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Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently stated that the father of the
Palestinian movement, Hajj Amin al Husseini, convinced the Nazis to exterminate
the European Jews. Here is a brief summary of what happened, published by the
Jerusalem Post on 21 October 2015: “In a speech to delegates at the 37th World Zionist Congress
in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the premier claimed that Hitler's original intentions
were solely to expel the Jews. This has
created a storm. Immediately, authorities of all sorts were quoted in the
media stating that Netanyahu’s claims were outrageous and untrue. I will examine
the outraged reactions in a future piece. Here, I examine Netanyahu’s claim
in light of the available historical evidence, so that readers may form an
opinion as to whether they are true. For
context, I begin with a short summary of what is not in dispute. First, Hajj
Amin al Husseini is the father of the Palestinian movement, and mentor to
such figures as Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, the current leader of this
movement. Second,
Husseini organized several mass terrorist attacks against the Jews in British
Mandate Palestine. The first was in 1920. Then, after the British made him
the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, he used that position to launch new terrorist
attacks in 1921, 1929, and 1936-39. The last was called the ‘Arab Revolt’ and
Husseini and allies waged it with weapons supplied by Adolf Hitler. Third,
after he left the Mandate in 1939, Husseini went to Iraq to organize a pogrom
against the Iraqi Jews that destroyed the Jewish community there (the Farhud).[2] Fourth,
Husseini traveled to Italy and then to Berlin, where he was received with
full honors and sat down for a high-profile chat with none-other than the
Führer himself. The Nazi film (included in the documentary shown at top
right) and a Nazi
memorandum of this meeting both survived. An
especially relevant excerpt from that memorandum is the following: “The Führer then made the following statement to the Mufti,
enjoining him to lock it in the uttermost depths of his heart 1. He (the Führer) would carry on the battle to the total
destruction of the Judeo-Communist empire in Europe. 2. At some moment which was impossible to set exactly today
but which in any event was not distant, the German armies would in the course
of this struggle reach the southern exit from Caucasia. 3. As soon as this had happened, the Führer would on his own
give the Arab world the assurance that its hour of liberation had arrived. Germany’s objective would then be solely the
destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the
protection of British power...” [3] So Husseini
got assurances from Adolf Hitler that the German Nazis would exterminate the
Jews in British Mandate Palestine. This
is what the father of the Palestinian movement most wanted. Fifth,
Husseini spent the rest of the war in the German-occupied sphere and played
an important role in Nazi propaganda inciting Muslims on the German radio to
murder Jews. Sixth, he
recruited and supervised the formation of large SS divisions made up of
Bosnian and Albanian Muslims that participated in the massacres of the
Yugoslav chapter of the Holocaust (photographic evidence for these latter
activities is abundant, and may be found on the internet).
All of the
above points are uncontroversial, and for those not specifically footnoted
here you may consult the relevant documentation in a
different HIR article.[4] You
may also consult the documentation put together by The Nation in the 1947 article reproduced at right. So what is the
great brouhaha in the media all about? It is about the following two
questions: 1)
Did
the Nazis, as Netanyahu claims, initially mean to expel the Jews, rather than
kill them all? 2)
Did
Hajj Amin al Husseini, as Netanyahu claims, convince the Nazis to abandon the
expulsion programme for a death camp system that would kill every Jew? There is
very little controversy on the point that the Nazis initially meant to expel
the European Jews. At the
Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, the Attorney General expressed in his opening
statements that “At the beginning, when the Nazis were still sensitive to the
reaction of world opinion, the solution took the form of forced emigration.”
After summarizing at some length that very policy, he states: “The pressure
on Jews to emigrate was not discontinued after the outbreak of war.” In fact,
“it was only as the invasion of the Soviet Union drew near that the Germans
went over to ‘the final solution’ in the new sense, that is, utter physical
extermination.” The Attorney General interprets Hermann Goering’s
instructions to Heydrich, issued on 31 July 1941, as marking the change to a
policy of extermination, but these instructions state explicitly that Goering
was giving Heydrich special powers “ ‘In order to complete the mission imposed
on you in the order of 24 January 1939, to
solve the problem of the Jews by means of emigration or evacuation’ ” (my
emphasis). This was the middle of the summer of 1941, and still they were
talking about expulsion. It was not until 27 October 1941 that Himmler
“issued a decree forbidding any emigration of Jews from the areas of German
rule.”[5] Thus it
seems that, until the fall of 1941, to the Nazis ‘Final Solution’ still meant
pushing most of the Jews out. As
explained in another HIR article on this question,[5a] a number of historians have concluded precisely this from the
bulk of the evidence. For
example, Gunnar Paulsson explains that “expulsion”—not extermination—“had
initially been the general policy of the Nazis towards the Jews.”[6] Tobias Jersak writes: “Since the 1995 publication of Michael
Wildt’s documentation on the SS’s Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst SD) and the ‘Jewish Question,’ it has been
undisputed that from 1933 Nazi policy concerning the ‘Jewish Question’ aimed
at the emigration of all Jews, preferably to Palestine.”[7] Even after the conquest of Poland, writes Paulsson, “Jewish
emigration continued to be permitted and even encouraged, while other
expulsion plans were considered.”[8]
Christopher Simpson points out that, though many Jews were being murdered,
and people such as Reinhard Heydrich of the SS pushed for wholesale
extermination, “other ministries” disagreed, and these favored “deportation
and resettlement,” though they disagreed about where to put the Jews and how
much terror to apply to them.[9] And
so, “until the autumn of 1941,” conclude Marrus & Paxton, “no one defined
the final solution with precision, but all signs pointed toward some vast and
as yet unspecified project of mass emigration.”[10]
It is true
that a great many Jews were being killed on the Eastern front, and these
deaths of course must be counted in what is called the Shoa (or ‘Holocaust’), but, according to these historians, “until
the autumn of 1941” there wasn’t as yet a decision to kill all of the European Jews in death
camps. Husseini arrived in Berlin in “the autumn of 1941” (November 1941, to
be precise). Husseini thus arrived right
on time to argue powerfully in favor of what became the Wannsee
Conference decision to kill every last living European Jew. This agrees
nicely with Netanyahu’s claims. But, in
fact, the evidence is even more agreeable than this to Netanyahu’s claims. At his
trial, Adolf Eichmann confessed that he made an early trip to British Mandate
Palestine in 1939 to see if the Jews could be sent there. Another objective
of his trip, he confessed, was to meet with ‘Grand Mufti’ Hajj Amin al
Husseini.[10a] So Husseini had ample opportunity to argue influentially in favor of total extermination
well before November of 1941, for
he was in contact with the very Nazi leaders who wanted to send the Jews to
Palestine much earlier than that (something that is obvious, anyway, from
German Nazi shipments of weapons to Husseini’s terrorists during the
so-called ‘Arab Revolt’ of 1936-39). Nothing necessarily hinges, therefore,
on Husseini’s arrival in Berlin, or on the exact date of the first killings
to be labeled ‘Holocaust,’ as many seem to think. Finally, according to Dieter
Wisliceny, right-hand man to Adolf Eichmann, Husseini did contribute
to the Nazi decision to create a death camp system, precisely in the manner
that Netanyahu claims. After the
war, and prior to his execution for crimes against humanity, Wisliceny was
asked to comment on the testimony of one Eng. Andrej or (Endre) Steiner.
During the war, according to Steiner’s testimony, Wisliceny had stated that
the Mufti Husseini had played an important role convincing the Nazis to opt
for extermination. Wisliceny confirmed the testimony. This was all summarized
by State Attorney Bach at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem: [Excerpt from the Eichmann trial transcript begins
here] State Attorney Bach: This is our document No. 281. Mr. Steiner first tells
us that Wisliceny described his talks with Eichmann, why Palestine cannot be
considered as the destination for emigration: “When I asked him why, he
laughed and asked whether I had never heard of the Grand Mufti Husseini. He explained that the Mufti has very close contact
and cooperation with Eichmann, and therefore Germany cannot agree to
Palestine being the final destination, as this would be a blow to Germany’s prestige in the Mufti’s
eyes.” Then he goes on: “At this further conversation Wisliceny gave
me more details about the cooperation between Eichmann and the Mufti. The Mufti is a sworn enemy of the Jews and has
always fought for the idea of annihilating the Jews. He sticks to this idea
always, also in his talks with Eichmann”
- and here we have one of the points about which
Wisliceny has reservations - “who, as you know, is a German who was born in
Palestine. The Mufti is one of the originators of the
systematic destruction of European Jewry by the Germans, and he has become a
permanent colleague, partner and adviser to Eichmann and Himmler in the
implementation of this programme.” Here
Wisliceny adds: “I have read these descriptions and find them correct, except for this, that Eichmann was born in
Palestine, and that the Mufti was a permanent partner of Himmler’s; this is
not what I said.”[11] [Excerpt from the Eichmann trial transcript ends here] Wisliceny,
an eyewitness to the relationship between the Mufti Husseini and Eichmann,
agreed to everything that Steiner had said except for the bit about Eichmann having been born in Palestine
and about his relationship with Himmler. So Wisliceny agreed that “The Mufti is one of the originators of the
systematic destruction of European Jewry by the Germans”—in other words, that
he had played an important role in the decision to set up the death camp
system.
Those who disagree
with Netanyahu cannot simply express ‘outrage’ and claim, in the abstract,
that Netanyahu is wrong. No matter that they consider themselves great
‘authorities’ invested with institutional prestige. No matter that they claim
to speak for Yad Vashem, or ‘Holocaust survivors,’ or the ‘Jewish people’ or
‘real’ or ‘serious’ historians—or any other category of presumed scientific
or moral authority which they hope will seem like a big enough stick to beat
Netanyahu with. The sources are the sources. If Netanyahu’s detractors wish
to disagree with the sources that support his claims, they must speak
directly to their content and make a specific
argument. That is the sport of historical interpretation. We’ll be
waiting. In closing,
I will add that I find the moral arguments
brandished to attack Netanyahu especially interesting. And they are most
revealing, I believe, about a number of things, including who really has
influence over media content, and which forces are ultimately responsible for
shaping Israeli politics. I explain these matters in the next piece.
Read also How did the 'Palestinian movement' The CIA protected Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Holocaust PLO/Fatah's Nazi training was CIA-sponsored The Collapse of the West: The Next Holocaust and its
Consequences Footnotes and Further Reading [1] “Palestinian mufti convinced Hitler
to massacre Europe's Jews, Netanyahu says”; Jerusalem Post; 21 October 2015. [2] Black,
E. (2010). The Farhud: Roots of the
Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust. Washington DC: Dialog Press. [3] Author: Germany. Auswärtiges Amt. Title: Documents on
German foreign policy, 1918-1945, from the archives of the German Foreign
Ministry. Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik. English Publisher:
Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1949- Description: Book v. fold. maps. 24
cm. [Series D, Vol. XIII no. 515] [4] “How did the ‘Palestinian movement’
emerge? The British sponsored it. Then the German Nazis, and the US.”; Historical and Investigative Research;
from UNDERSTANDING THE PALESTINIAN MOVEMENT; 13 June 2006; by Francisco
Gil-White [5] SOURCE: The Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Sessions 6-7-8. [5a] “The
Nazis and the Palestinian Movement: Documentary and discussion”; Historical and Investigative Research;
26 July 2013; by Francisco Gil-White [6] Paulsson, G. S. (1995). The ‘Bridge
over the Oresund’: The Historiography on the Expulsion of the Jews from
Nazi-Occupied Denmark. Journal of Contemporary History, 30(3),
431-464. (p.442) [7] Jersak, T. (2000). Blitzkrieg revisited: A new look at Nazi war and extermination planning. The historical journal, 43(2), 565-582 (p.571) [8]
Paulsson, G. S. (1995). The
‘Bridge over the Oresund’: The Historiography on the Expulsion of the Jews
from Nazi-Occupied Denmark. Journal of Contemporary History, 30(3),
431-464. (p.442) [9] Simpson, C. (1995). The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law, and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. (p.77) [10] Marrus, M. R., & Paxton, R. O.
(1982). The Nazis and the Jews in occupied Western Europe, 1940-1944. Journal
of modern history, 54, 687-714. (p.687) [10a] Here follows what Eichmann stated on the question of an early meeting with Hajj Amin al Husseini: [Prosecution lawyer]
Q. You have told us of your programme to
“put soil under the feet” of the Jewish people. I assume that this was not
your personal invention. Could you tell us who were the righteous men who
conceived this programme: Heydrich, Himmler, Streicher, Rosenberg - which one
of them? [Eichmann] A. As
far as I know, at that time, when I tried to sell this idea within the
Service, no one else expressed it. Q. Only
you? A. At
that time, in any event, I did not hear it from anyone else and I also know
that this idea was, at that time, ridiculed and scoffed at by some. My
impetus came from Adolf Boehm's book, and there I recognized the root of all
evil in the homelessness of this people, and I made no bones about it, within
my official sphere of service. Q. And
a clear expression of the need to give this people a homeland, you gave, for
instance, in the report about your journey to Palestine in 1939, correct? A. This
is not my report. I have said so myself, and it was confirmed recently in
testimony by the person who had then been the superior in command of both
myself and the author. Q. That
is not correct, but let me refer only to what you have stated. You have said,
in your interrogation, that this report had been corrected by you in your
handwriting. This appears on page 341 and 342 of your Statement, where you
said that the report had been shown to you before being passed on. Is that
correct? A. I
corrected it, but only the spelling, as one can easily find out. Q. Your
journey was designed among other things, to establish contact with Hajj Amin
al-Husseini, isn't that correct? A. The
purpose was, first, to get to know the land and its people, and secondly, to
establish contact with all kinds of persons. Q. I
am talking about Hajj Amin al-Husseini. A. If
this were possible, yes, that too, of course. Q. One
of the objects of your journey was to establish contact with Hajj Amin
al-Husseini, is that correct? "Yes" or "no"? A. Yes,
that too. SOURCE: The Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Session 90. [11] The Steiner testimony appears in Session
50, part 7, of the Eichmann trial transcript. For the Rudolf Kastner
testimony, also confirmed by Wisliceny at Nuremberg, see the reproduction of the relevant pages, below, of: Pearlman, M. (1947). Mufti
of Jerusalem: The story of Haj Amin el Husseini. London: V Gollancz.
(pp.71-73)
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