The Palestinian Connection to the Nazis
Last month, Israel’s National Library blogged about Heinrich Himmler’s lost telegram to the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. Contrary to the oft-repeated claim that Nazi Germany did not support Arab independence and the eradication of the nascent Jewish state, I argue that it did. On the 26th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Himmler sent his best wishes for the mufti’s “protest meeting,” which took place in Berlin. The event was used to decry the Balfour Declaration, and to oppose the establishment of a Jewish state. Of course, such public support for Husseini would have been impossible without Adolf Hitler’s prior consent. In fact, Hitler and the mufti had agreed on a 1941 anti-Jewish pact of genocide.
Himmler’s telegram read as follows:
To the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini,
The National-Socialist Movement of the Greater German Reichhas since its advent upheld the flag of its fight against world Jewry. Thus, it always closely watched the fight of the freedom-loving Arabs, above all in Palestine, against the Jewish intruders. The recognition of this enemy and the joint struggle against it are the firm base of the natural alliance between the National-Socialist Greater Germany and the freedom-loving Muslims of the whole world. In this spirit, I am conveying to you, on the anniversary of the wretched Balfour Declaration, my heartiest greetings and wishes for the lucky realization of your struggle until the certain final victory.
Reichsfuhrer-SS, Heinrich Himmler
Himmler sent the cable on November 2, 1943. In the note, Himmler assured Husseini of the official sympathy of the Nazi movement with the freedom-loving Arabs, above all in Palestine, against world Jewry. In reality, it was always a two-way-street, because the Mideast also shaped young Nazis. Many of them fought there as officers on the side of the Ottomans, and later became commanders during World War II. Moreover, Himmler named all Jews as the joint enemy of the German and Arab people, calling the Jews “common foes.” The protest meeting was held in Herman Goring’s Luftwaffe Ministry. This means that Husseini was well connected to the top three men of Nazism. But why Goring? In February 1943, the mufti invested $920,000 in shares of seven big German companies. With Hitler’s consent, Goring managed the funds as a trustee. Had Berlin won the war, Husseini would have been a rich leader of a Greater Arab Empire, and supported by the Nazis. And the mufti was not the only Arab guest in the Luftwaffe chief’s office near the Brandenburg Gate that day. Listening to the speech was Ali al-Gaylani, Iraq’s ex-premier, who led the failed anti-British coup in Iraq. In mid-1941, Gaylani and the mufti had initiated al-Farhud pogrom in Iraq as a “model to treat the Jews.” Hitler supported the effort, and used it as a diversion for his ensuing war against Russia.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/05/14/the-palestinian-connection-to-the-nazis/