Iraqi Memoirs of War: A National Apology

“Shreds of what Happened” is a three-volume memoir by Iraqi militaries collected and prepared by Morteza Shahangi and ornamented with graphic works by Kurosh Parsanejad. The book was debuted last year and its reprint was released with a new cover design in 101 pages. 2500 copies of the work are published by Sooreye Mehr Publications. The book’s reprint is the 592nd works published by the Bureau for Literature and Art of Resistance at Arts Center (Hozeh-ye Honari).
A part of the introduction of the book by Sarhangi reads as follows: “The book is particularly intriguing to me in a way that I have spend my past few years handpicking 30 memoirs from almost 65 published or translated books on Iraqi memoirs of war which I thought were most breathtaking. I added a few lines at the beginning of each story to broaden the scope of their influence because I believe that one cannot easily reach the core of a great incident like war without deeply thinking about it. I dedicated a volume to every 10 memoirs. . . . I have added details about the characters and places like their pictures and references of the memoirs as far as I could. These three volumes are my account of a war that was waged by world of power through Iraqi hands.” 
The second edition of the collection is arranged and published by Sooreye Mehr Publications. The memoirs begin with the “Capture Supper” by Major Ezzedin Maane from the Lost Battalion. He starts with the first days of Khorramshahr occupation and ends with the port’s liberation on May 24, 1982. Reflecting on Major Ezzedin’s memoirs, Sarhangi writes, “We don’t know a lot about him. This is the only book he ever wrote and whether he fought until the end of the war and how he entered Iran are still unknown to us. He has just written a short introduction for his book in which he stated that the book is a clear evidence of the realities of the war which decry the oppressive enemies.”
The second memoir is titled as Behzad Ghaedi by Dr. Mojtaba Alhusseini from the Third Regiment book. The following memory is the Drunk Commander by Captain As’ad Hatam Alatabi who has published his memoirs in the Hero’s Nightmare.
The 4th story is picked from the Hisham Chopper book by Captain Fahmi Arabiei. Accounting on Rabiei, Sarhangi writes, “A strange man he, indeed, is. It would be wise of me to bring all the pages of his book in the collection. He is a bold, operational officer who carried the wounds from a number of operations on his body. . . In Hisham Chopper, he tells us one of the most horrific incidents of the war. One might ask why the story is entitled as the Hisham Chopper; because a similar story has been narrated by an Iranian army officer named Major Habibollah Khodadadi. He was injured in Mehran and was left in a canal where he witnessed the throwing of Iranian captives from an Iraqi helicopter high in the sky. Page 48 of Rabiei’s book reads as follows: “After interrogations, Hisham Sabah Alfakhri ordered his servicemen to bring those three Iranians. Immediately the Iranians were before Hisham. “Insult Imam Khomeini,” he told them, but they stood still and said nothing. Then he rose from his seat, slammed them in the face several times crying, “Why? Why? Why?” He them headed toward his helicopter and asked his guards to bring them in. the Iranians got into the helicopter with the guardians with their guns pointed at them. “I will now send you to your Khomeini,” said Hisham. “Tell him Hisham said hello to you, Ha… Ha … Ha…” and burst into laughter. When the helicopter reached Iranian borders he threw the Iranian soldiers down while the locals were witnessing. After tumbling down on high peaks like balls they rolled from place to place and their heads severed from their bodies. “Do not show compassion to any Iranian,” said Hisham after viewing the scene.”
General Hisham Sabah Alfakhri was from Mosul. He served as a war commander beginning on the first days of the war until its end. He was a known figure for Iraqis and even Iranians because of the posts he held during the war. He directed the 10th Armored Division in the beginning of the war and enjoyed carte blanche to massacre Iranian captives and locals of border villages. Rarely, a captive could be found to have faced Hisham without having a bullet from his pistol left in his chest.
Another memoir printed in the collection is the Grounds Where…. by Captain Assam Abdolvahab Albobidi from Flight No. 22. Furthermore, the Appointment is another memoir selected for the collection which is narrated by Lieutenant Colonel Salman Safar Dervish from Our Corpses in Khorramshahr. “One of the features of the book is that all its events took place in Khorramshahr,” writes Sarhangi about the book. “All of the officers referred to in the story were in the city and wrote whatever they witnessed or heard of. Reading of this dreadful book needs endurance on the part of the reader especially when it comes to the treatment of Iraqi soldiers of women and girls in Khorramshahr.”
Fatemeh Khazraji is another memoir in the book which has been written by Reza Al-sabri in his book Khorramshahr under Fire.
Other marked stories in the second volume of the collection are titled as “Night Guard”,  “Fleeing Halabja”, “the Little Guest” from the Howl of Death, “A Soldier like this, A soldier like that” from Today is Yours.
The memoirs are selected in a way that can become the initiating ideas of documentaries and short films about the Sacred Defense. Movie directors and playwrights may create valuable works by reading such war memoirs and written documents.

Asgar Abbasnezhad
Translated by: Abbas Hajihashemi

 
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