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The Balfour Declaration
The United Kingdom, in the Balfour Declaration, committed to the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This, along with the pressure of increasing numbers of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, raised anti-Semitic and anti-colonial sentiments among Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and Northern Africa, which the Nazis would later aggravate and manipulate for their own cause (Afridi 2). -
The Fall of the Ottoman Empire
The fall of the once mighty Ottoman Empire contributed to a crisis of identity for both Jews and Muslims who lived in former Ottoman territories. This crisis, exacerbated by the succeeding political change and colonialism in the region, encouraged anti-Semitic and anti-colonialist attitudes that the Nazi Party hoped to exploit. -
Egypt Threatens to Boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Adolf Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf, clarified the anti-Semitic beliefs of the Nazi Party. He broadly included Jews, Arabs, Muslims, and Persians as "Semites." When Nuremberg passed laws that restricted "Semites" in Germany, Arabs grew concerned that the laws discriminated against all non-Aryans. In response, Egyptian officials, not wanting to send their athletes to "a country that regarded them as racially inferior," threatened to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games (Here 717). -
Clarification of the 1935 Nuremberg Laws
In response to Egypt's objections against the Nuremberg laws, high-ranking Nazi officials from several ministries held many meetings between 1936 and 1937. They concluded that the purpose of the laws was to "distinguish between Germans and Jews, not Aryans and non-Aryans" (Herf 717). This placed the focus of the law on a "common 'enemy' of Nazi Germany and...the Middle East" (717). This was a propaganda tactic meant to gain support from the Arab-Muslim world (717). -
Nazi Germany Begins Arabic-Language Propaganda Radio Programs
With the help of such figures as Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Nazi Party began broadcasting propaganda programs on shortwave radio (Herf 714). Because most people in the Muslim world were illiterate, radio was the most effective means for spreading propaganda (715). Propaganda made use of literal readings of the Qur'an (720) and anti-Semitic and anti-imperialist attitudes in the region to sway Arabs and Muslims to Nazi sympathies (Herf 720; Afridi 10). -
Sultan Muhammad V of Morocco
After Vichy France took over Morocco, Sultan Muhammad V refused to apply all Vichy anti-Semitic laws to the citizens of his country. He requested looser restrictions on Jews, namely, that Jews be identified by profession of Judaism and not by Jewish heritage. On the basis of Islam, laws cannot discriminate against race, and identifying Jews by heritage would violate this principle. During the Vichy occupation of Morocco, the Sultan often helped Jews evade persecution (Afridi 9). -
Jewish-Muslim Peace in the Concentration Camps
While Algeria was under Vichy French rule and Nazi occupation, Jews, Muslims, and Europeans were brought to concentration camps. Algerian nationalist Mohammed Azerki Berkani was imprisoned at a camp that was divided into three sections, one for each of these groups. Lt Dériko manipulated the infrastructure of the camp to create conflict between Muslim and Jewish prisoners. However, the prisoners caught on to the plot and instead became "almost brothers," united in their suffering (Afridi 10-12). -
"The Arab Schindler" - Khaled Abdul Wahab
Nazi occupation of Tunisia began in the fall of 1942. Khaled Abdul Wahab overheard a Nazi officer planning to rape a Jewish woman, the mother of his friend Jakob Boukris. In response, Wahab hid Boukris, his family, and other Jews (a total of twenty-four) on his farm. It was reported that he also defended one of the women from a drunken German soldier who threatened to kill her. Four months later, Tunisia was liberated by Allied forces (Harris). -
The Second Battle of El Alamein
The Germans had plans to extended their conquests into the Middle East, and this would have also brought an extension of the Holocaust into this region. The Second Battle of El Alamein was a decisive victory for the Allies, largely achieved by the British and the Australians, that prevented the Nazi expansion Into the Middle East, sparing 700,000 Jews (Herf 713). -
German Occupation and Albanian Resistance
When the Nazis occupied Albania - a predominantly Muslim country - they ordered that the Jews be handed over to them ("Besa: a Code of Honor"). However, Albanians at all levels of society, including police officers, rescued their own 200 Jews and 2400 refugees (Berger). The Albanian code of honor called Besa demands that a person "provide shelter and safe passage for anyone seeking protection" (Berger), and this principle resulted in the most successful rescue operation in Europe during the war. -
Arabic-Language Radio Propaganda Ends.
The Nazis' Arabic-language propaganda program successfully tapped into "radical Arab nationalism" and "militant Islam" to win allies for their own ideology. Because of the Allies' victories in the Middle East, the goal of officially extending the Final Solution to that region was, thankfully, never achieved (Herf 714, 735). -
Yad Vashem Recognizes the First Muslim Righteous Among the Nations.
Yad Vashem bestows the title "Righteous Among the Nations" to non-Jews who "mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values" during the Holocaust (Townsend). For rescuing fifty Jews in Turkey, Selahattin Ülkümen became the first Muslim to receive the honor ("Selahattin Ülkümen"). Out of the 26,973 Righteous Among the Nations, 124 were from Muslim-majority countries - seventy-five from Albania, forty-seven from Bosnia, one from Egypt, and one from Turkey ("Names of Righteous by Country").
