source: http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/17089176.html
Klaus Gensicke.Der Mufti von Jerusalem und die Nationalsozialisten.
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. 247 pages. &euro49.90
Germany stands for an uncompromising struggle against the Jews. It is
self-evident that the struggle against the Jewish national homeland in
Palestine forms part of this struggle, since such a national homeland
would be nothing other than a political base for the destructive
influence of Jewish interests. Germany also knows that the claim that
Jewry plays the role of an economic pioneer in Palestine is a lie.
Only the Arabs work there, not the Jews. Germany is determined to call
on the European nations one by one to solve the Jewish problem and, at
the proper moment, to address the same appeal to non-European
peoples.
=97Adolf Hitler to Haj Amin Al-Husseini, mufti of Jerusalem, November
28, 19411
The persistence of widespread Judeophobia in the Muslim world is
hardly a matter of dispute, even if many commentators are inclined to
dismiss it as merely an =93understandable=94 reaction to Israeli
=93oppression.=94 Among those who take the phenomenon seriously, however,
a debate has been taking place of late about its origins. The debate
has been spurred on, notably, by the publication in English
translation of the German political scientist Matthias K=FCntzel=92s book
Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11. The
central thesis of K=FCntzel=92s book is that anti-Semitism =97 or, more
precisely, modern anti-Semitism as crystallized in the =93Jewish world
conspiracy=94 theory =97 was largely im****ted into the Muslim world from
Nazi Germany.
Now, one might have expected that opponents of Islamism would welcome
a book showing the direct influence of the Third Reich upon the
development of the Islamist movement and, most notably, on the Muslim
Brotherhood, the pivotal organization in its history. In normal
political discourse, after all, pointing out the links of an
organization or movement to National Socialism does not exactly
constitute an endorsement. Ironically, however, K=FCntzel=92s book has
been most roundly criticized =97 indeed outright denounced =97 by
precisely the most adamant foes of Islamic extremism. For the most
part self-styled experts in Islam, the latter have insisted, as
against K=FCntzel=92s thesis, that Muslim anti-Semitism is, in effect, a
strictly Muslim affair.
The Gensicke volume provides considerable sup****t for the thesis that
=93native=94 Islamic sources of anti-Semitism are primordial in Muslim or
Arab anti-Semitism.
Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem and the =93father=94 of
Palestinian radicalism, is obviously a key figure for such debates. As
is well known, from 1941 to 1945 Husseini lived in Berlin as the
honored guest of Nazi Germany. During this time, he notably
collaborated with the Nazis in assembling the Muslim ss division
=93Handzar=94 in Bosnia, as well as in numerous propaganda activities
aimed at Arab speakers. Whereas the facts of Husseini=92s collaboration
with the Nazis are widely known, what is less know, however, is the
degree to which the mufti was influenced by or indeed himself
influenced his hosts on an ideological and programmatic level. But a
new book by German historian Klaus Gensicke titled Der Mufti von
Jerusalem und die Nationalsozialisten =97 =93The Mufti of Jerusalem and
the National Socialists=94 =97 sheds light on precisely this question.
Based largely on primary source materials from the German archives,
Gensicke=92s volume provides unparalleled insight into the details of
the mufti=92s relation****p to his Nazi hosts: at least as seen from the
German side.
Gensicke=92s 1988 doctoral dissertation is one of the principal sources
for K=FCntzel=92s discussion of the mufti in Jihad and Jew-Hatred and
K=FCntzel himself wrote the preface for Gensicke=92s new book: an updated
version of the dissertation. Nonetheless, the Gensicke volume also
provides considerable sup****t for the thesis that, so to say, =93native=94
Islamic sources of anti-Semitism are primordial in Muslim or Arab anti-
Semitism. At the very least, Gensicke=92s account shows the relation
between the mufti and the Nazis to have been very much a two-way
street: even =97 or indeed especially =97 as concerns the notorious
=93Jewish Question.=94
Thus, in March 1933, only two months after Hitler=92s appointment as
Chancellor, it was in fact the mufti who sought contact to the new
German authorities and not vice-versa. In a March 31 telegram to
Berlin, the German general consul in Jerusalem, Heinrich Wolff,
re****ted on his meeting with Husseini:
The Mufti explained to me today at length that Muslims both within
Palestine and without welcome the new regime in Germany and hope for
the spread of fascist, anti-democratic forms of government to other
countries. Current Jewish economic and political influence is harmful
everywhere and has to be combated. In order to be able to hit the
standard of living of Jews, Muslims are hoping for Germany to declare
a boycott [of =93Jewish=94 goods], which they would then enthusiastically
join throughout the Muslim world.
As Gensicke explains, however, the initial German response to the
mufti=92s advances was cool. Indeed, the German attitude toward the
mufti would remain reserved throughout the first years of Nazi rule.
At the time, the Nazi leader****p still hoped to come to an
understanding with Great Britain that would allow it to pursue
unhindered its expansionist goals in Eastern Europe. In return for
British acquiescence, it was prepared to treat the Middle East as part
of the British sphere of influence.
Moreover, for at least part of the Nazi leader****p =97 Gensicke points
in particular to Deputy Foreign Minister Ernst von Weizs=E4cker =97 the
immigration of German Jews to Palestine represented a tolerable
solution to Germany=92s supposed =93Jewish problem.=94 This attitude was
obviously inimical to the plans of the mufti, who pleaded with German
authorities to restrict Jewish immigration. Starting in August 1933,
however, they did the opposite: in effect, facilitating Jewish
immigration under the complex terms of the so-called Haavara or
=93Transfer=94 Agreement. The Haavara Agreement simultaneously permitted
German Jews to transfer part of their wealth to Palestine and favored
German ex****ts to the region =97 the latter aspect earning it the
sup****t also of the Economics Ministry. =93It cannot be denied that the
Haavara Transfer made a considerable contribution to the development
of Jewish settlement in Palestine,=94 Gensicke writes.
The immigration of Jews to Palestine represented a tolerable solution
to some in the Nazi leader****p, but it was inimical to the mufti=92s
plans.
By August 1940, however, the situation had radically changed. The
outbreak of the war had brought the Haavara Agreement to an end. Even
while it was still at least formally in effect, moreover, the Germans
had already been quietly providing financial and material sup****t to
the mufti-led =93Arab Revolt=94 in Palestine from 1936 to 1939. The aim of
the revolt was precisely to stop Jewish immigration. After guiding the
Arab Revolt from exile in Beirut, the mufti had in the meanwhile taken
refuge in Iraq. There he allied himself with the pro-Axis circle
around new Prime Minister Ra****d Ali al-Gailani, who had recently
replaced the pro-British Nuri as-Said. On August 26, an emissary of
the mufti by the name of Osman Kemal Haddad met with Fritz Grobba of
the German Foreign Office in Berlin. According to Grobba=92s notes,
Haddad asked for a declaration from Germany and Italy recognizing the
right of the Arab countries to independence and =93self-determination=94
and that they might resolve the =93question of the Jewish element=94 just
as Germany and Italy had done. In return, Haddad promised that Iraq
would accord Germany and Italy =93a privileged place=94 in its foreign
relations: notably as concerns the =93exploitation of Iraq=92s mineral
resources and in particular its oil reserves.=94
Only the defeat of Rommel at the second Battle of El Alamein prevented
German forces from entering Palestine and carrying out operations
against the Jewish population.
Gailani would resign his post in January 1941 and then be returned to
power by a coup d=92=E9tat four months later. The British military
intervention that followed would bring a provisional end to the
mufti=92s plans of transforming Iraq into a pro-Axis beachhead in the
Middle East. =93Sonderkommando Junck,=94 a somewhat perfunctory German
Luftwaffe mission dispatched by the Reich to sup****t its allies in
Iraq, could not reverse the trend. Both the mufti and Gailani fled to
Tehran toward the end of May. Even after their departure, Gensicke
writes, =93a wave of acts of intimidation and terror on the part of the
pro-Axis forces continued.=94 These included a major anti-Jewish
pogrom, known as the =93Farhud,=94 in which some 179 Iraqi Jews were
killed.
As Gensicke=92s account makes clear, moreover, the Nazi leader****p would
continue to accord central im****tance to the Iraqi =93liberation
struggle.=94 The deposed Iraqi Prime Minister Gailani followed the mufti
to Berlin, where he, too, would take up residence starting in November
1941. For the remainder of the war years, the two Arab leaders would
compete jealously for the Nazis=92 favor. In light of the obvious
parallels between the anti-British Iraqi =93liberation struggle=94 of the
early 1940s and the anti-American Iraqi =93liberation struggle=94 of
today, it is curious that Nazi Germany=92s involvement in the former has
not received greater public attention. A separate study of Gailani=92s
collaboration with the Nazis would undoubtedly be rich in historical
lessons.
Hitler appears to have made German plans for a more muscular
intervention to =93liberate=94 Iraq merely contingent upon the successful
conclusion of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet
Union. Once the Wehrmacht had taken control of the southern Caucasus
region, German troops were to sweep down into Iraq. The German defeat
at Stalingrad in early 1943 definitively put an end to such plans.
On november 28, 1941, three weeks after his arrival in Berlin, the
mufti was received by Hitler. As recorded in the minutes of the
meeting, Hitler urged his guest to remain patient:
At some not yet precisely known, but in any case not very distant
point in time, the German armies will reach the southern edge of the
Caucasus. As soon as this is the case, the F=FChrer will himself give
the Arab world his assurance that the hour of liberation has arrived.
At this point, the sole German aim will be the destruction of the Jews
living in the Arab space under the protection of British power.
In the same meeting, Hitler likewise assured the mufti of his
opposition to the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in
Palestine, which, he said, =93would be nothing other than a political
base for the destructive influence of Jewish interests.=94 More than 15
years earlier, Hitler had expressed the same thought in more colorful
terms in Mein Kampf: =93They are not at all thinking of building a
Jewish state in Palestine in order, for instance, to live there; but
rather they only hope to have a headquarters for their international
swindling operations that is furnished with sovereign powers and
removed from the influence of other states.=942
When the right time had come, Hitler told the mufti, the Arabs and
other =93non-European peoples=94 would be called on to =93solve the Jewish
problem=94 just as the =93European nations=94 had done. The chilling
remark
suggests plans to exterminate even those Jews that the Nazi leader****p
had earlier permitted to immigrate to Palestine. As so happens,
historians Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin C=FCppers have recently
uncovered evidence that such plans did indeed exist. A special ss
commando unit was formed in 1942 and attached to Rommel=92s African
Panzer Army. Its writ was in large part identical to that of the
infamous Einsatzgruppen that accompanied the Wehrmacht during the
invasion of the Soviet Union and that were responsible for the murder
of upwards of one million Soviet Jews. On Mallmann and C=FCppers=92s
account, only the defeat of Rommel at the second Battle of El Alamein
prevented German forces from entering Palestine and carrying out
similar operations against the Jewish population there.3
Among his other activities in Berlin, the mufti served as honorary
chair of a newly founded =93Islamic Central Institute=94 The institute was
officially opened on December 18, 1942: during Eid al-Adha, the
Islamic =93Festival of Sacrifice.=94 In a letter to Hitler on the
occasion, the mufti expressed the hope that =93thousands of Muslims
around the world=94 would cooperate with Germany in the fight against
=93the common enemies=94: =93Jews, Bolsheviks and Anglo-Saxons.=94 The
spee=
ch
given by the mufti at the opening ceremony provides perhaps the
clearest evidence that he required no lessons from the Nazis in anti-
Semitism =97 or, at any rate, that if he did, he had by this time
successfully assimilated those lessons into a remarkable synthesis of
=93traditional=94 Quranic and =93modern=94 European Judeophobia:
The Jews and their accomplices are to be counted among the bitterest
enemies of the Muslims, who made known . . . their hostility since
ancient times and have everywhere and always . . . treated them
[Muslims] with guile. Every Muslim knows all too well how the Jews
afflicted him and his faith in the first days of Islam and what
hatefulness they displayed toward the great Prophet =97 what hard****p
and trouble they caused him, how many intrigues they launched, how
many conspiracies against him they brought about =97 such that the Quran
judged them to be the most irreconcilable enemies of the
Muslims. . . . They will always remain a divisive element in the
world: an element that is committed to devising schemes, provoking
wars and playing peoples off against one another. . . . In England as
in America, it is the Jewish influence alone that rules; and it is the
same Jewish influence that is behind godless Communism. . . . And it
is also this Jewish influence that has incited the nations into this
grueling war. It is only the Jews who benefit from the tragic fate
that they [the nations] suffer. . . .
In a subsequent talk at the Islamic Central Institute on November 2,
1943, the mufti called on Muslims to follow the example of National
Socialist Germany, since the latter =93knew how to save itself from the
evil [Unheil] done by the Jews. . . . It had precisely identified the
Jews and decided to find a definitive solution to the Jewish menace,
in order to eliminate their evildoing [Unheil] from the world.=94
Gensicke points to the latter remark as evidence that the mufti was
=93well informed=94 about the extermination program that was by this time
long underway in the Nazi death camps in occupied Poland.4
Indeed, perhaps the most shocking finding of Gensicke=92s research
concerns the repeated efforts of the mufti after 1943 to ensure that
no European Jews should elude the camps: this during a period when it
was becoming increasingly obvious even to the Nazi leader****p that
Germany would lose the war. Thus, for example, Bulgarian plans to
permit some 4,000 Jewish children and 500 adult companions to
immigrate to Palestine provoked a letter from the mufti to the
Bulgarian foreign minister, pleading for the operation to be stopped.
In the letter, dated May 6, 1943, Husseini invoked a =93Jewish danger
for the whole world and especially for the countries where Jews live.=94
=93If I may be permitted,=94 the mufti continued,
I would like to call your attention to the fact that it would be very
appropriate and more advantageous to prevent the Jews from emigrating
from your country and instead to send them where they will be placed
under strict control: e.g. to Poland. Thus one can avoid the danger
they represent and do a good deed vis-=E0-vis the Arab peoples that will
be appreciated.
One week later, the mufti sent additional =93protest letters=94 to both
the Italian and German Foreign Ministries, appealing for them to
intervene in the matter. The German Foreign Ministry promptly sent off
a cable to the German ambassador in Sofia stressing =93the common German-
Arab interest in preventing the rescue operation.=94 Indeed, according
to the post-War recollections of a Foreign Ministry official, =93The
Mufti turned up all over the place making protests: in the Minister=92s
office, in the waiting room of the Deputy Minister and in other
sections: for example, Interior, the Press Office, the Broadcast
service, and also the ss.=94 =93The Mufti was a sworn enemy of the
Jews,=94
the official concluded, =93and he made no secret of the fact that he
would have preferred to see them all killed.=94
As Gensicke points out, the mufti=92s hyperactivity is particularly
notable in light of the fact that the Foreign Ministry =97 and even
indeed Heinrich Himmler=92s Reich Security Central Office (rsha), which
was directly responsible for implementing the Final Solution =97 had
shown signs of being willing to tolerate the Bulgarian rescue action:
at any rate, for a price. The rsha demanded the release of some 20,000
Germans interred by the Allies in exchange for the Jewish children.
In the nearly 800 pages of the two volumes of Hitler=92s would-be magnum
opus, Arabs are not mentioned at all as such and Islam is mentioned
just once.
In late June, both the Romanian and Hungarian Foreign Ministers would
be recipients of similar appeals from the mufti. The Romanian
government had been planning to allow some 75,000 to 80,000 Jews to
immigrate to the Middle East, and Hungary =97 which had become a refuge
for Jews escaping persecution elsewhere in Europe =97 was re****tedly
preparing to allow some 900 Jewish children and their parents to
immigrate as well. The mufti repeated his counsel that the Jews should
be sent rather to Poland, where they could be kept under =93active
surveillance.=94 =93It is especially monstrous,=94 Gensicke concludes,
=93that el-Husseini objected to even those few cases in which the
National Socialists were prepared, for whatever reasons, to permit
Jews to emigrate. . . . For him, only de****tation to Poland was
acceptable, since he knew fully well that there would be no escape for
the Jews from there.=94
Self-professedIslamophobes =97 whose insistence that Islamism has
something to do with Islam is, of course, not unreasonable in itself =97
will undoubtedly be tempted to see in Gensicke=92s research sup****t also
for far more extravagant propositions. Pointing to the alleged
admiration for Islam of this or that Nazi luminary or of the F=FChrer
himself, the most hysterical reactions to Matthias K=FCntzel=92s Jihad and
Jew-Hatred seem even to want to suggest that it is not, after all,
National Socialism that is the source of rampant anti-Semitism in the
Muslim World, but rather Islam that was perhaps the source or
inspiration of the anti-Semitism of the National Socialists! Thus, for
example, in a review of K=FCntzel=92s volume on the Frontpage website,5
Andrew Bostom accuses K=FCntzel of =93selective citation=94 and
triumphantl=
y
adduces a passage from Albert Speer=92s memoirs in which Speer describes
Hitler expressing his regrets that Arabs had failed to conquer Europe
in the early Middle Ages, since their warlike Muslim religion was
=93perfectly suited to the Germanic temperament.=94
Let it be noted in passing that it is at least odd for Bostom to
accuse K=FCntzel of having, in his words, =93omitted=94 this passage,
given
that K=FCntzel=92s own citation of Speer concerns a different topic
(Hitler=92s alleged fantasies about the destruction of New York) and is
drawn indeed from an entirely different book. The eccentricity of such
a procedure, moreover, appears less innocent when one considers that
Bostom himself =97 in a 10,000-word screed replete with lengthy
citations =97 has taken the trouble to suppress the following words from
the very middle of his own Speer passage: =93Hitler said that the
conquering Arabs, because of their racial inferiority, would in the
long run have been unable to contend with the harsher climate and
conditions of the country. They could not have kept down the more
vigorous natives. . . . =946
Gensicke, citing a similarly anecdotal source, suggests that it was
precisely Hitler=92s belief in the racial inferiority of Arabs that
prevented him from fully utilizing the sup****t that the mufti and his
Arab nationalist allies could have provided the Nazi cause. More
generally, Gensicke notes that =93on account of their racial ideology,
it was impossible for the National Socialists to advocate the idea of
Arab independence.=94 For the Nazis, he concludes, =93the Semitic Arabs
were as incapable of successfully running a state as were the Jews.=94
Even leaving aside the biographies of Nazis who would convert to Islam
after the War or Himmler=92s well-do***ented (though seemingly rather
superficial) enthusiasm for Islam, this well-meaning caveat is
contradicted by archival evidence adduced by Gensicke elsewhere in his
volume.7
If, however, instead of turning to more or less reliable recollections
of third parties,8 one returns to the source =97 namely, the undisputed
bible of the National Socialist movement, Hitler=92s Mein Kampf =97 one
discovers that Hitler=92s own views on Islam and Arabs were almost
nonexistent. In the nearly 800 pages of the two volumes of his would-
be magnum opus, Arabs are not mentioned a single time as such and
Islam is mentioned just once, in a neutral remark on the relative
appeal of Islam and Christianity in Africa. The fevered mental
universe of the discharged cor****al and aspiring =93race theorist=94 was
amply populated by different varieties of Slavs, the occasional
=93Negro=94 [Neger], and, of course, always and everywhere the conniving
and threatening Jew: the racial antipode of the honest =93Aryan.=94 But
Arabs and the =93Muslim world=94 seem barely to have crossed his radar.
Only once does Hitler implicitly offer his =93racial=94 *****sment of the
latter: this in considering the prospect of German National Socialists
forming an alliance with Egyptian insurgents fighting against British
colonial rule. Hitler even alludes tantalizingly to the insurgents=92
=93Holy War=94 =97 in scare quotes, suggesting his clear disdain for the
idea. =93As [someone] who *****ses the value of humanity according to
racial criteria,=94 Hitler writes, =93the knowledge of the racial
inferiority of these so-called =91oppressed nations=92 forbids me from
linking the fate of my own people with theirs.=949
It was only during the war that Hitler would, in effect, be confronted
in a far more practical and urgent form by the very same question of
=93linking=94 the Nazi cause to religiously-tinged Arab nationalism. And
when he was, as Gensicke=92s volume shows, he would find not only a
willing ally, but also a kindred spirit, in Haj Amin Al-Husseini.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----
author: John Rosenthal writes on European politics, with a special
focus on Germany and France. His work has appeared in the Claremont
Review of Books, the Opinion Journal, Les Temps Modernes, and Merkur.
He is a contributing editor for World Politics Review.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----
1 Klaus Gensicke, Der Mufti von Jerusalem und die Nationalsozialisten
(Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2007), 60-61. Author=92s
translation.
2 Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (Munich: Verlag Franz Eher Nachfolger,
1943), 356. Author=92s translation.
3 See Klaus-Michael Mallman and Martin C=FCppers, =93=91Elimination of the
Jewish National Home in Palestine=92: The Einsatzkommando of the Panzer
Army Africa, 1942=94 in Yad Vashem Studies XXV (available online at
http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/studies/vol35/Mallmann-Cuppers2.p=
df,
accessed February 29, 2008). Mallmann and C=FCppers have published the
results of their research in book-length form in Halbmond und
Hakenkreuz. Das Dritte Reich, die Araber und Pal=E4stina (Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2006).
4 Citing do***ents from the Nuremberg Trials, Gensicke also notes that
in mid-1942 members of Husseini=92s and Gailani=92s respective entourages
visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg near
Berlin. It is perhaps exaggerated to conclude from this fact that the
mufti was aware of what was transpiring in the camps further to the
East. According to the commonly accepted classification, Sachsenhausen
was not a =93death camp,=94 but merely a =93normal=94 concentration camp.
T=
his
is not to say that tens of thousands were not executed there: above
all, Soviet prisoners. In any case, the Jewish inmates at
Sachsenhausen were supposed to have =93particularly interested=94 the
visitors, who came away from their visit with =93a very positive
impression.=94 Gensicke, 206, note >55.
5 http: //www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=3DE352185E-
D91E-4773-B4AE-9A5C3EA4949B (accessed February 29, 2008).
6 Lest I myself be accused of =93selective citation,=94 I should mention
that in a more recent blog post =97 discovered thanks to a fortuitous
Google search rather than comprehensive familiarity with the author=92s
output =97 Bostom cites the full Speer passage and now allows that
Hitler=92s views of Arabs and Islam were =93ambivalent.=94 See
http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2008/01/25/verboten-discussion=97hitler-mu=
hammad-and-islam/
(accessed February 29, 2008).
7 Thus in a letter of March 11, 1941, Deputy Foreign Minister Ernst
von Weizs=E4cker assured the mufti that Germany was =93of the opinion that
the Arabs are an ancient cultured nation [ein altes Kulturvolk] that
has proven its aptitude for administration and its military virtues
and that is fully capable of governing itself.=94
8 Speer in particular was a notorious fabulist and his often
farfetched inventions have been the subject of several books: such as
Matthias Schmidt=92s Albert Speer: the End of a Myth and Dan van der
Vat=92s The Good Nazi: the Life and Lies of Albert Speer. In a
particularly craven and macabre instance, at one point during
questioning at the main Nuremberg trial, Speer claimed to have been
planning to assassinate Hitler by dropping poison gas through a
ventilation pipe at the Reich Chancellery, a plan that only failed to
come to fruition, he said, because the opening of the pipe was too
high for him to reach.
9 Hitler, Mein Kampf, 747. Author=92s translation.
|
