he moved to Montreal where he became a successful businessman in sales and real estate. 

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He continues to educate the world about the wider scope of the Holocaust, and especially its effects on the Jews of Iraq.