 The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that the fact that Farouk wanted to see his country occupied by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany was not a sign of great wisdom on his part and that he never understood "...that Axis rule of Egypt was likely to be far more oppressive than British".During the hardships of the Second World War, criticism was levelled at Farouk for his lavish lifestyle.His decision not to put out the lights at his palace in Alexandria when the city was blacked out because of German and Italian bombing was deemed particularly offensive by the Egyptian people.