The Islamic crescent and the swastika
In my continuing research of the ownership of the original Auschwitz blueprints (one of only two or three) signed by Heinrich Himmler, the Grand Mufti's close confidante ,more evidence emerges of the deep ties and previously unacknowledged partnership between the Nazis and the Muslims.
I have much more to report but this documentary transcribed and uploaded by Vlad Tepes is crucial viewing. There is plenty of Muslim propaganda in this film but what it reveals - facts, events over - in some instances - propaganda is explosive.
The Turban and the Swatika part 1 of 2 from Vlad Tepes on Vimeo.
Part II of the Turban and the Swastika - The Grand Musfti and the Nazis (hat tip Ken)
The Turban and the Swastika 2 of 2 from Vlad Tepes on Vimeo.
Transcription: see below these photos of Muslims soldiers for the Third Reich:
Muslim soldiers for the Third Reich
The Ummah fought for the Reich
Flag reads (what is legible)
Allah is the glorious
Armed forces volunteers
Algeria.Link: 
If anyone can tranlaste the captions, I would be most appreciative.
Transcript of the Turban and the Swastika below the fold:
Turban and Swastika, Amin Al-Husseini and the Nazis
Turban and Swastika, Amin Al-Husseini and the Nazis The Fuhrer receives Amin Al-Husseini, one of the most influential men in Arab nationalism. The Grand Mufti is the religious head of Arabs in Palestine and at the same time supreme judge and director of finances Because of his national inclination, the British pursued him relentlessly and have set a reward of 25,000 pounds on his head. He came to Germany on risky routes by way of Italy.
The term "Mufti"--his name is hardly mentioned--"the Mufti"--that was generally from the enemy. If anyone mentioned the name Al-Husseini, "The Sword of Islam," the country trembled,for he enjoyed a very god reputation Every Jewish child who heard the name "Mufti" thought of hate, destruction, death, murder. Whoever bears this title can handle and resolve questions in his own interest. In practice, the Mufti was able be greater than his title.
He was "the Grand Mufti." "Turban and Swastika--the Grand Mufti and the Nazis."
A film by Heinrich Billstein
Jerusalem 1917. Palestine is ruled by the Turks. They are hated by little Mohammed Al-Husseini as they are by most Arabs. The son of one of the great families in Jerusalem dreams of a free Arabia. To drive out the ruling powers, the Arabs fought by the side of the British, who have promised them freedom and independence for doing that. In December, Al-Husseini's dream seems to come true when the English march into Jerusalem. The former officer of the Turkish-Ottoman army has only recently joined the English. Since then he has successfully fought the Turkish rulers and their allies, the Germans, who now become British prisoners by the hundreds. 20 years later, he will ask these German soldiers for help in realizing his dream of a free Arabia, London breaks its promise and does not withdraw.
The Arabs, including Al-Husseini, feel betrayed. The British are now the new rulers of Jerusalem. The British have promised the Holy Land to the Jews, as well. They are allowed again to establish their national home in Palestine again. They come from Europe by the thousands. The immigrants build new settlements and modern cities like Tel Aviv. The Jews buy the land for their settlement from the Arabs. Many Arab landowners become still wealthier. Even the powerful Al-Husseini clan profits from the sale of land,
Many Arabs feel pressed by the settlers, but not all of them. In Jerusalem and other cities, Jew and Arabs have lived together peacefully for decades There was lively trade between us and the Arabs. They sold us vegetables and fruit. Until the Mufti appeared, we Jews and the Arabs got along well. Al-Husseini was against the Jewish immigration.
Many in Jerusalem think like him. The young politician agitates eloquently, not only in town but in the country. Just 25 years old, he rises to become a leading proponent of Arab nationalism.[..]
Al-Husseini is in the forefront of anti-Jewish protests. After the bloody riots of 1920, the British sentence him to ten years in prison as a ringleader. But he is soon pardoned. The British believe they will be able to win the influential agitator over.
In 1921 they go so far as to appoint the 25 year-old, who had little theological training, to be the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Now Al-Husseini wears the turban of the religious and the legal scholar, and the coveted title Grand Mufti, as had his father and brother. As is fitting for a family which invokes the Prophet Mohammed in reference to their origins
. There is no doubt that the family Al-Husseini is an influential and aristocratic family. It produced judges, politicians and leading personalities. It enjoys social recognition and respect, especially among the Palestinian peasants in the villages.
The name Al-Husseini triggered enthusiasm among Palestinian peasants. Because Al-Husseini represented the religious direction favored by the peasants. The new man on the Temple Mount is politically gifted and knowledgeable in power. Soon his followers occupy all the important posts among the Arabs.
In 1931 he organizes the Islamic world Congress and makes the Palestinian question a concern for all Arabs and Muslims. He was the recognized leader of Palestinian society, he was popular, he was not corrupt, and that was an enormous exception among the Arab-Palestinian elite of the time.
He was a believer and a sceptic. As St. Thomas Aquinas--a great philosopher--once said: "I think what I am; I see what I am," so Al-Husseini wanted to witness events himself and doubted things he had not seen or heard himself. Such things he rejected. It was one of his character traits. He was a hardworking and productive man. It was said that his opinions were often extreme. That may be true. But when it was a question of his homeland, it came first, and nothing else interested him. He was violent and rather ruthless.
He had killed all his rivals in Palestinian society. For him, any differing opinion was treason against the Palestinian people and was answered with violence. In fact, it came to murder. Nasr an-Nashashibi was one of those murdered. As people say, not I. It was said that he was one of the victims of the rivalry between the families--the an-Nashashibis and the Al-Husseinis. This could be right, but maybe not.
Al-Husseini raises the Islamic sites in Jerusalem to the status of symbols against the Jewish immigration. He sees himself at the head of a Greater Arabia and a Jew-free Palestine.
I saw him from a distance in the mosque. He was agitating and speaking against the Jews.
He was a special type--"ginger"--a redhead: red lashes, red lips, and all. And he had great charisma.
Coexistence of Jewish settlers and Arabs is no longer peaceful. They distrust each other, arm themselves and separate from one another, above all, since 1933, when more and more Jews are seeking haven from Nazi Germany in the Holy Land.
Hitler seems to be welcome in the Arab sections of Jerusalem. These days the Hitler cult and the German hatred of the Jews is not alien to Arab thinking.
Hitler's name has a good ring to it here. And Al-Huesseini wastes no time declaring his loyalty to the new Germany.
At the end of March, 1934, the German consul wired Berlin: "Mufti made detailed assurances to me yesterday, that Muslims welcome the new regime."
Jewish influence on the economy and politics, he says, is deleterious and must be resisted. A month later, Al-Husseini speaks more concretely. He does not want German Jews sent to Palestine.
The Grand Mufti works intensively for contact and a lasting alliance with the Nazis. A proverb says: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." That was the reason Al-Husseini felt compelled at that time to make an alliance with the Germans. To be sure, the Nazis are looking around in the Near East, but at first only as tourists, like propaganda chief, Goebbels in Egypt.
They are completely in sympathy with the Arabs and Al-Husseini's policy, but do not intervene openly. The Mediterranean is an Italian sphere of influence. They are still secretly looking for contact with the Grand Mufti, like Adolf Eichmann in 1937. The SS man, however, is not allowed into the country by the British. The Mufti has to be patient, but the SS secretly maintains contact and supports him with money. Also with money for the great uprising!
Since April 1936, Palestine has been in an uproar. The Arabs are rising against the British and Jewish immigration.
The Grand Mufti has called for violent uprising. It was he who set the direction and led. He made fiery speeches to wake the sleepers and talk to them so that they would rise up. For, he says, the Al-Aksa Mosque is in danger; the sacred sites are in danger. That is true. At that time, the sacred sites were very much in danger, and the English didn't care. The agitation. the Arab propaganda increased day by day.
Life in Jerusalem, and not just Jerusalem, was becoming very difficult. In Jerusalem and other cities, Jews flee their living quarters to get to safety. Centuries of living together is destroyed forever.
The English strike at the insurgents hard and without compromise.
During these days, some of the insurgents even carry the swastika along. The insurgents rampage against everyone who does not support their goals, even among their own people. After the murder of a high British official, the British finally proceed against Al-Husseini.
In time, he flees to the sacred district of the Temple Mount and avoids captivity. Naturally every political leader has opponents and enemies. They said whatever they wished against Al-Husseini.
The English could find no evidence that personally incriminated him. Many people on both sides fell to assassinations. The country sank into political chaos, similar to what is seen today in Iraq. In October of 1937, disguised as a woman, the Mufti fled to Lebanon.
He directed the rebellion in his country from Beirut, unmolested. At the end of 1940, Italian bombers attack British positions in Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and especially the harbor at Haifa where the oil pipeline from Iraq ends. German airmen also take part. Hitler's war has reached Palestine.
The Mufti has nothing against bombing in his homeland. Soon he himself will suggest the Germans bomb Jerusalem too. Al-Husseini has been in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
From Baghdad in January, 1941, he offers Hitler his direct help in the war.
"Excellency, the Arab peoples' warmest sympathy for Germany is a firm fact. If the Arab lands are relieved of certain material deficiencies, they will be everywhere prepared to act against the common enemy, and rise up enthusiastically to play their part in the defeat of the English-Jewish coalition. Mufti of Palestine, Mohammed Al-Husseini."
Many Palestinian Jews join the British, and later form a Jewish brigade of the Royal Army.
We reported as volunteers for the army when the Germans were at the height of their power. Joining the army at that time, when the English were still fighting the Nazis alone, without America or Russia, was not simple and required a great deal of self-sacrifice.
However, we did it because we wanted to, because our families in Europe were being persecuted by the Nazis. and we understood that someone had to stand up against evil.
Even the radical Jewish underground fighters of the Irgun joined in. In 1941, they march toward Baghdad with the British army.
With the energetic cooperation of the Mufti, the German-leaning officers in Iraq wanted to carry out a putsch that would align the country with Nazi Germany.
The fighters of the Irgun have a completely different objective. The leader of the Irgun came to Iraq with the British and died there in the fighting, when he tried to find and kill the Mufti. The Mufti survives; the putsch fails.
Husseini goes into hiding. The secret helpers from Germany, who stood by the Iraqi officers, are interned overseas. Besides the agents, Berlin had sent only a few airplanes. It was too little against the superior British forces.
The defeat in Iraq is not a subject of discussion in Germany. Only victories count. The same is true in the Arab version of the German weekly news film report.
In Berlin Olympic Stadium, Rapid-Wien defeats Schalke 04 4 to 3 for the German soccer championship. The German Reich declares war on Russia on the same day. It is June 22, 1941.
Rehearsal for the victory parade is already taking place in the Nazi capitol.
The Nazi metropolis is also the Mufti's destination. After a risky flight, he has made his way to to Berlin. He was never so close to Hitler. We always thought that he would be Hitler's right hand. It was never discussed, but we knew he would eventually go to Germany.
Husseini again promises Hitler the services of the Arabs and argues for his plans in the Middle East. Hitler gives only oral assent. Later, at his famous table talks, Hitler seems quite impressed by the "eminently sly fox." "
In spite of his sharp features," he gives "the impression of a man whose antecedents included more than one Aryan." Amin Al-Hueesini believed that, if Germany won the war. it might be able to help him give the Arabs their independence and unity.
Husseini comes upon a country that is immersed in dreams of victory and overflowing with vigor and self-assurance. He is impressed as he hears the declaration of war against the U.S.A. in the Reichstag.
What he hears is familiar to him: "
We know what power stands behind Roosevelt. It is the eternal Jew who believes his time has come to do to us what we saw and experienced with horror in Soviet Russia. By now we have come to know the Jewish paradise on earth. We know that it is the intention of the Jews and their Franklin Roosevelt to destroy one state after another."
The Grand Mufti is sure he has thrown in his lot with the right side. The chances of returning to Jerusalem under the sign of the swastika are good. General Rommel is moving from victory to victory in North Africa. It is time to put his own plans into motion.
In April 1942, he writes to Foreign Minister Ribbentrop:
"Imperial Minister, we have declared the willingness of the Arab people in the fight to final victory against our common enemy. We ask now that you make available to the Arabic lands suffering under British oppression every possible aid, recognize their sovereignty and independence and agree to their unification as well as the elimination of the Jewish national homesteads in Palestine. Amin Al-Husseini."
They shouted "Forward, Rommel" in the streets of Jerusalem in the hope for each and every German victory against the British Eighth Army under the leadership of General Montgomery. They clapped for the German army, as if it were being led by an Arab officer.
There was a terrible panic. I came to the kibbutz on furlough from the army. Everyone ran up to me, especially the women. "Are they coming or not?" And I told them: they will not come; we will not let them. But we didn't believe we could hold them off. Fear was great. And the Arabs here were already sharpening their knives, to kill the Jewish population with the help of the Germans, the Nazis. Hate for the English and the Jews reached its height. The cup was full to overflowing, especially when they saw how shocked of the Zionists were after the German victory in North Africa.
In the summer, Rommel's tanks are rolling unstoppably toward Egypt and threatening the Holy Land from the south. In the west, the Germans have conquered Greece and Crete. From there it is not far to the coast of Palestine. In the Caucasus, too, in the north, German troops are moving from the Russian front toward the Orient. They are to push through Iraq to Jerusalem. That is the plan. It looked like the German Wehrmacht was coming to Palestine from three directions. Whoever saw the map, that was how it looked. The German Wehrmacht was coming to Palestine from three directions. There were hundreds, thousands of Jews ready to fight, with or without weapons. There was no way we would let the Germans enter the country. We knew that was the end of us. We had no choice.
Al-Husseini would like to be part of the fighting. He wants to support the advance at the head of the German-trained Arab legions. But the Mufti and the Arabs and North Africans stationed in Greece are not required. Also waiting for marching orders in Athens was an SS task force.
The death squads are intended to be used against the Jews, first in Egypt and then in Palestine. Heaven had come to our aid. In December,1942, the Russians began the Stalingrad offensive. Montgomery and the 8th Army, in which I was fighting: we began the offensive in El Alamein and began to push Rommel out. That was a sad day. The young men in Jaffa in the Arab club and the Islamic club talked. They were sad that this mighty army, this unbeatable army had been beaten. They understood the reasons which led to Rommel's defeat in North Africa. They did not like that. They did not feel happy about that. Because, for them, evil triumphed. Shame triumphed, and the tyranny of those who came into our land to rip our homeland from us. All of that was said here.
The leadership of the institute would like to fulfill their Islamic mission to highlight the history of the Muslims, Islam and its high demands as well as its exalted objectives for the well-being of human beings.
The Grand Mufti is concentrating more on propaganda now that a military solution to the Palestine question has receded into the distance.
He is the patron and the strong man of the new Islamic institute in Berlin. The institute was founded with the support of the Nazis. It is helping the popular Arab leader to follow through with his interests. He was known throughout the Islamic world. In his time, he held the Islamic Conference in Jerusalem. He continued to work with Islamic circles and institutions until the end of his days.
Every day at war made the Mufti more important for the Nazis. From Berlin, he pulls the strin
gs of the resistance in the Middle East. By German radio, he propagates Holy War against the Jews. He also recruits tirelessly for the regime among non-Arabic Muslims, so that Hindus, Turkestanis, Caucasians or Krim-Tatars would join in the Germans' war. His word has more and more weight in the capitol of the Reich. The regime supports the Mufti generously: villas, vacation homes, offices, as well as substantial monthly stipends.
For every service he is richly rewarded by the Foreign Ministry and the SS. A dense web of contacts and close friendships give him the necessary maneuvering room to systematically pursue his ambitions.
The Grand Mufti is living in a golden exile. Contact with him was difficult. Letters brought us by travelers were rare. They heard his voice on the radio, or it was reported there that he was in Berlin.
At this time we learned nothing of what had happened to him. Sentimentality is alien to the hard-driving Arabic leader. Although his family lives in Jerusalem, he has repeatedly suggested since 1943 that either the holy city or Tel Aviv be bombed, because the Zionists meet there, or just for propaganda effect. T
he sermons Al-Husseini gives in his Berlin mosque are over-the-top. He cleverly mixes religious and racist hatred of the Jews, using his religion for his politics. Not everyone appreciates his radicalism. But most Muslims, who can follow their faith without hindrance, sympathize with the Nazis and the Mufti's views.
Al-Husseini's zeal knows no bounds. In a German radio broadcast to the Near East In November, 1943, he declares:
"Muslims and Arabs: What brings the Germans close to us and brings us to their side, is that Germany has not invaded any Islamic country. And Germany is battling a common enemy. It has seen the Jews for what they are, and decided to find a final solution, which will remove their evil from the world."
Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem knows from the start what is happening to the Jews in Germany and Europe. At the beginning of 1942, Adolf Eichmann personally discloses the "solution of the European Jewish question" to the Mufti. Al-Husseini is very impressed. He sends envoys to inspect Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen in summer, 1942. In 1943, his friend, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, also reports to the Grand Mufti about the status of the final solution.
"By now, we have exterminated approximately 3 million of them."
The death transports roll uninterruptedly to the camps in the east. Only with the help of the Red Cross and the British is there still an escape route to Palestine for a few Jews.
With all his might, Al-Husseini tries to stop these few rescue transports. He turns to Himmler and the National Socialist leadership and intervenes vehemently with the governments of Hungary, Bulgaria and, Rumania, who above all wanted to allow Jewish children and young people to leave the country.
A race of life and death begins. And the Grand Mufti plays a leading role. My father and I heard about this transport, actually because I was a member of a Zionist Jewish organization called Hashomer Hatzair, and they tried to get me into this transport, although we did not have the money to pay for it.
"To the Royal Bulgarian Foreign Minister: Your Excellency, the Jewish threat to the entire world, and especially to the countries where Jews reside has become a fact of life for most peoples and caused them to take defensive measures. We do not believe that Jewish emigration can solve this problem. Once emigrated, the Jews could, with nothing to hinder them, enter into alliance with their racial comrades in the rest of the world and cause more damage to the land they have left."
You got the feeling of something--I cannot say historic, that would be too big a word--but that something special was happening, that we were leaving, because we also understood that we were going from German to English soldiers. and it not clear to me to this day how that worked out.
"It seems to me to be worth noting that the countries Jews are supposed to immigrate to take a significant position that could have great influence on the outcome of the war. Further, the Jews during their stay in other lands have had the opportunity to learn about information vital to the war, and would make use of this information."
The first time we experienced something more radical was on the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The Germans came in and...that was the last place where the German soldiers had any kind of contact with us, because Turkey was officially neutral. Then they arrested three Polish youths and took them down. As far as I know, they were taken to Auschwitz, to Poland.
"I take the liberty of pointing out that it would be appropriate and expedient to prevent the Jews from emigrating, and send them where they are under rigorous control, for instance, Poland. Thus you avoid their threat and do a good deed for the Arabian people. Respectfully, your devoted Amin Al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem."
The Germans said, Poles and people who come from Poland have no right to travel in this train. But in Rumania, with our passes and exit permits,etc., we were allowed to travel further. The refugee train by which Uri Shalev reached the Holy Land in the spring of 1943 was among the last children's transport to come out of the death zone. How that worked, I do not know to this day. It was a chain, where so many...there was so much in it. In my opinion, it was a miracle that it worked at all.
Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1001 Nights on the Adriatic as the Weekly Newsreel liked to pretend.
Nearly half the people in Bosnia are Muslims. The country belongs to fascist Croatia. It fights loyally by the side of the Germans. Most Muslims, too, the so-called Bosnians, are friendly to the Germans.
It has been known for a long time in the Balkans that the Muslims are well-disposed to the Nazis. An ideal field for the Mufti to convince his Berlin friends of (the value of ) his services: for Bosnia only appears to be calm and peaceful. Since the occupation of Yugoslavia, the German regular army has been in a bitter battle with Tito's partisans.
Bosnia above all seems to be spinning out of control. New forces are urgently needed. In February, 1943, Hitler orders a new SS division to deploy in Bosnia. Himmler's officers recruit assiduously for the military SS among the young Bosnians. They said that an SS soldier is taken care of and families too get some kind of rations or protection. For this reason, many volunteered -- to take care of their wives and children. Many were out of work and volunteered for that reason. And so I heard about that and learned about the Handschar Division. The new unit is named "Handschar" after an oriental curved saber (scimitar).
[Ed. note from Atlas - It bears noting here that the Bosnian Muslim government had reformed the Nazi SS Division, Hadnschar Division, in 1993. The Nazi division was resurrected and President Bill Clinton sent US troops to fight along side the Nazi muslim division - more on that here]
From the beginning, Al-Husseini is involved in the deployment of the Muslim SS division. For the Nazis, Muselman becomes Muselgerman (pun based on older word for Muslim). Himmler summarily declares the Balkan Muslims to be among the racially worthy peoples of Europe.
The Muslims swear obedience to the death to the German commander-in-chief, Adolf Hitler. In the end there are over 20,000 in the unit, among them Germans as well.
The Grand Mufti personally recruits for the collaboration troops in Bosnia. Headquarters naturally saw him as someone who could inspire the Muslim world to fight for Germany and Europe. He was supported in every respect. That was the main purpose, I would say.
The Grand Mufti, it was said at the time, was a first-rate Jew-hater, and that naturally fit the Nazis' ideology. By agreement with Himmler, he is responsible for the philosphical-spiritual education of the Handschar soldiers.
The Grand Mufti is to build the
bridge between the German and the Arabic world. Himmler even grants him
imams and mullahs for this special ministry to the troops.
The Mufti chose the clerics himself and trained them in a school fir imams and mullahs. A novelty in the military SS: In the regular army, for instance, there were field clerics, catholic or protestant. That was not true in the military SS, except in the Handschar. And these imams had practical control of religious training.
"Dear Comrades, The friendship between Muslims and Germans has become much stronger, because National Socialism is in many respects parallel to Islamic philosophy. Points of similarity are monotheism and unity of leadership, Islam as an organizing force, struggle, community, family and progeny, the relationship with the Jews, glorification of work and production."
Naturally, they were not regarded as full soldiers by the SS leaders.For them, Muslims were nothing at all. They were not half soldiers, but even less than half soldiers. And it angered the SS leaders, that these people wore the same uniform. Except naturally, they walked around sloppier than a German officer would. SS chief Himmler is more focused on inner values.
"I must say, I have nothing against Islam, absolutely nothing. It is educating its people for me in this division, and promising them heaven if they fight and fall in the fight. A practical and sympathetic religion for soldiers."
Himmler is willing to be indulgent to the religious idiosyncrasies of his new soldiers. He has someone ask the Mufti what Islam prescribes for the soldiers' diet. The SS even arranges for culinary instruction for provisions with no alcohol or pork. The Reichsführer forbids the Germans in the division from making jokes about the Muslim volunteers.
He dealt personally with the headwear of the Muslim recruits. And naturally we wore the fez--we Germans too. It was required. The fez--blue with the death's head and royal eagle in front, with a tassel. That was our uniform. When we went on furlough, since it wasn't very well known--I mean, nothing ever happened to me--they were often stopped by the military police: "They ought give up on the circus, with the fez." That was written in the company register, that we had to wear the fez.
In March, 1944, the Death's Head in Bosnia is deployed against Tito's partisans. It is a brutal thrust. The partisans kept infiltrating. It didn't achieve much. It was a disastrous war, difficult and dirty, really dirty. The Mufti is tirelessly underway for the Führer.
One time he is giving his political imams a morale boost in Budapest directly behind the front, because the Handschar soldiers are now being deployed to the bitterly contested eastern front. Or he is schooling new imams in his institute up to the last minute, showing them how to lead the soldiers into deadly fighting.
Certainly I consoled my comrades, and myself too, because I knew what was waiting for us. I said: our job is to push back the enemy on our section of the front. There will surely be sacrifice. At any rate, anyone who loses his life in this way is a shahid, a martyr. They knew what a shahid is.
In the battle for Berlin the Bosnians were still fighting against the Russians advancing toward final victory. The Grand Mufti had disappeared long before. Not before getting his wealth to a safe place. He has a predilection for gold and dollars, which he placed in Switzerland in timely fashion.
As the Soviet soldiers are hoisting the red victory banner on the Reichstag in Berlin, the Grand Mufti is on his way to Switzerland. First he traveled to Bad Gastein and stayed there briefly. Then he flew to Switzerland in a German plane. He was in the company of my uncle and one other person. And for the first time, the sirens howled in neutral Switzerland, because a German plane overflew the border. The plane was ordered to land in Switzerland. His name was on a list according to which he was not allowed to enter the country. They handed him over to France.
The Grand Mufti living in tranquil Louisienne, near Paris, is intolerable for some Jewish soldiers in the British army. They concoct a plan. We were sure that he would be convicted exactly like the leading Nazis in Nuremberg. And we talked about how terrible it would be, if the French freed him. I said, we have to do something to prevent that. We are soldiers. We have weapons; we have transport; we have papers. We have possibilities others do not have. Let us arrange for this man to be brought before the court, or killed by someone. We talked about it and thought: Maybe we will make an assassination attempt on him.
While the Mufti, under loose guard by the French, is already making contacts in the Near East, the young conspirators seek some final advice from their rabbis. They pulled their hair and screamed at me: "Are you crazy?" 'What do you think will happen? What kind of consequences can that have?" And they said: "Jews are still in Arab countries. In Iraq, in Syria, in Algeria, in Tunisia. And by this act you will annihilate all the Jewish communities in Arab countries." I went back to the unit and told my comrades: "People, I am not going with you, and I won't let you do anything." With that, the chapter between us and the Mufti was closed.
In May, 1946, Husseini travels from Paris to Cairo under a false name. Jerusalem awaits him His hometown has decked itself out for him. But the British deny him entry. In 1947, he rejects the UNO plan to divide Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. Half a year later, he goes to war with Arab armies against the new state of Israel.
Shortly before the trial in Jerusalem of the chief organizer of the murder of the Jews, Adolf Eichmann, the Grand Mufti in Beirut denies any participation in and responsibility for the Holocaust. He did not even know Eichmann. "During my stay in Germany in the war years, I enjoyed every hospitality and excellent treatment by the Germans. Something I remember and treasure highly." On July 4, 1974, Mohammad Al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, died in Beirut. He was 77 years old.
