SS divisions consisting of
Bosnian Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
.
He was involved in planning "wartime operations directed against Palestine and Iraq, including parachuting Germans and Arab agents to foment attacks against the Jews in Palestine."
[Nazi War Crimes & Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group Final Report to the United States Congress April 2007, 1-880875-30-6]
p. 87 He assisted the German entry into North Africa, particularly the German entry into
French protectorate of Tunisia, Tunisia and
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
. His espionage network provided the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
with a forty-eight-hour warning of the Allied invasion of North Africa. The Wehrmacht, however, ignored this information, which turned out to be completely accurate. He intervened and protested to government authorities in order to prevent Jews from emigrating to
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
.
[ Collins, Larry and Lapierre, Dominique (1972): '']O Jerusalem!
''O Jerusalem!'' is a history book published in 1971 by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins that seeks to capture the events and mishaps surrounding the creation of Israel, and the subsequent mass expulsion of Palestinians.
Introduction
The ...
'', Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
, ., pp. 49, 50 There is persuasive evidence that he was aware of the Nazi
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
. After the war ended, he claimed that he never knew about the
extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s or
Nazi plans for the genocide of European Jews, that the evidence against him was forged by his Jewish enemies, and even denied having met Eichmann. He is still a controversial figure, both vilified and honored by different political factions in the contemporary Arab world.
Researchers like
Jeffrey Herf
Jeffrey C. Herf (born April 24, 1947) is an American historian of Modern European, in particular, modern German history. He is Distinguished University Professor of modern European at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Biography
He was born ...
, Meir Zamir, and Hans Goldenbaum agree on the importance of the German propaganda effort in the Middle East and North Africa. But latest research on the massive and influential radio broadcasts was able to prove "that the texts were supplied by German personnel and not, as sometimes believed, by the reader
of the Arabic broadcasts
... Furthermore, Goldenbaum concludes "that the man who was long regarded as the Reich's most important Muslim of all, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, did not play any particularly important role in this case. Despite the fact that his Arabic speeches were broadcast by Radio Berlin and he was always presented as a role model, al-Husseini did not have any influence on the broadcast content. The Arabs in general did not seem to have been partners with equal rights. Instead they were secondary recipients of propaganda and orders, Goldenbaum concluded. Cooperation never went beyond the emphasized common battle against colonialism."
Opposition
Gilbert Achcar, a professor of Development Studies at the
University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, argues that historical narratives often over-emphasize collaboration and under-appreciate progressive Arab political history, overshadowing the many dimensions of conflict between Nazism and the Arab World. He accuses Zionists of promulgating a 'collaborationist' narrative for partisan purposes. He proposes that the dominant Arab political attitudes were '
anti-colonialism
Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...
' and '
anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestin ...
,' though only a comparatively small faction adopted
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, and most Arabs were actually pro-
Ally
An ally is a member of an alliance.
Ally may also refer to:
Place names
* Ally, Cantal, a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France
* Ally, County Tyrone, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Ally, Haute-Loire, a commun ...
and anti-Axis (as evidenced by the high number of Arabs who fought for Allied forces). Achcar states:
The Zionist narrative of the Arab world is based centrally around one figure who is ubiquitous in this whole issue—the Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who collaborated with the Nazis. But the historical record is actually quite diverse. The initial reaction to Nazism and Hitler in the Arab world and especially from the intellectual elite was very critical towards Nazism, which was perceived as a totalitarian, racist and imperialist phenomenon. It was criticized by the liberals or what I call the liberal Westernizers, i.e. those who were attracted by Western liberalism, as well as by the Marxists and left-wing nationalists who denounced Nazism as another form of imperialism. In fact, only one of the major ideological currents in the Arab world developed a strong affinity with Western anti-Semitism, and that was Islamic fundamentalism—not all Islam or Islamic movements but those with the most reactionary interpretations of Islam. They reacted to what was happening in Palestine by espousing Western anti-Semitic attitudes.
Cooperation
Mandatory Palestine
The Palestinian Arab and Nazi political leaders said that they had a common cause against "
International Jewry
Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy or world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Al ...
". However, the most significant practical effect of
Nazi anti-Jewish policy between 1933 and 1942 was to
radically increase the immigration rate of German and other European Jews to Palestine and to double the population of
Palestinian Jews
Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians were the Jewish inhabitants of the Palestine region (known in Hebrew as ''Eretz Yisrael'', ) prior to the establishment of the State of Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِس ...
.
Al-Husseini
Husayni ( ar, الحسيني also spelled Husseini) is the name of a prominent Palestinian Arab clan formerly based in Jerusalem, which claims descent from Husayn ibn Ali (the son of Ali).
The Husaynis follow the Hanafi school of Sunni Isla ...
had sent messages to Berlin through , the
German consul general in Jerusalem, endorsing the
advent of the Nazi regime as early as
March 1933
The following events occurred in March 1933:
March 1, 1933 (Wednesday)
*The fictional defense attorney Perry Mason was introduced, along with his secretary Della Street, and detective Paul Drake, in Erle Stanley Gardner's novel, ''The Case ...
, and was enthusiastic over the Nazi anti-Jewish policy, and particularly the
anti-Jewish boycott in Nazi Germany. "
he Mufti and other sheikhs askedonly that German Jews not be sent to Palestine."
Nazi policy for solving the "
Jewish Question
The Jewish question, also referred to as the Jewish problem, was a wide-ranging debate in 19th- and 20th-century European society that pertained to the appropriate status and treatment of Jews. The debate, which was similar to other "national ...
" until the end of 1937 emphasized motivating German Jews to emigrate from German territory. During this period the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
Mandate for the
establishment of a Jewish homeland in
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
to be used as a refuge for Jews was "still internationally recognized". The
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
and the SS inconsistently cooperated with a variety of Jewish organizations and efforts (e.g., Hanotaiah Ltd., the
Anglo-Palestine Bank
Bank Leumi ( he, בנק לאומי, lit. ''National Bank''; ar, بنك لئومي) is an Israeli bank. It was founded on February 27, 1902, in Jaffa as the ''Anglo Palestine Company'' as subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust (Jüdische Kolonia ...
, the Temple Society Bank,
HIAS
HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) is a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. It was originally established in 1881 to aid Jewish refugees. In 1975, the State Departme ...
,
Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...
, Revisionist Zionists, and others), most notably in the Haavurah Agreements, to facilitate emigration to Mandatory Palestine.
["The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: The Berlin Years" by Klaus Gensicke, translated by Alexander Fraser Gunn ( London & Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell ;2011); Original edition: "Der Mufti von Jerusalem" (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft; 2007), pp. 26—28]
Nora Levin wrote in 1968: "Up to the middle of 1938, Palestine had received one third of all the Jews who had emigrated from Germany since 1933 – 50,000 out of a total of 150,000."
[The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933-1945, by Nora Levin, (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company; 1968) p. 130] Edwin Black
Edwin Black (born February 27, 1950) is an American historian and author, as well as a syndicated columnist, investigative journalist, and weekly talk show host on The Edwin Black Show. He specializes in human rights, the historical interplay be ...
, benefitting from more modern scholarship, has written that 60,000 German Jews immigrated into Palestine between 1933 through 1936, bringing with them $100,000,000 dollars ($1.6 billion in 2009 dollars). This precipitous increase in the Jewish Palestinian population stimulated Palestinian Arab political resistance to continued Jewish immigration, and was a principal cause for the
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later known as The Great Revolt (''al-Thawra al- Kubra'') or The Great Palestinian Revolt (''Thawrat Filastin al-Kubra''), was a popular nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine a ...
, which in turn led to the British
White Paper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white paper ...
decision to abandon the League of Nations Mandate to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine. The resultant change in British policy effectively closed Palestine to most European Jews who were fleeing Nazi persecution during World War II. After 1938 the majority of Zionist organizations adhered to a strategy of "Fighting the White Paper as if there was not War, and fighting the War as if there was no White Paper". Zionists would smuggle Jews in Palestine whenever possible, regardless if this brought them into conflict with the British authorities. At the same time, the Zionists and other Jews would ally themselves to the British struggle against Germany and the Axis powers, even while the British authorities refused to allow the migration of European Jews into Palestine.
One consequence of al-Husseini's opposition to Britain's mandate in Palestine and his rejection of the British attempts to work out a compromise between Zionists and Palestinian Arabs was that the Mufti was exiled from Palestine. Many of his followers, who had fought in
guerilla campaigns against Jews and the British in Palestine, followed him and continued to work for his political goals. Among the most notable Palestinian soldiers in this category was
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni ( ar, عبد القادر الحسيني), also spelled Abd al-Qader al-Husseini (1907 – 8 April 1948) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and fighter who in late 1933 founded the secret militant group known as the Orga ...
, a kinsman and officer of al-Husseini who had been wounded twice in the early stages of the
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later known as The Great Revolt (''al-Thawra al- Kubra'') or The Great Palestinian Revolt (''Thawrat Filastin al-Kubra''), was a popular nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine a ...
. Al-Husseini sent Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni to Germany in 1938 for explosives training. Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni then worked with al-Husseini to support the Golden Square regime, and consequently was tried and sent to prison by the British after they recaptured Iraq. He subsequently became the popular leader of approximately 50,000 Palestinian Arabs who joined the Mufti's
Army of the Holy War
The Army of the Holy War or Holy War Army ( ar, جيش الجهاد المقدس; ''Jaysh al-Jihād al-Muqaddas'') was a Palestinian Arab irregular force in the 1947-48 Palestinian civil war led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and Hasan Salama. The ...
during the
1947-1948 Arab–Israeli War. His fellow Iraq-veteran and German collaborator
Fawzi al-Qawuqji
Fawzi al-Qawuqji ( ar, فوزي القاوقجي; 19 January 1890 – 5 June 1977) was a leading Arab nationalist military figure in the interwar period.The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, by Gilbert Achcar, (NY: Hen ...
became a rival general in that same struggle against Zionism.
[Collins and Lapierre, pp. 86–88]
After the
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
pogroms
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
in November 1938, most Jewish and Zionist organizations aligned with Britain and its allies to oppose Nazi Germany. After this time the organized assistance by the Gestapo to the Jewish organizations who transported European Jews to Palestine became much more sporadic, although bribery of individual Germans often help accomplish such operations even after official policy discouraged them.
Al-Husseini opposed all immigration of Jews into Palestine. His numerous letters appealing to various governmental authorities to prevent Jewish emigration to Palestine have been widely republished and cited as documentary evidence of
his collaboration with the Nazis and his participative support for their actions. For instance, in June 1943, al-Husseini recommended to the Hungarian minister that it would be better to send the
Jewish population of Hungary to the
Nazi concentration camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
in Poland rather than let them find asylum in Palestine (it is not entirely clear whether al-Husseini was aware of the
extermination camps
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
in Poland, e.g.
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, at this time):
I ask your Excellency to permit me to draw your attention to the necessity of preventing the Jews from leaving your country for Palestine, and if there are reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable and infinitely preferable to send them to other countries where they would find themselves under active control, for example, in Poland ...
Achcar quotes al-Husseini's memoirs about these efforts to influence the Axis powers to prevent emigration of Eastern European Jews to Palestine:
We combatted this enterprise by writing to Ribbentrop, Himmler, and Hitler, and, thereafter, the governments of Italy, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and other countries. We succeeded in foiling this initiative, a circumstance that led the Jews to make terrible accusations against me, in which they held me accountable for the liquidation of four hundred thousand Jews who were unable to emigrate to Palestine in this period. They added that I should be tried as a war criminal in Nuremberg.
Achcar then notes that although al-Husseini's motivation to block Jewish emigration into Palestine:
was certainly legitimate when it was addressed as an appeal to the British mandatory authorities ... It had no legitimacy whatsoever when addressed to Nazi authorities who had cooperated with the Zionists to send tens of thousands of German Jews to Palestine and then set out to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The Mufti was well aware that the European Jews were being wiped out; he never claimed the contrary. Nor, unlike some of his present-day admirers, did he play the ignoble, perverse, and stupid game of Holocaust denial ... His armour-propre would not allow him to justify himself to the Jews ... gloating that the Jews had paid a much higher price than the Germans ... he cites : "Their losses in the Second World War represent more than thirty percent of the total number of their people ... Statements like this, from a man who was well placed to know what the Nazis had done ... constitute a powerful argument against Holocaust deniers. Husseini reports that Reichsführer-SS
(, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest rank of the SS. The longest-servi ...
Heinrich Himmler ... told him in summer 1943 that the Germans had 'already exterminated more than three million' Jews: "I was astonished by this figure, as I had known nothing about the matter until then." ... Thus. in 1943, Husseini knew about the genocide ... Himmler ... again in the summer of 1941 ... let him in on a secret that ... Germany would have an atomic bomb in three years' time ...
In November 1943, when he became aware of the nature of the Nazi
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
, al-Husseini said:
It is the duty of Muhammadans in general and Arabs in particular to drive all Jews from Arab and Muhammadan countries ... Germany is also struggling against the common foe who oppressed Arabs and Muhammadans in their different countries. It has very clearly recognized the Jews for what they are and resolved to find a definitive solution [] for the Jewish danger that will eliminate the scourge that Jews represent in the world.
Kingdom of Iraq
On 1 April 1941, a day after General
Erwin Rommel
Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...
began his Tunisian offensive, the
1941 Iraqi coup d'état
The 1941 Iraqi coup d'état ( ar, ثورة رشيد عالي الكيلاني, ''Thawrah Rašīd ʿAlī al-Kaylānī''), also called the Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani coup or the Golden Square coup, was a nationalist coup d'état in Iraq on 1 April 1941 t ...
overthrew the pro-British
Kingdom of Iraq
The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq ( ar, المملكة العراقية الهاشمية, translit=al-Mamlakah al-ʿIrāqiyyah ʾal-Hāshimyyah) was a state located in the Middle East from 1932 to 1958.
It was founded on 23 August 1921 as the Kingdo ...
.
Fritz Grobba
Fritz Konrad Ferdinand Grobba (18 July 1886 – 2 September 1973) was a German diplomat during the interwar period and World War II.
Early life
He was born in Gartz on the Oder in the Province of Brandenburg, Germany. His parents were Rudolf Grob ...
served intermittently as the German ambassador in Iraq from 1932 to 1941, supporting anti-Jewish and fascist movements in the Arab world. Intellectuals and army officers were invited to Germany as guests of the Nazi party, and antisemitic material was published in the newspapers. The German embassy purchased the newspaper ''al-Alam al-Arabi'' ("The Arab World") which published antisemitic, anti-British, and pro-Nazi propaganda, including a
serialized translation of Hitler's ''Mein Kampf'' in Arabic.
While Nazi Germany was not openly allied with the Ba'athist government in Iraq like Fascist Italy was during the
Anglo-Iraqi War
The Anglo-Iraqi War was a British-led Allied military campaign during the Second World War against the Kingdom of Iraq under Rashid Gaylani, who had seized power in the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état, with assistance from Germany and Italy. The c ...
, it provided air support. On 1–2 June 1941, immediately after the collapse of the pro-Fascist Rashid Ali government in Iraq, al-Husseini and others inspired a pogrom against the
Jewish population of Baghdad known as "the
Farhud
''Farhud'' ( ar, الفرهود) was the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1–2, 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a ...
". The estimates of Jewish victims vary from less than 110 to over 600 killed, and from 240 to 2000 wounded. Gilbert Achcar claims that historian
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near E ...
cites the numbers (officially 600 killed and 240 injured, with unofficial sources being "much higher") as the number of Jewish victims, without citing a single reference. Edwin Black concludes that the exact numbers will never be known, pointing out the improbability of the initial estimate in the official reports of 110 fatalities that included both Arabs and Jews (including 28 women), as opposed to the claims of Jewish sources that as many as 600 Jews were killed.
[Edwin Black (2010). ''The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust''. Washington, DC: Dialog Press. , p. 186] Similarly, the estimates of Jewish homes destroyed range from 99 to over 900 houses. Though these figures are debated in the secondary literature, it is generally agreed that over 580 Jewish businesses were looted. The Iraqi-Arab
Futuwwa
Futuwwa (Arabic: فتوة, "young-manliness" or "chivalry") was a conception of moral behavior around which myriad institutions of Medieval confraternity developed. With characteristics similar to chivalry and virtue, these communal associations of ...
youth group—modeled after the
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
—were widely credited with the Farhud. The Futuwwa were commanded by Iraqi minister of education
Saib Shawkat
Saib Shawkat ( ar, صائب شوكت; 1898 – 13 February 1984) was an Iraqi doctor and politician who was an Arab nationalist leader in Iraq.
Medical career
He was from an upscale patriotic Baghdadian family and studied at a medical school in ...
, who also praised Hitler for eradicating Jews.
In June 1941, Wehrmacht High Command Directive No. 32 and the "Instructions for Special Staff F" designated Special Staff F as the Wehrmacht's central agency for all issues that affected the Arab world.
["German Exploitation of Arab Nationalist Movements in World War II" by Gen. Hellmuth Felmy and Gen, Walter Warlimont, Historical Division, Headquarters, United States Army, Europe, Foreign Military Studies Branch, 1952, p. 11, by Gen. Haider]
North Africa
On 20 January 1942, 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials met at a villa in Wannsee, a Berlin suburb, to coordinate the execution of the "
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
" (''Endlösung'') of the Jewish Question. At this
Wannsee Conference, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler's deputy and head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office, or RSHA), noted the numbers of Jews to be eliminated in each territory. In the notation for France there are two entries, 165,000 for Occupied France, and 700,000 for the Unoccupied Zone, which included France's North African possessions, i.e. Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
The SS had established a special unit of 22 people in 1942 "to Kill Jews in North Africa". It was led by the SS functionary
Walter Rauff
Walter (Walther) Rauff (19 June 1906 – 14 May 1984) was a mid-ranking SS commander in Nazi Germany. From January 1938, he was an aide of Reinhard Heydrich firstly in the Security Service (''Sicherheitsdienst'' or ''SD''), later in the Reich Sec ...
, who helped develop the mobile gassing vehicles the Germans used to murder Russian prisoners and Jewish people in Russia and Poland. A network of labor camps was established in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
[''Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands'', by Robert B. Satloff (New York: Public Affairs; 2006), p.209] Over 2,500 Tunisian Jews perished during a six-month period in these camps.
According to
Robert Satloff
Robert B. Satloff is an American writer and, since January 1993, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). Satloff's expertise includes "U.S. policy, public diplomacy, Arab and Islamic politics, Arab-Israeli r ...
, only one Arab in North Africa, Hassan Ferjani, was convicted by an Allied military tribunal in World War II for performing actions that led to the deaths of Jews, male members of the Scemla family of Tunisia, while many Arabs acted to save Jews. For instance,
King Mohammed V refused to make the 200,000 Jews who were living in Morocco wear yellow stars, even though this discriminatory practice was enforced in France. He is reported to have said: "There are no Jews in Morocco. There are only subjects." The historian Haim Saadon opines that bar some exceptions, there was no violence towards Jews from Muslims and that although there was no particular sense of camaraderie, Jews and Muslims treated each other quite well.
Arab exiles in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
Following the defeat of the Golden Square in Iraq in May–June 1941,
Rashid Ali al-Gaylani
Rashid Ali al-Gaylaniin Arab standard pronunciation Rashid Aali al-Kaylani; also transliterated as Sayyid Rashid Aali al-Gillani, Sayyid Rashid Ali al-Gailani or sometimes Sayyad Rashid Ali el Keilany (" Sayyad" serves to address higher standing ...
fled to Iran but was not to stay long.
On 25 August 1941, Anglo-Soviet forces invaded Iran, removing
Reza Shah
Reza Shah Pahlavi ( fa, رضا شاه پهلوی; ; originally Reza Khan (); 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was an Iranian Officer (armed forces), military officer, politician (who served as Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran), ...
from power. Gaylani then fled to
German-occupied Europe
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
. In
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, he was received by German dictator
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, and he was recognized as the leader of the Iraqi
government in exile
A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile us ...
. Upon the
defeat of Germany
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easte ...
, Gaylani again fled and found refuge, this time in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
Amin al-Husseini
Mohammed Amin al-Husseini ( ar, محمد أمين الحسيني 1897
– 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine.
Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab notable ...
arrived in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
on 10 October 1941. He outlined his proposals before Alberto Ponce de Leon. On condition that the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
"recognize in principle the unity, independence, and sovereignty, of an Arab state, including Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Transjordan", he offered support in the war against Britain and stated his willingness to discuss the issues of "the Holy Places, Lebanon, the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
, and
Aqaba
Aqaba (, also ; ar, العقبة, al-ʿAqaba, al-ʿAgaba, ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative centre of the Aqaba Govern ...
". The Italian foreign ministry approved al-Husseini's proposal, recommended giving him a grant of one million
lire, and referred him to
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
, who met al-Husseini on 27 October. According to al-Husseini's account, it was an amicable meeting in which Mussolini expressed his hostility to the Jews and Zionism.
Back in the summer of 1940 and again in February 1941, al-Husseini submitted to the
Nazi German Government
The government of Nazi Germany was totalitarian, run by the Nazi Party in Germany according to the Führerprinzip through the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany began with the fact that the Enabling Act was enacted to give Hitler's gover ...
a draft declaration of German-Arab cooperation, containing a clause:
Germany and Italy recognize the right of the Arab countries to solve the question of the Jewish elements, which exist in Palestine and in the other Arab countries, as required by the national and ethnic (''völkisch'') interests of the Arabs, and as the Jewish question was solved in Germany and Italy.
Al-Husseini helped organize Arab students and North African emigres in Germany into the
Free Arabian Legion
The Free Arabian Legion (german: Legion Freies Arabien; ar, جيش بلاد العرب الحرة, ''Jaysh bilād al-ʿarab al-ḥurraẗ'') was the collective name of several Nazi German units formed from Arab volunteers from the Middle East, no ...
in the German Army that hunted down Allied parachutists in the Balkans and fought on the Russian front.
Arab incorporation and emulation of Nazism
Several emerging movements in the Arab world were influenced by European fascist and Nazi organizations during the 1930s. The
Young Egypt Party
The Young Egypt Party ( ar, حزب مصر الفتاة ') is an Egyptian political party.
History and profile
The party was established on 12 October 1989. It was legalized in 1990.
The Party platform calls for:
* Establishing a parliamentary ...
("Green shirts") closely resembled the Hitler Youth and was "obviously Nazi in form", according to historian
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near E ...
.
The fascist pan-Arabist
Al-Muthanna Club
The Al-Muthanna Club ( ar, نادي المثنى) was an influential pan-Arab fascist society established in Baghdad ca. 1935 to 1937 which remained active until May 1941, when the coup d'état of pro-Nazi Rashid Ali al-Gaylani failed. It was nam ...
and its al-Futuwwa (Hitler Youth) type movement, participated in the 1941
Farhud
''Farhud'' ( ar, الفرهود) was the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1–2, 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a ...
attack on
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
's
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community.
The
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) or is a Syrian nationalist party operating in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. It advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present- ...
(SSNP) adopted styles of fascism. Its emblem, the red hurricane, was taken from the Nazi
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
, leader Antoun Saadeh was known as ''al-za'im'' (the leader), and the party anthem was "Syria, Syria, über alles" sung to the same tune as the German national anthem.
He founded the fascist SSNP with a program that Syrians were "a distinctive and naturally superior race".
See also
*
Antisemitism in the Arab world
Antisemitism (prejudice against and hatred of Jews) has increased greatly in the Arab world since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: the dissolution and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; Eu ...
*
Antisemitism in Islam
Antisemitism in Islam refers to scriptural and theological teachings in Islam against Jews and Judaism, and the treatment and persecution of Jews in the Muslim world.
With the rise of Islam in Arabia in the 7th century CE and its subsequen ...
*
Arab rescue efforts during the Holocaust
A number of Arab people, Arabs and Muslims participated in efforts to help save Jews, Jewish residents of Arab lands from the Holocaust while fascist regimes controlled the territory. From June 1940 through May 1943, Axis powers, namely Nazi German ...
*
Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II
*
Contemporary imprints of ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''
*
History of antisemitism
The history of antisemitism, defined as hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group, goes back many centuries, with antisemitism being called "the longest hatred". Jerome Chanes identifies six stages in the his ...
*
*
Islamofascism
"Islamofascism", first described as "Islamic fascism" in 1933, is a term popularized in the 1990s drawing an analogical comparison between the ideological characteristics of specific Islamist or Islamic fundamentalist movements and short-lived E ...
*
Jews outside Europe under Axis occupation
*
Khairallah Talfah
Khairallah Talfah ( ar, خير الله طلفاح, Khayr Allāh Ṭilfāḥ) (1910 – 20 April 1993), also known as ''Khayr-Allah Telfah'', ''Kairallah Tolfah'', ''Khairallah Tolfah'', or ''Khairallah Tilfah'', was an Iraqi Ba'ath Party offic ...
, the uncle and father-in-law of
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
*
''Mein Kampf'' in Arabic
*
Muhammad Najati Sidqi
Muhammad Najati Sidqi ( ar, محمد نجاتي صدقي, ', 1905–1979) was a Palestinian public intellectual and activist, trade unionist, translator, writer, critic and erstwhile communist. Though almost forgotten as a figure in the Palestin ...
*
Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II
The Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre was a major theatre of operations during the Second World War. The vast size of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Medit ...
*
New antisemitism
New antisemitism is the idea that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, tending to manifest itself as anti-Zionism and criticism of the Israeli government. The concept is included in some definitions ...
*
Operation Atlas (Mandatory Palestine)
Operation Atlas was the code name for an operation carried out by a special commando unit of the Waffen SS which took place in October 1944. It involved five soldiers: three who were previously members of the Templer religious sect in Mandatory ...
*
Religious views of Adolf Hitler
The religious beliefs of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, have been a matter of debate. His opinions regarding religious matters changed considerably over time. During the beginning of his political life, Hitler publicly ...
*
Transport of Białystok children
On 21 August 1943, during the liquidation of the Białystok Ghetto, about 1,200 Jewish children were put on trains and taken to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where they were held in isolation from other prisoners. On 5 October, they were t ...
*
Xenophobia and racism in the Middle East
The article describes the state of race relations and racism in the Middle East. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 174 states parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by ...
References
Further reading
*''Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine'' by Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Martin Cüppers, trans. by Krista Smith (Original German title: ''Halbmond und HakenKreuz: das Dritte Reich, die Araber und Palastina'')
*''Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World'' by Jeffrey Herf (Yale University Press, 2009) .
*''Nationalsozialismus als Antikolonialismus. Die deutsche Rundfunkpropaganda für die arabische Welt'' by Hans Goldenbaum, in ierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Volume 64, Issue 3, Pages 449–490.
*''Germany and the Middle East, 1871-1945'' edited by Wolfgang G. Schwanitz (Princeton, New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers; 2004)
*''The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives'', by Gilbert Achcar, (New York: Henry Holt and Co.; 2009)
*"The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust" by Edwin Black, (Washington DC: Dialog Press; 2010)
*"The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: The Berlin Years" by Klaus Gensicke, translated by Alexander Fraser Gunn ( London & Portland, Oregon:
Vallentine Mitchell
Vallentine Mitchell is a publishing company based in Elstree, Hertfordshire, England.
The company publishes books on Jewish-related topics. One of its earliest books was the first English-language edition of ''The Diary of Anne Frank''. From ...
; 2011); Original edition: "Der Mufti von Jerusalem" (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft; 2007)
*"The Grand Mufti : Haj Amin al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement" by Zvi Elpeleg ( London & Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass; 1993)
* "Nazism in Syria and Lebanon: The Ambivalence of the German Option" by Götz Nordbruch, 1933–1945 (London/New York: Routledge, 2008).
* "Fritz Grobba and the Middle East Policy of the Third Reich," by Francis Nicosia, in National and International Politics in the Middle East: Essays in Honour of Elie Kedourie, ed. Edward Ingram (London, 1986): 206-228.
* "Arab Nationalism and National Socialist Germany, 1933-1939: Ideological and Strategic Incompatibility", by Francis Nicosia, International Journal of Middle East Studies 12 (1980): 351-372.
* "National Socialism in the Arab Near East between 1933-1939", by Stefan Wild, Die Welt des Islams, New Series 25 nr 1 (1985): 126-173
* "The Third Reich and the Near and Middle East, 1933-1939", by Andreas Hillgruber, in The Great Powers in the Middle East, 1919-1939, ed. Uriel Dann (New York, 1988), 274-282.
External links
*Bruno de Cordier,
The Fedayeen of the Reich: Muslims, Islam and Collaborationism During World War II' in ''The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly'' Vol 8, No 1, 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Relations Between Nazi Germany And The Arab World
Arab nationalism
Fascism in the Arab world
Foreign relations of Nazi Germany
History of the Middle East
Islam and antisemitism
Arab collaborators with Nazi Germany
The Holocaust