Reza Shah and Adolf Hitler: Iran’s History with the Third Reich

On January 3, 2020, a US airstrike at the Baghdad airport in Iraq killed top Iranian military official Major General Qassem Soleimani. Representatives at the Pentagon said, “General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” Soleimani was widely respected in Iran, and some groups of Iranians have vowed revenge on the United States.

The tensions between Iran and the United States are certainly not new, and neither are governments deciding on a policy of “targeted assassinations.” Consider this true story from WWII of a targeted killing that was launched in Tehran.

In Night of the Assassins, I tell the true, better-than-fiction story of how Secret Service head Mike Reilly warded off an attack on Allied leaders by the world’s top assassins and the part that Iran’s leadership and top spies played in the political attack.

A passage from the book, “How can one explain the deep, mutual attraction between Reza Shah and Adolf Hitler? Two strongmen, prone to fiery tirades, who held on to power with an unforgiving, take-no-prisoners vengeance? Two egotists hell-bent on realizing their personal ambitions under the pretense of the national interest? Two would-be dynastical rulers convinced their legacy would resonate for the next thousand years? Certainly, the commonalities ran deep…”

A bond between a predominantly Muslim nation and Hitler’s Third Reich may seem surprising, but Reza Shah’s determination made it possible. “Reza Shah proudly howled whenever he got the chance that his people were not lowly Semites like their Jewish or Arab neighbors, but pure-blooded Aryans – same as the Germans. He made sure the world got this message, too. In 1935 he issued a proclamation to the League of Nations that “henceforth” the country of Persia would be called Iran – the name reaching back in time to the country’s ancient roots and the Sanskrit phrase “Airyanem Vaejah,” or “Home of the Aryans.”

In quick response, Germany bestowed their seal of racial purity on the kingdom: the pernicious Nuremberg Laws that had made anti-Semitism the law of the land, were amended. Iranians, the Nazi’s racial nit-pickers formally adjudicated in 1936, were to be considered as Aryan as any full-blooded German.

This happy kinship received further cultural staying power from the fact that the swastika was emblazoned all over Germany, from the flag to the uniforms of its goose-stepping battalions. It was the iconic emblem of the Third Reich. Yet millennial before the crisscrossed geometric design had been designated as the calling card of the Nazi Party, it had been a commonplace good luck symbol in Eurasia; the word, “swastika,” can be traced back to sacred Sanskrit texts. The swastika had decorated Persian art since the time of Zoroaster, carved into ancient stone columns, etched into tribal pottery. Now, however, this historical accident was deliberately seen as something more – further proof of the deep-seated Aryan ties between the people of the Reza Shah and, as the German chancellor was called with deference in Iran, Hitler Shah.

But Reza Shah’s affection for the Nazis had other deep roots, too. An emperor setting out to do nothing less than establish a dynasty, he was by necessity a practical statesman. He wanted, needed, to be on the side that was winning. In the opening years of the war, the Nazis had not only blitzkrieged across Europe, but seemed poised to take control of the Middle East. The Reich’s far-reaching talons were firmly hooked into Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Syria. Waves of German paratroopers had dropped like mythic omnipotent gods from the sky to seize the oilfields and refineries at Mosul, in Northern Iraq. And the Afrika Korps was still on the march. It seemed inevitable that their panzers would roll victoriously through Palestine, Egypt, and Iran as the unstoppable battalions rumbled towards India. Reza Shah was convinced he was backing the winning side.”

Along with Italy and Japan, Iran fought for Germany during World War II and supplied Germany with oil, which Hitler saw as a pathway to dominance and the eventual surrender of Great Britain. In December 1943, Reza Shah and Hitler Shah (as the Iranians referred to him), along with their top strategists, helped to plan the assassinations of FDR, Churchill, and Stalin, which would have changed the course of the world as we know it. Night of the Assassins, coming out on 06/02/2020, is the true story of that plan and the heroic bravery that went into stopping it.

Following the British and Russian invasion of Tehran, Reza Shah escaped and his son, who quickly joined with Allied causes, took the throne. After a period of peace, tensions again escalated. Today, the voices of Americans, including Iranian Americans, are calling out for peace and a stop to the bloodshed. Generation to generation, the conflict may seem to shift, but the tension has remained for centuries. The path outward is murky and unclear, but understanding the history of this long-embattled relationship is a vital first step.

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Hitler Shah sends his greetings to Reza Shah, both proud Aryans setting out to build dynasties.