Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam (26 page)

This is not only an abstract assurance. A mere promise would be of no value whatsoever. But assurance which rests upon a conquering force is the only one which has real value. In the Iraqi campaign, for instance, the sympathy of the whole German people was for Iraq. It was our aim to help Iraq, but circumstances prevented us from furnishing actual help. The German people saw in them (the Iraqis) comrades in suffering because the German people too have suffered as they have. All the help we gave Iraq was not sufficient to save Iraq from the British forces. For this reason it is necessary to underscore one thing: in this struggle which will decide the fate of the Arabs I can now speak as a man dedicated to an ideal and as a military leader and a soldier. Everyone united in this great struggle who helps to bring about its successful outcome serves the common cause and thus serves the Arab cause. Any other view means weakening the military situation and thus offers no help to the Arab cause. Therefore it is necessary for us to decide the steps which can help us against world Jewry, against Communist Russia and England, and which among them can be most useful. Only if we win the war will the hour of deliverance also be the hour of fulfillment of Arab aspirations.

The situation is as follows: we are conducting the great struggle to open the way to the North of the Caucasus. The difficulties involved are more than transportation because of the demolished railways and roads and because of winter weather. And if I venture in these circumstances to issue a declaration with regard to Syria, then the pro–de Gaulle elements in France will be strengthened and this might cause a revolt in France. These men (the French) will be convinced then that joining Britain is more advantageous and the detachment of Syria is a pattern to be followed in the remainder of the French Empire. This will strengthen de Gaulle’s stand in the colonies. If the declaration is issued now, difficulties will arise in Western Europe which will cause the diversion of some (German) forces for defensive purposes, thus preventing us from sending all our forces to the East.

Now I am going to tell you something I would like you to keep secret.

First, I will keep up my fight until the complete destruction of the Judeo-Bolshevik rule has been accomplished.

Second, during the struggle (and we don’t know when victory will come, but probably not in the far future) we will reach the Southern Caucasus.

Third, then I would like to issue a declaration; for then the hour of the liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. Germany has no ambitions in this area but cares only to annihilate the power which produces the Jews.

Fourth, I am happy that you have escaped and that you are now with the Axis powers. The hour will strike when you will be the lord of the supreme word and not only the conveyor of our declarations. You will be the man to direct the Arab force and at that moment I cannot imagine what would happen to the Western peoples.

Fifth, I think that with this Arab advance begins the dismemberment of the British world. The road from Rostov to Iran and Iraq is shorter than the distance from Berlin to Rostov. We hope next year to smash this barrier. It is better then and not now that a declaration should be issued as (now) we cannot help in anything.

I understand the Arab desire for this [declaration], but His Excellency the Mufti must understand that only five years after I became President of the German government and Fuhrer of the German people, I was able to get such a declaration [the Austrian Union], and this because military forces prevented me from issuing such a declaration. But when the German Panzer tanks and the German air squadrons reach the Southern Caucasus, then will be the time to issue the declaration.

He said (in reply to a request that a secret declaration or a treaty be made) that a declaration known to a number of persons cannot remain secret but will become public. I (Hitler) have made very few declarations in my life, unlike the British who have made many declarations. If I issue a declaration, I will uphold it. Once I promised the Finnish Marshal that I would help his country if the enemy attacks again. This word of mine made a stronger impression than any written declaration.

Recapitulating, I want to state the following to you: When we shall have arrived in the Southern Caucasus, then the time of the liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. And you can rely on my word.

We were troubled about you. I know your life history. I followed with interest your long and dangerous journey. I was very concerned about you. I am happy that you are with us now and that you are now in a position to add your strength to the common cause.

Von Ribbentrop Promises Mufti to Destroy Jewish National Home

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Berlin, April 28, 1942

Your Eminence:

In response to your letter and to the accompanying communication of His Excellency, Prime Minister Raschid Ali El Gailani, and confirming the terms of our conversation, I have the honour to inform you:

The German Government appreciates fully the confidence of the Arab peoples in the Axis Powers in their aims and in their determination to conduct the fight against the common enemy until victory is achieved. The German Government has the greatest understanding for the national aspirations of the Arab countries as have been expressed by you both and the greatest sympathy for the sufferings of your peoples under British oppression.

I have therefore the honour to assure you, in complete agreement with the Italian Government, that the independence and freedom of the suffering Arab countries presently subjected to British oppression, is also one of the aims of the German Government.

Germany is consequently ready to give all her support to the oppressed Arab countries in their fight against British domination, for the fulfillment of their national aim to independence and sovereignty and for the destruction of the Jewish National Home in Palestine.

As previously agreed, the content of this letter should be maintained absolutely secret until we decide otherwise.

I beg your Eminence to be assured of my highest esteem and consideration.

(Signed) Ribbentrop

To His Eminence
the Grossmufti of Palestine
Amin El Husseini

The Text of Telegrams Sent by Himmler and von Ribbentrop to the Mufti on 2 November 1943

The text of telegrams sent by Himmler and von Ribbentrop to the Mufti on 2 November 1943, the twenty-sixth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. The Mufti’s speech and these telegrams were reprinted in a pamphlet entitled “Speech of His Eminence the Grand Mufti at the Protest Rally Against the Balfour Declaration on 2 November 1943.” The pamphlet was issued by the Mufti’s Islamische Zentralinstitut in Berlin.

The text of Himmler’s telegram follows:

The National Socialist Movement has since its inception inscribed the battle against world Jewry on its banners. It has therefore always pursued with sympathy the battle of the freedom loving Arabs against the Jewish intruders. The recognition of this enemy and the common battle against him provides the firm basis for the natural ties between the National Socialist Greater Germany and the freedom loving Mohammedans in the whole world. With this thought I convey to you, on the anniversary of the unholy Balfour Declaration, my deepfelt greetings and wishes for the success of your battle until final victory.

The following is the text of von Ribbentrop’s telegram:

I send out my greetings to your Eminence and to those who are today in the capital of the Reich at the gathering under your chairmanship. Germany is tied to the Arab nation by old bonds of friendship and today more than ever we are allies. The removal of the so-called Jewish National Home and freeing all Arab lands from the oppression and the exploitation of the Western powers is an unalterable part of the policy of the Greater German Reich. May the hour not be distant when the Arab nation shall be able to build its future and establish unity in full independence.

Mufti Asks Ban on Jewish Immigration as Gesture to Arabs

Berlin, 27 July 1944

To the Reichsfuehrer SS and Minister of the Interior

H. Himmler

Berlin

Reichsfuehrer:

In my letter to you of June 5, 1944, I referred back to our conversation in which I reported to you on the inclusion of Jews in the exchange plan of some Egyptians living in Germany.

I asked you, Reichsfuehrer, to take all the measures to prevent the Jews from going. These measures would also be in accordance with German policy in general, especially with the Declaration of the German Government on the occasion of the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1943, which stated “that the destruction of the so-called Jewish national home in Palestine is an immutable part of the policy of the greater German Reich” and that “the National Socialist movement, since its inception, has inscribed in its banner the battle against world Jewry,” as you, Reichsfuehrer, said in your telegram on the same occasion.

In the meantime I have learned that the Jews, nevertheless, did leave on July 2, 1944, and it is to be feared that further Jewish groups may leave Germany and France under the plan for exchanging Palestinian Germans. This exchange of Germans would encourage the Balkan countries to send their Jews to Palestine too. Furthermore, after the Declaration of the German Government, such a step would be incomprehensible to the Arabs and Moslems, and it would create in them a feeling of keen disappointment.

It is for this reason that I ask you, Reichsfuehrer, to do everything necessary to prevent the Jews from emigrating to Palestine, and in this way you would give a new practical example of the policy of the naturally allied and friendly Germany towards the Arab Nation.

Yours, etc.

The Mufti Proposes an Arab Legion to Himmler

Berlin, 3 October 1944

To the Reichsfuehrer and Reichsminister

H. Himmler

Headquarters of the Fuhrer

Reichsfuehrer!

I permit myself to call to your attention the renewal of the dangerous demands of the Jews, with the support of the Allies, for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, as well as the approval given by the British government to the establishment of a Jewish military unit to fight against Germany with a view to thus winning title to such a state. According to the last speech of Churchill in the House of Commons on September 28, 1944, the British government has declared itself ready to establish such a military unit and to provide for its training and arming.

This declaration on the part of the British government has produced the worst possible reaction in all the Arab-Islamic countries. I therefore propose that as a challenge to this act there should be announced the establishment of an Arab-Islamic army in Germany. This army should be established by Arab and Islamic volunteers and should be merged with the Arab-Islamic units already in existence. The German government should declare its readiness to train and arm such an army. This would level a severe blow against the British plan and increase the number of fighters for a greater Germany.

I am convinced that the establishment of such an army and announcement of its purpose would have the most favorable repercussions in the Arab-Islamic countries. I therefore beg you to consider the possibility of making such an announcement on November 2, 1944. It would thus appear on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration pledging the establishment of the so-called Jewish National Home in 1917, and on the anniversary of the pledge of 1943 by the Foreign Minister of the Reich to destroy the so-called Jewish National Home.

Accept, Reichsfuehrer, the expression of my highest esteem.

Yours,

Affidavit of Dr. Rudolph Kastner at Nuremberg

As a leader of the Jewish Rescue and Relief Committee in Budapest, I requested the competent German authorities to grant the emigration to Palestine of a group of Hungarian Jews.

In the course of these negotiations, which are the subject of my testimony deposed in the minutes of the Nuremberg trial, the high Gestapo official Eichmann declared he would be willing to recommend the emigration of a group of 1,681 Hungarian Jews, on condition that the group should not go to Palestine.

“They may go to any country but Palestine,” I was told by Eichmann, who, as leader of the Department IV.B. of the Reichssicherheitshaupant, was personally responsible for the deportation and extermination of the European Jews. At first, his argument for his negative attitude towards the emigration to Palestine was that he did not want to rouse the Arabs against the Reich. At last he said to me literally:

“I am a personal friend of the Grand Mufti. We have promised him that no European Jew would enter Palestine any more. Do you understand now?”

Some days later, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dieter Wisliceny, a close collaborator of Eichmann, confidentially confirmed to me the above statement of his chief, and added: