celebrity.estateAn EGRET.LAW propertyWorld map3D timeline
Home / War and property / Iraq took the property of the Jews who left in 1951, US troops found their community's…
Case file s1224 · War and property · 1951
See 1951 on the timelineSee it in 3D
1951
Baghdad Synagogue: Meir Tweig Synagogue or Meir Taweig or Meir Tweg Synagogue in Baghdad, Iraq
Baghdad Synagogue. Kharbaan Ghaltaan. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
10 March 1951 (Iraq's law placing emigrant Jews' property under state control)
Place
Baghdad, Iraq; Washington, D.C., USA
Field
community books and records · Land and agriculture on the timeline
Legal tradition
Iraqi law of 10 March 1951 on the property of Jews who forfeited nationality; 2003 agreement between the Coalition Provisional Authority and the US National Archives · Common law
Historical event
Exodus of Iraqi Jews (1950-1951) and the US invasion of Iraq (2003)
War and propertySeized by the statePostwarNorth AmericaMiddle EastUnited States

Iraq took the property of the Jews who left in 1951, US troops found their community's books in a flooded secret-police basement in 2003, and the books have stayed in America

On 9 March 1950 Iraq's parliament passed a law letting Jews leave if they gave up their citizenship and their right to return. About 125,000 of some 135,000 Iraqi Jews were airlifted to Israel in 1950 and 1951. On 10 March 1951, the day after that law expired, Iraq enacted a law placing the property of Jews who had forfeited nationality under government control. In May 2003, during the US invasion, American soldiers found about 2,700 books and tens of thousands of documents of the Iraqi Jewish community in a flooded basement of the intelligence service headquarters in Baghdad. The community says Saddam Hussein's government took them from a synagogue in 1984. Under an agreement with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the waterlogged material went to the US National Archives to be restored and then returned to the Iraqi government. In 2013 forty-two Jewish groups asked the US to consult the Iraqi Jewish diaspora before any return. In May 2014 Iraq extended the stay. The State Department said in 2017 it would not extend again and said in 2018 that it would work with Iraq to delay the return. In April 2026 the books were reported still in the United States. The collection has been digitized.

What the law took from it

When a state confiscates a community's property, the community's records can end up held by a third country as the only neutral custodian.

Sources
  1. jns.orgPress
  2. jewishlink.newsPress
  3. timesofisrael.comPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Iraq took the property of the Jews who left in 1951, US troops found their community's books in a flooded secret-police basement in 2003, and the books have stayed in America,” story s1224, https://www.celebrity.estate/iraqi-jewish-archive-1951, updated 30 October 2026.

Related cases

Each one shares a person, a kind of fight, a subject, a period or a place with this case. The line under each headline says which.

Meyerlansky: Meyer Lansky, mugshot of New York Police Departement1983 · Miami Beach, Florida, USA; Herzliya, IsraelThe FBI believed Meyer Lansky had $300 million hidden; he died in Miami with less than $35,000 in the bankShared: seized by the state; same era, postwar; also North AmericaMeyer Lansky, born in Grodno in 1902, was called the Mob's accountant. He worked with Lucky Luciano and Bugsy Siegel, helped build the Mob's casinos in Las Vegas and Havana, and controlled casinos in the Bahamas and London.themobmuseum.org and 2 moreMarilyn Monroe: A glamorous Marilyn Monroe in a red dress, taken for publicity purposes for 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire.1962 · Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USAMarilyn Monroe's executor told tax officials she lived in New York, so a court barred her estate's company from claiming California image rightsShared: seized by the state; 11 years apart; also North AmericaMarilyn Monroe signed her will in New York on 14 January 1961, naming her lawyer Aaron Frosch executor. She died in the Brentwood house she had bought for $75,000 six months earlier and was found on 5 August 1962.CourtListener and 8 moreF. Scott Fitzgerald: Photo portrait of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald used in a year-long print advertising campaign for the Woodbury Soap Company, in which Fitzgerald featured as one 1940 · Los Angeles, CaliforniaF. Scott Fitzgerald left an estate of about $35,000 in 1940, and the Catholic church refused his burial plot until his daughter petitioned in 1975Shared: seized by the state; 11 years apart; also North AmericaF. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on 21 December 1940, aged 44. Gatsby had sold fewer than 23,000 copies by the end of 1925, and his book royalties were $80 in 1936.blogs.library.duke.edu and 3 moreDashiell Hammett: Dashiell Hammett 19511961 · New YorkThe US government seized Dashiell Hammett's royalties for back taxes, and after he died Lillian Hellman took control of his copyrightsShared: seized by the state; 10 years apart; also North AmericaHammett was jailed in 1951 for refusing to name contributors to a left-wing bail fund. The federal government sued him for back taxes and won a judgment of $140,000. His royalties and all other payments were blocked.London Review of Books and 3 moreAl Capone: "Scarface" Al Capone is shown here at the Chicago Detective bureau following his arrest on a vagrancy charge as Public Enemy No. 1 in this 8 x 10 black & white origi1947 · Palm Island, Miami Beach, Florida, USA; Chicago, Illinois, UAl Capone went to prison for tax evasion and paid every cent, a live TV search for his vault found nothing, and his family sold his pistol for $860,000Shared: seized by the state; 4 years apart; also North AmericaThe Treasury Department built the case that ended Al Capone's career. He was convicted of income tax evasion on 18 October 1931.fbi.gov and 3 moreErnie Kovacs: Ernie kovacs 19561962 · Los Angeles, CaliforniaErnie Kovacs's mother sued his widow, Edie Adams, over how she paid his tax debtsShared: seized by the state; 11 years apart; also North AmericaErnie Kovacs died in a car crash in Los Angeles on January 13, 1962. Before his death the government had filed tax liens of $232,861.94 against him and his wife, Edie Adams.Caselaw Access Project, Harvard Law School and 3 more

Where this case sits

War and propertySeized by the statePostwarNorth AmericaMiddle EastCommon lawUnited States