Before World War II, there were more than 150,000 Jews living in Iraq. Today, there are fewer than five.

That exodus started in the early 1940s when pro-Nazi sentiment and even a pro-Nazi government in Iraq led to the Farhud pogrom. Valerie David’s father was one of the Jews forced to flee in the wake of the pogrom.

The actor and playwright wrote a one-woman show, “Baggage From BaghDAD,” about her father’s exodus, and now she’s bringing it to the Philadelphia Fringe Festival for three performances at the Asian Arts Initiative Third Floor on Vine Street.

Philadelphia Fringe brings over 300 independent artistic performances to the city at more than 100 venues. David’s shows will run at 7:15 p.m. on Sept. 17, 3:45 p.m. on Sept. 19 and 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 20.

“I was so influenced by my family’s story that I decided to write a play about it. No one’s aware that there was a pogrom on June 1 and 2, 1941,” David said.

The New York City-based playwright and performer said her father “never really talked about his past.”

“It was very traumatic for him,” she added.

But in 2005, David, her mother and her father went to the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival and watched “The Last Jews of Baghdad,” a documentary about the Farhud pogrom and the decline and exodus of the Iraqi Jewish community.

“I was so influenced by the film because it talked about Farhud,” David said. “It became something that I needed to do. I didn’t realize it was going to be a show until later.”

After that screening, David interviewed her father about what happened. Then, she went to Greensboro, North Carolina, and talked to her aunt and uncle. Finally, she visited Queens to speak with her cousin.

Her dad was 8 when he left his childhood home.

During those conversations, David learned that there were going to be gas chambers in the Middle East if Hitler had gone “further than he did.” Hitler’s infamous autobiography and manifesto, “Mein Kampf,” had also been published in Arabic, sparking antisemitic fire “among Nazi sympathizers.”

“My grandfather had to dress as an Arab because he got beat up,” David said.

David started writing Baggage From BaghDAD in 2017, transcribing the videotapes of her family’s interviews from years prior. On Aug. 10, 2018, she held the first public reading of “Baggage From BaghDAD” in New York. Two months later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time.

“I had to put that on hold,” she said of the play.

David recovered. By 2020, she was ready to perform again, but COVID-19 broke out.

Two years later, as the pandemic subsided, David brought “Baggage From BaghDAD” back to the stage at the Bernie Wohl Center on the Upper West Side. She had performed another one of her plays — “Pink Hulk: One Woman’s Journey to Find the Superhero Within” — at the venue before COVID. At the time, she had told the venue operators about “Baggage From BaghDAD.”

“They said, ‘Why don’t you do a reading?’” she recalled. “The night before we did the reading, my father passed away.”

David spoke with her mother, who told her that her father would want the show to go on. So, she took to the stage with 70 people in attendance.

“It was the hardest performance I’ve ever had to do,” the actor said.

During the talkback session that night, a woman asked David what her father thought of the show.

“I remember I took a pause because I didn’t want to make the woman uncomfortable with the answer I was about to give. I said, ‘My father is very proud of the show, and unfortunately he passed away last night,’” she recalled. “There was a collective gasp. I said, ‘I know he’s up there very proud of me.’”

After that night, David started traveling with the show. She performed it in Stockholm, Sweden; Vermont; and New York, among other places. It won Best Play at the 2022 Sweden Broadway World Regional Awards and the Spoken Word & Theatre Award at the 2022 Stockholm Fringe Festival.

But earlier this year, David survived the “successful removal of a brain tumor,” according to a news release on “Baggage From BaghDAD.” It turned out to be metastatic breast cancer. David has now survived cancer four times and has no evidence of disease.

After the removal, “I wanted to get back on my feet,” she said.

The performer came up with the idea of bringing it to Philly. She was already on Fringe’s email list. Then she got an email with information about applying.

“I’m thrilled to be performing this show,” she said. “I’ve loved Philly. I had known the Philly Fringe.”

David credits her resilience to her father.

“They went to India for six years before they came to the U.S. They built up a life again and started over,” she said.

Tickets to the show are available on phillyfringe.org.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com