Today marks the beginning of the Purim festival. Porto celebrates the date with the first reading of the Megillah of Esther at the Kadoorie synagogue. Hundreds of congregants will be present and something else happened today. The Holocaust Museum has just announced that it is preparing to receive the Hitler Megillah. This will be the seventh different Megillah acquired by the local Jewish community.

In the Jewish world, there are five official biblical books designated as "Megillot" (Scrolls) that are part of the Ketuvim (Writings) section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and are traditionally read in the synagogue on specific holidays throughout the Jewish year, but there are also historical or local "megillot" that are not part of the official biblical canon.

1) Megillat Esther (Book of Esther): Read on Purim. It will be read today - beginning of Purim's celebration - at the Kadoorie Mekor Haim synagogue. While there are five, the term "the Megillah" almost always refers to the Book of Esther. It is the only one universally required to be read from a handwritten parchment scroll in all Jewish communities.

2) Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs): Read on the Sabbath during Passover/Pesach.

3) Rut (Book of Ruth): Read on Shavuot/Pentecost.

4) Eikhah (Lamentations): Read on Tisha B'Av, the fast mourning the destruction of the Temple(s).

5) Kohelet (Ecclesiastes): Read on the Sabbath during Sukkot, the feast of Tabernacles.

These are the five main Megillot.

There are also historical or local "megillot" like Megilat Saragossa, Megilat Fustat and Megillat Antiochus, but these are not part of the official biblical canon. The Jewish community of Porto possesses two.

6) Megillat Purim Sebastiano. The Jewish museum of Porto displays a replica of this very rare megillat, which is read every 2nd of Elul, and which aims to celebrate the failure of the Portuguese King Dom Sebastião when he tried to convert the Jewish community back to Christianity.

7) Hitler Megillah. The Holocaust Museum has acquired a replica of this megillah and is preparing to integrate it into its vast collection. Today, examples of the Megillat Hitler are preserved in institutions such as Yad Vashem in Israel and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.

What is Hitler Megillah?

The Megillat Hitler (yes, that Hitler) was composed in 1943 by the Moroccan scribe and professor Prosper Hassine in Casablanca to commemorate the 1942 liberation of Casablanca, Morocco, from Vichy rule. Prosper Ḥassin (later known as Asher Ḥassin, MK for Mapai from 1959—1969) was a Moroccan Jew and Hebraist who lived through the horrors of the Vichy regime and sought to write a scroll commemorating the defeat of the Axis forces in Africa.

The Jewish community of North Africa suffered greatly under Vichy rule, but since the Axis was largely pushed out of Africa by May 1943 this scroll was written in that year, meaning that Hitler was still in power when it was published. The scribe showed his disbelief in humanity: “Support and rescue will come from nowhere else for the Jews.”

Spread over seven chapters, written in the style of Megillat Esther, the Hitler Megillah related the events of the Holocaust, from the rise of the Führer to power, through the occupation of Europe and culminating with the murder of the Jews and the plunder of their property. It also recounts the liberation of Casablanca by Allied forces in November 1942. The final three chapters, written after the liberation of Morocco, are dedicated to the history of North African Jewry and their liberation by the Allies.

Hassine stresses in his preface to Megillat Hitler that it is not a story of joy since it does not have a happy end. He writes that the Megillah should be read with a serious demeanor while remembering the victims. The text includes passages parallel to the Purim ritual, such as: "Cursed be Hitler."

Hassine also proposes that, in the tradition of other Jewish communities throughout the ages, the local Jews should celebrate a small Purim Hitler (a "Purim Katan") to mark their personal deliverance from catastrophe every Kislev. Hitler Purim is celebrated on the 2nd of Kislev, and it is also remembered on each 20th of Kislev, marking the date in 1942 when the community was specifically saved from Nazi invaders and their followers.

The reading was created to commemorate what the local Jewish community called "Hitler Purim" or "Casablanca Purim," marking their survival of the Vichy regime and the Nazi threat.

Translation:

Chapter 1

And it was in the days of Hitler the painter, he was the corporal who dictated over all Germany, seventeen provinces. In those days, when that villain rose to the dictatorial seat in Berlin the capital. He forgot his poverty and the paint-cauldrons he would have on his shoulders, the poor man’s bread and torn clothes and house courtyards where he would stay. He did not remember the days without food and the life of wandering — in the day the sword consumed him, and ice by night, and good people would sweep him to their house. And the poor people would have compassion on him, and this kindness he learned, and he grew villainous and waxed fat like a pig. The great number of his troubles he forgot and removed from his heart, and the vengeance of Haman and Amalek (may his names be blotted out like theirs) he remembered and engraved on his heart, he saw the start and was blinded to the end. He said in his heart, “My elders were defeated out of their lack of wisdom, but I am a knowledgeable man full of understanding, my counsel is correct and my hand is strong, and with this I will conquer the whole world.” And how welcome regarding this are the words of the writer who said: “Pride has fallen in the trash-heap, all who want come and take it, from there pick up this evil.” And he taught his tongue to speak schemes, and he exaggerated and lied, he dug a pit and cut it out, and will fall in the hole he made. In the first year of his dictatorship, he made a feast for his Nazis and for all his fellows, the army of Germany, the villainous Nazis, and the chiefs of the fascists that were before him, to show them the greatness of his glory and splendor, and the honor of his greatness and great wisdom, and the number of his people and their measure as great as the sand of the sea. And after these things, the oppressor of all the people found in Berlin the capital from oldest to youngest made a one-day feast in the courtyard of the palace garden of the dictator. Great and wide houses he set up for his guests, beautiful apartments and in straight rafters and spread beds on a pavement of alabaster. And the drinking was by rule, in many different cups, and the dictatorial wine was great per the hand of the dictator. And the Germans drank well, and their hearts were gladdened, and the cheers grew louder in all Germany among the Nazis. Also, Italy had a feast for the Nazis in the royal palace of King Emmanuel. On the second day, when Hitler’s heart was good, he said to Goering,[ Goebbels, Ribbentrop, Bock, Ley, and Himmler, the seven officers of the dictator Hitler.

To the matter of what to do with these Jewish people that struck our ancestors and destroyed them and do not follow our religion, and they hate us. And Himmler said before the dictator and the officials, not just us alone does this people hate. Also the Italian fascists our comrades, it hates, and all the people of our alliance. If it is good in the eyes of the dictator, let a word come out like the word of the kingdom before him, and let it be written in the laws of the Nazis and fascists not to be overturned, to afflict the Jewish people with hard affliction. Also, we will ruin their houses and burn their gathering-places, killing young and old, even children, and through this we will take our revenge. And the remainder we will dress in a mark of shame, and make them labor in hard labor, and thus this people will be ended. And the matter was good in the dictator’s and the officials’ eyes, and Hitler did as Himmler said. And they sent out documents to all the cities and the nations that he was dictator over, for every German Nazi rolling over his house, spoken only in their language, to admonish, afflict, and trample all the Jews their neighbors. And the decree of the dictator that he had said was heard in all the cities of his dictatorship, for it was vast, and in all this the German Nazis listened to his advice and powerfully struck the Jews their neighbors. And they were killed by the sword men and boys, and starved elders and children, and afflicted parents and trampled children. And they placed upon them hard labor, and exiled them from their homes and stole their wealth and captured their captives. And the Jews began to flee from the rage of their enemies, and left all that was theirs, and fled as captives before the stress, and the rage of Hitler was not satisfied.

Chapter 2

After these things, when he saw the Jews’ trials, and his rage still burned in his gut, and the vengeance of his ancestors he said “I have not yet avenged.” And he again gathered his officials and nobles and asked them to find a plan with which the Jewish people scattered among all the lands could be destroyed. And Hitler’s officials said to him, “Let our master endeavor to conquer great and pleasant-looking cities. And let our master order the soldiers in all the cities of his dictatorship, arm them and command them to destroy every great, pleasant-looking, beautiful, strong, and fruitful city, and add them to the map of Germany. And in this, let your dictatorship grow, and may he find all he requires. And in his destruction of these cities let his enemies be tormented and destroyed, and he will do with them as he wishes.” And the matter seemed good to Hitler and he did so. And he filled himself with rage and was garbed in vengeance and gathered his forces and commanded them “Go further ahead, do not turn back, to guard your people and your land and expand your borders!” And they raised their hands and swore to spill their blood for their people and homeland. Glorious and pleasant lands were in those days, and they were Austria and Czechoslovakia, close to the borders of the dictatorship of Hitler, and in them lived many Germans. In them, he commanded to start, and the soldiers fell upon them; from above they cast their bombs, and from below they struck their cannons; they destroyed the houses, ruined the palaces, and burned the fields, and pure and clean and upright souls they killed. And the people panicked and trembled, and the tumult grew in the cities, for they did not know what it was or what it was about. And as the soldiers entered the city, they began to spill innocent blood and torture pure souls; the cries of the blood that went up to heaven they did not hear, also they called but none answered. And in their second conquest of cities they captured Lidice and spilled the blood of its people. Truly, most of all he afflicted the Jews, but he also turned his face to the other earth-dwellers, and sated them with pain and seasoned them with sickness. One law it was for him: hate all who are not a Nazi; he was terrible to them and also apportioned them plagues. And in every single city and land upon which Nazi feet tread, evil and bitterness to the Jews, weeping and fasting and moaning, sackcloth and ashes were spread out to the masses. The father was taken from his sons and led to the slaughter, the gentle mother and her infant they killed; they had no mercy on lands, and did not lift up the faces of elders. And to all the people of the cities they afflicted, with chill and hunger they killed, the houses of the Jews they destroyed, and from their ancestors’ roads they separated them and enclosed them in the ghetto. But it was not enough for Hitler what he was doing, and he commanded also the Italians and Japanese and Hungarians and Bulgarians and Romanians to do as he did, and they also sent their hot rage against the Jews. And he was a stressor to the Jews on all fronts, surrounding them with plagues and punishments and disgraces and curses and anguish and myriad deaths and they found no rest from any side. And the dictator commanded to hang and to kill any rebel against him, and they wrote this law in the book of chronicles that was his.

Chapter 3

After these things, the dictator Hitler promoted Himmler the Agagite and lifted him up and raised his seat over all the officials of the Gestapo who were his. And all the Nazis kneeled and bowed to Himmler, but the Jews did not listen to his voice. And he was angry at them and he did against them horrors and vengeances and countless murders. His stomach not yet sated for prey, he stretched his net to Danzig to extend it to his border despite the many peace offers offered to him. The heroic Poles prepared themselves and went out to meet that robber, and made war with him in strength, and many casualties fell from among them. Also gallant France and mighty Britain ran to see this injustice because they could no longer hold back. And they cut an alliance between them to wipe out, kill, and destroy all the Nazis, all of them from the greatest to the smallest. And they recruited their soldiers and they sent their aircraft and destroyed their cities and factories and their ships quieted the seas. And when he saw its strength and might, he sent armies and counties weapons to the Polish front, and bombarded its cities with his bombs, coming down day and night. And they burned the houses and killed the people and never ceased dropping the bombs until all its people surrendered under him. And when he came into the city he said with the book to destroy them per his evil schemes that he had schemed against the Jews to overwhelm and destroy them. And he sent flame into their cities and concentrated fire on their houses and consumed their dwellings; great and powerful wickedness that no eye had seen and no ear had heard. He commanded his nobles to affix a mark of shame on the house and shop of every Jew, and they passed through and did all that Hitler had commanded them. And Hitler conquered Poland in the first month, that is the month of Tishrei, in the sixth year of his dictatorship. And he hated its people more than all the people of the cities, and set as dictator over them Himmler the officer. And Hitler’s armies passed through Belgium and captured Luxembourg and conquered Holland and bombarded and seized France, and also they did not forget the quiet Balkans, and captured Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Yugoslavia, and Greece, and did to them as they wished. And the Nazis betrayed the Russians and camped against their cities and waged powerful war between them, and from among the mighty Russians fell countless casualties, and they shattered many weapons, for they also thought to destroy the seed of Hitler and Mussolini the Agagites. And the Russians struck the Nazis and the fascists with the strike of the sword and killing and destruction, and did to them as was good in their eyes. And in every city the nations’ heroes stood up and killed Nazis and fascists and overturned the tanks and smuggled weapons and set up refuges for them among the mountains. And Hitler commanded all the officials of the Gestapo and said: “For each Nazi you will kill a thousand, and for every two ten thousand, and the suspects you will imprison in chains.” And the officials did so and afflicted and killed fathers and sons. But all this was not enough for them, when they saw that there were still other cities where the Jews lived in wholeness and tranquility, and they sought to strike them for evil.

Chapter 4

And the Jews of these cities knew all that was done, and they tore their clothes and wore sackcloth and ashes, for they feared for their lives, and fled from these cities with great and bitter cries. And they went on sailing ships to the gates of Britain and America, for they could not come to those cities without permission. And their brethren came to comfort them and remove the sackcloth from them but they refused. And they said to them, “Our brethren in Italy are dead in Japan, tortured in Germany, and in many lands are trampled; we are exiled, and what will become of us? As well, many of our Balkan comrades have Nazified, because the fear of Hitler has fallen upon them!” And they told them all that had happened to the Jews, and the decrees of Hitler that he had decreed against them to destroy them and wipe them out, and they said to them, “Do not think yourself safe, Jews of America, from all the cities. For if you are silent, silent at this time, support and rescue will come from nowhere else from the Jews, and you too will die; and who knows if it is not by your hand that salvation will come?”

Chapter 5

And it was in the third year of the war, and the Americans were garbed in vengeance and came to the help of Britain to fall upon the enemy together and destroy him, and to save humanity and to rescue the world, and to purge evil from the peoples’ midst. And they set up weapons like the sand of the sea, and countless ships, mighty armies and many aircraft and gallant pilots. And they destroyed all the factories and ruined many of the places where they set up armaments, and the labor increased for the workers but they could not do it. And it was, when Hitler saw the powerful bombs that the Royal Air Force was dropping on him, his heart trembled and he grew filled with rage against the Jews. After two years of war, the Germans and Italians were beaten and defeated and fled away morning with their heads covered. And they fled in terror and fear, and turned back, and the tumult grew in all the camp. And Hitler was full of anger against the Jews, and he wished to wipe out the Jews of Morocco and dwelling in Algeria, and to afflict them like their brethren. In the eight month, that is the month of Ḥeshvan, in the tenth year of his dictatorship, lots were cast before Hitler from day to day and month to the ninth month, that is the month of Kislev. And Hitler saw that this month was great mourning for the Jews, and did not remember that it was the month of victory, in which the Hasmoneans were victorious. And he commanded they affix notes in all the streets to let all the Nazis and fascists know to wipe out all the Jews on a single day, day six of the month of Kislev, and their property to pillage. The copy of the writ was to be given as law in Morocco and Algeria to be prepared for that day, to get vengeance upon the Jews. The notices were hung up per the dictator’s word, and the law was given in Morocco and Algeria; Hitler and his Nazis sat to drink, and the Jews were confused.

Chapter 6

That night the rest of the leader Roosevelt was disturbed to save these cities and shield them. And the Americans came on the eighth of November and entered the cities on Wednesday the eleventh of November, matching with 2 Kislev; the Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor, and when the day came upon which the wicked ones had hoped to rule over the Jews, that very day was reversed for us from sorrow to joy, because the Americans ruled over them. The Jews gathered in their cities and celebrated a festival of redemption, drinking and a holiday, and many of the Jews’ pursuers in their cities acted as Jews, since the fear of the Allies had fallen upon them. And in each and every city where the Americans came, the laws of the Nazis and fascists were overturned, and the people rejoiced and were happy. And the Americans, French, and British pursued their enemies and forced them out of Africa, and did to them as they wanted. And they conquered Tripoli, Sousse, Sfax, Kairouan, and Gabès, and the joy grew in all the cities. And the number of killed came to about forty thousand, and the imprisoned was about a hundred and fifty thousand, and they set their hands to the spoils. Countless enemies fell, and many armaments were found, and they did to their enemies as they wanted, and not a man stood against them, since the fear of the Allies had fallen upon them.

Chapter 7

In the second month, that is the month of Iyyar, on the third day, they entered Tunisia and Bizerte, freeing the imprisoned and saying the hungry and drowning the oppressors in Cape Bon. And the flags of the Americans, the Brits, and the French brought light to those cities, and the flags of the Nazis and the fascists were trampled to the ground. And in Tunisia the fortress the Allies killed and destroyed about two hundred and fifty thousand men. And the Allies rested a number of days, and passed to the borders of Italy, and conquered four cities. Know this, Nazis and fascists: if you have schemed to destroy the Jewish people, at the time you begin to fall before them you will not defeat them, for you will fall, fall before them. It is upon us to fulfill, to be making this day of salvation in its time, on the eleventh of November, like the days when the Jews rested from Haman, and the month when it was reversed for us from sadness to joy, to make of it a day of feasting and joy and gifts to the needy. And the matter is accepted upon us, just as our brethren accepted upon them the words of Mordechai. And all the mighty and glorious deeds of the Allies, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of all the peoples? For the Jewish people is a tranquil people, pursuing justice, doing good for their people, and seeking to live in peace with their neighbors. And if fortune wills it, the eleventh of November, Armistice Day for the French, will be a great and permanent festival, and now our joy is doubled.

Blessed are You, our Savior, who argues our arguments and fights our wars and redeems us from all stress and damage.

Blessed are You, the God who answers Your people in all its stresses.

Cursed be Hitler!

Cursed be Mussolini!

Cursed be Tojo!

Cursed be Himmler!

Cursed be Goering!

Cursed be Goebbels!

Cursed be Hess!

Cursed be Darquier de Pellepoix!

Cursed be all the evil!

Blessed be Roosevelt!

Blessed be Churchill!

Blessed be Stalin!

Blessed be Du Gaulle!

Blessed be Giraud!

Blessed be Chiang Kai-Shek!

Blessed be all Israel!

Blessed be all lovers of justice!

And also may General Catroux be remembered for good!

The number of verses in this scroll is 111, and the halfway point is: “and went out to meet that robber, and your mnemonic is Trust in YHVH.