Escape from Baghdad : Moshe Kahtan's story

This 34-minute film by David Kahtan is a must-see: it illustrates the treatment of Jews by the Iraqi regime in the mid-60s. In 1969, nine Jews were hanged in Baghdad's main square on trumped-up spying charges. Had he not managed to escape, Moshe Kahtan is convinced he would have been the tenth.

Moshe Kahtan, scion of an old and prominent Baghdad family, was the last Iraqi Jew to escape the country before the 1967 Six-Day War.

Having left Iraq in the 1950s to study in London, Moshe had to make the most difficult decision of his life and went back to Baghdad in 1965, knowing full well that as a Jew, he would be prevented from leaving again.

In this film, made by his son David, Moshe tells us of his “two years of hell” in the city of his birth, and gives an account of his near-capture by the Iraqi navy.

Also by David Kahtan:
Voices of the Farhud Part 1
Voices of the Farhud Part 2