THE ROLE OF THE GRAND MUFTI IN WORLD WAR II
Haj Amin el-Husseini, the most powerful leader of the Palestine Arabs, has a long-time record of complicity with terrorism. Responsible for the Arab riots in Palestine in 1920, he fled to Transjordan to escape a ten-year sentence of imprisonment, to return to Palestine only after complete amnesty had been granted !
In 1922, he became the Mufti of Jerusalem and later the President of the Supreme Moslem Council, during which period he had at his disposal more than 100,000 pounds a year.
The Shaw Commission, appointed by the British Government to inves¬tigate the 1929 riots, attributed to the Mufti a share in the responsibility for these riots, in which 133 Jews were killed and 239 wounded. No action was taken to curb his activities, with the result that in 1936 he again was respon¬sible for new attacks upon the Jews of Palestine. At the same time, he caused the assassination of hundreds of prominent Arabs, including 24 lead-ing Palestine Arabs who refused to accept his leadership.
The captured files of the German High Command in Flansburg at the war's end reveal that the Arab riots of 1936 in Palestine were carried out by the Mufti with funds supplied by the Nazis. The report states: “Only through funds made available by Germany to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was it possible to carry out the revolt in Palestine."
Following his escape from Palestine to Syria and later to Iraq, he and his henchmen were directly responsible for the anti-Jewish pogrom, in which almost four hundred Jewish men, women and children were stabbed or brutally clubbed to death in the streets of Baghdad. An investigating com¬mittee appointed by the legitimate Iraq government, following its restoration after the revolt in 1941, declared that the causes of the disturbance, "are, in the opinion of the investigating committee, Nazi propaganda emanating from the following sources : (1) the German League ; (2) the Mufti of Jerusalem and his henchmen Wizo followed him to Iraq. This man was accorded enthusiastic reception in Iraq and has turned it to his own use to disseminate many-sided Nazi propaganda. His influence on Government and Army circles became so strong that he could give orders to his group to set to world to spread anti-Jewish and anti-British propaganda among all classes of the population."
In Iraq the Mufti's first undertaking was to organize the Iraqi revolt with Jamal el Husseini as his Chief of Staff.
After the failure of the Iraqi revolt, the Mufti escaped to Teheran and found refuge in the Japanese Embassy. From there he escaped to Italy. In October of 1941 he conferred with Mussolini, Ciano and Dino Alfieri, From Rome he communicated with Balkan Moslems under Italian rule in Yugoslavia and Albania.
Mufti as the Agent of the Axis
In December 1941, he went to Berlin. The Nazis established a special office for him in Berlin entitled, "Buro des Grosmufti", with branches organized later in other parts of Germany and Italy. His activities included propaganda, espionage, organization of Moslem military units in Axis¬occupied countries and in North Africa and Russia, establishment of Arab legions in an Arab brigade and organization of fifth column activities in the Middle East, including sabotage and parachutist expeditions.
In the course of his propaganda work, the Grand Mufti had at his dis¬posal not only the German-controlled radio, but radio stations in Bari, Rome, Tokyo and Athens. In addition, he was responsible for sending to the Middle East various propaganda publications in Arabic.
His espionage service extended throughout the Middle East. He had a sub-office in Geneva linking him to Egypt and Turkey, and another in Istanbul, branching out all along the Syrian-Turkish frontier in Messine,
Alexandretta, Antioch, Adana and Diarbekr. These stations received infor¬mation directly from the Mufti's agents in Palestine, Syria and Iraq, and maintained close contact with members of the German Intelligence in Turkey.
In Athens the Mufti established a parachutist and sabotage school for Arabs.
In The Hague, under his direction, Arab students were trained in wireless transmission, high explosives and demolitions. The Mufti's agents were parachuted into Turkey, Syria and Iraq. A number of them were caught by the British. On a number of occasions these agents, with the help of local Arabs, cut telephone and pipe lines in Transjordan and Pales¬tine and sabotaged railways and bridges in Iraq.
Another of the Mufti's accomplishments was the organization of Moslem military units. He attempted to recruit for the German military command some 500,000 soldiers from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. In Asiatic
Russia, he collaborated with Moslem Russian quislings and White Russian traitors whom he helped to form pro-Axis legions.
In 1942, he started to organize Axis Arab legions from among Arab students in Germany and Arab prisoners of war who followed him to Germany. His Legionnaires wore the German uniform with "Free Arabia" patches on their shoulders.
After the Jewish Brigade had been recognized by Winston Churchill in 1944, the Mufti, on November 2, with the consent of Ribbentrop, called upon all Arabs in Germany hailing from Palestine, Iraq, Egypt and Syria to join the Arab Brigade.
Accepting a proposal of the Japanese that he broadcast to Moslems in the South Pacific and India, the Mufti recorded numerous broadcasts which were beamed to India, Indonesia and Java.
On September 3, 1941, Major General Erwin Lahousen, one of the top officials of the Abwehr, whose secret diary was among the captured German documents wrote: "The Grand Mufti, who left Iraq to go to Iran, is currently in connection with the Abwehr II (Sabotage division of the Abwehr. According to reports from Teheran he is safe with the Japanese envoy."
A year later, on June 2, 1942, Lahousen wrote in his secret diary : "The Italian national, Captain Simen, took part in discussions with the Grand Mufti concerning the utilization of the connections with the Grand Mufti for the purpose of Abwehr II, in order to demonstrate the solidarity of the Axis powers."
A month later, on July 13, 1942, Lahousen made the further entry in his secret diary : "A meeting between the chief of the Abwehr" [Admiral Canaris, who was also Hitler's representative in arranging for the Franco revolt against the Spanish Republican government], "and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem took place in the apartment of the chief. I [Lahousen] took part in the discussion. The Mufti made an offer to the chief that the followers of the Arabian Freedom Movement, which was led by him, as well as the followers of the former Iraq Prime Minister, Kailani [leader of the Iraqi revolt against Britain], were to be used for purposes of sabotage and sedition in the Near East in accordance with the purposes of Abwehr II"
Bartley Crum after examining the documents on the Mufti and his activities at Nuremburg, wrote : "The record of the ex-Mufti's intrigues was fantastic. This file showed clearly that he had climaxed a record of fascism, anti-British intrigues and anti-Semitism by helping to spearhead the extermination of European Jewry. I had in my hand a German document sïgned by an agent of the Mufti scarcely twenty-four hours before Germany surrendered. In this the Mufti, in consideration of monies and gold paid up to that date, agreed to set up a new Pan-Islamic Empire and `to fight against the common enemy'." expansion of anti-Bolshevik front and ernphasizing readiness of Azer¬baijan people to fight on German side. First Azerbaijan field battalions statedly active on front for over one year proved tleir valor during this period were included in German storm troops and decorated by German army (signed-Harrison)."
The Mufti and Russian Quislings
Edgar Mowrer, in an article in the New York Post, revealed the efforts of the Grand Mufti against the Soviet Union. Mr. Mowrer's presentation was based on private and official papers left behind by the Mufti in his villa at Oybin and Bad Gastein, captured f les of the Gestapo, the Foreign Office, and the files of the Allied Wilitary Tribunal at Nuremburg.
In this connection, Mr. Mowrer revealed that the Grand Mufti, in a series of anti-Russian broadcasts, attempted to incite the Moslems of the Caucasus and Eastern Russia to turn against Moscow and join the Axis. Mowrer reports the Mufti was in close contact with numerous Asiatic Qualings. lIe listed as among those pro-German persons and organizations :
"Ali Khan of the Northern Caucasus Oesenbashli of the Crünea Tartars Wali Quyum Khan of the Turkestan National Union Committee-Dr. Szymkewicz, Mufti of the German occupied `Ostland' (Poland and occupied U. S. S. R.)
General Vlasov's armies of Russian deserters and their mouthpiece, the newspaper, Novoye
Slove, in Berlin Abbas Ali Dudanginski, Chief of the (deserter) Azerbaijan Axis Legion :
Mohammed el Gazani, Russian Moslem poet and one time leader of the Anti-Sovie Moslem Organization."
The American Legation in Berne, Switzerland, on November 16, 1943, in a dispatch to the Secretary of State of the United States confirmed the activities of Dudanginski.
"Berlin dispatch November eighth reports meeting there of Azer¬baijan conference attended by all Azerbaijan groups under leadership Dudanginslci Major Azerbaijan Legion, and by Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and representatives of German state and Army and people of Caucasus, Urals and Turkestan. Conference described as symbolizing
On June 27, 1946, the New York Times reported the Supreme Soviet Government had deprived two Soviet Republics of their autonomy as punishment for their collaboration with the iVazis and the Mufti. As a result 400,000 Moslems of the Crimean Tartars and the Chechen Ingush republics have been scattered over the areas of Kazakhstan, east of the Caspian, where other troublesome elements, such as the Volga Germans have been settled.
Eighty thousand Russian-Moslem quisling troops were still prisoners of war in the American zone of Germany, according to dispatches in the New York Times in December, 1946, and in PM in February, 1947.
ln addition to his Moslem Legions, says Mowrer :"The Mufti toolc pride in having formed from Soviet nationalities other so-called anti-Soviet Moslem units. The recently discovered notes on a conference at the Mufti's home in Oybin, Germany, between Haj Amin and Dr. G. Von Mende, Chief of the German `Fuehrungestab-Politik', prove the Mufti's complicity in the formation in Gerr.iany of the anti-Soviet military formations and of a school to train politico-religious teachers (Imams) to work among General Vlasov's Russian deserters.
"It was, therefore, with good reason that Abdul Rahman Rassulayev, Mufti of the (loyal) Moslems of Soviet Russia and head of the Central Moslem Council of the U. S. S. R., in 1942, denounced Haj Amin as a Gestapo agent and a traitor to the Moslem world. Rassulayev branded the Mufti's crimes as being on the same level with those of Hitler and of Mussolini."
Mufti's Role in Extermination of the Jews
That the former Grand Mufti was responsible in large part for the Nazi program of extermination of the Jews was also revealed by Edgar Mowrer in his articles in the New York Post in June of 1946.
The revelations of Mr. Mowrer, based on captured documents, were confirmed by Bartley Crum in the course of his investigations as a member of the Anglo-American Committee. Discussing his examination of the archives of the Allied Tribunal investigating war erimes, Mr. Crum says:
"I' saw another document-a deposition of Dr. Rudolph Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew, who conducted negotiations with the Nazis in an atternpt to ransom Hungarian Jews. Many of these dealings were with Adolf Eichmann, the Gestapo specialist in Jewish affairs, who had been the confidant of the Mufti. During his negotiations Dr. Kasztner spoke frequently with one Dieter von Wisliczeny. Von Wisliczeny was at this moment held in a cell in Nuremburg as a war criminal and an important witness. `The Grand Mufti', he said, `has repeatedly suggested to the Nazi authorities-including Hitler, von Ribbentrop and Himmler-the extermin¬ation of European Jewry'. The Mufti told Wisliczeny that he `considered this a comfortable solution to the Palestine problem'. And Nazi records show that, accompanied by Eichmann, the Grand Mufti, incognito, visited the gas chambers of Auschwitz, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were exterminated. Hitler had instructed that in any ransoming of concentration¬camp inmates, no Jews were to be included because an agreement had been reached with the Mufti that all Jews be exterminated. I also learned that the Hitler-Mufti agreement included relegation of Ibn Saud to secondary importance by making the Mufti the supreme head of a new Pan Islam. This became clear as I read on. It was the Mufti who insisted to the Nazi leaders that no matter what deals were made, no matter what monies were paid for the ransom of the Jews by Jews, no Jews should be permitted to go to Palestine. Negotiations were under way at that time for the ransorn of the Jewish community of Bratislava. These negotiations broke down because the Mufti refused to countenance their being ransomed and as a result the entire community was liquidated.
"It became evident that Nazi policy in relation to the Jews could be divided into three phases. Until 1940, the general policy was to settle the Jewish question by forced expulsion of them, coupled with extortion. From 1940 to 1942, the Nazi plan was to concentrate them in ghettos in Poland and in occupied eastern territories.
"In 1941, the Mufti fled to Germany for refuge. He immediately set to work with all his influence to agitate against ghettoization of the Jews and Eor a final solution: extermination. The result was the third stage of Nazi policy: the planned destruction of the Jewish race.
"There was proof of this in these documents before me. A letter from the Mufti to Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, on July 25, 1944, com¬plained of Gerrnan clemency toward the Jews.
"Your Excellency: I have previously called the attention of Your Excellency to the constant attempts of the Jews to emigrate from Europe in order to reach Palestine, and asked Your Excellency to undertake the necessary steps so as to prevent the Jews from emigrating.
"Other letters of the Mufti showed that he encouraged the deportation of European Jews to Polish extermination camps. On June 5, 1943, he protested to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria against a plan by the Bulgarian government allowing emigration of 4,000 Jewish children. These children, he argued, presented `a degree of danger to Bulgaria whether they be kept in Bulgaria or be permitted to depart from that country'. Instead, he said, they should be sent to a place in which they would be `under stringent controlas, for instance, Poland'. The Mufti's protest was successful. No children's transport left Bulgaria after July, 1943.
"A few weeks later he dispatched a similar letter to the Foreign Min¬ister of Rumania, concerning 1,800 Jewish children. This time he again suggested Poland, pointing out they would be under what he called `active supervision', a euphemism for the gas chambers.
"On the same date he wrote again to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, concerning a proposed transport from Hungary of 900 children and 100 adults. Again he pointed out that surveillance in Poland was the appro¬priate course.
"A few days later he wrote to the Italian Foreign Minister on the same subject. This time he urged the Italians to talke necessary measures, with the governments of Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania, to prevent the escape of Jews.
"On July 27, 1944, the Mufti wrote to Heinrich Himmler. Von Ribben¬trop and Himmler were too lenient toward the Jews, he declared, because, though he had protested to both of them on July 5, 1944, some Jews had been permitted to depart from Germany. `If such practices continue', the Mufti wrote, they will certainly be `incomprehensible to Arabs and Moslems and provoke a feeling of disappointment in them', and he warned that such practices might also encourage the Ballcan states to permit Jewish emi¬gration.
"On November 3, 1943, the Mufti broadcast from Berlin, in one of his nurnerous exhortations to the Arabs: `The Treaty of Versailles was a disaster for the Germans as well as the Arabs. But the Germans know how to get rid of the Jews. That which brings us close to the Germans and sets us up in their camp is that up to today the Germans never harmed any Moslem, and are fighting our common enemy who persecuted the Arabs and the Moslems'.
"This `common enemy', of course, was Britain. He went on to say, `But rnost of all they have definitely solved the Jewish problem. These ties, and especially the last one, the common war against Jews, malce of our friendship with Germany not a provisional friendship dependent upon conditions but a permanent and Iasting one based on mutual interests: "At the beginning of the war the estimated number of Jews in the world was 17 000,000. Even in 1944 we had no knowledge of the extent of Jewish massacres. The Mufti had. In a broadcast from Berlin on September 20, 1944, he asked the Arab world the rhetorical question, `Is it not in your power to repulse the Jews whose number is not more than eleven million ?'
"By this time, six million Jews had in fact been murdered. What was the source of the Mufti's information? He could have learned it only from Adolf Eichmann."
United States Official Weekly Review No. 18
Edgar Mowrer produced the following documentary evidence of the NTufti's complicity in the extermination of the Jews of Europe:
"Exhibit I. A telegram of the German post office from Heinrich Himm¬ler, head of the Gestapo,
to the Mufti. This bears no date and no stamp, for I-Timmler sent it by hand to a special mass meeting held in Berlin on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, November 2, 1943.
"This telegram, which was subsequently broadcast by tl~e Gennan radio and monitored by the American F. C. C., began:
“To the Grand Mufti:
“The National Socialist Movement of Greater Germany has, since its begiuning, inscribed upon its flag the fight against world Jewry. It has therefore, followed with particular sympathy the struggle of the freedom¬ loving Arabians, especially in Palestine, against the Jewish interlopers. It is in the recognition of this enemy and of the common struggle against him that lies the firm foundation of the natural alliance that exists between National-Socialist-Greater Germany and the freedom-loving Moslems of the whole world. In this spirit I am sending you on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration my hearty greetings and wishes for the suc¬cessful pursuit of your struggle until the certain fïnal victory.'
Signed : Reichsfuehrer-S. S. Heinrich Himmler"
Exhibit II. On July 25, 1944, the Mufti wrote a letter to the German Foreign Minister, Freiherr von Ribbentrop. In it Haj Amin recalled that he had previously directed the Minister's attention to the efforts of the Jews to leave Europe and get to Palestine and asked that Jews of Egyptian origin who happened to live in countries under Axis control should not be `ex-changed' for German civilians interned in Palestine.Such an exchange, the Mufti feared, might encourage the Balkan states to expel their Jews. Moreover, it would not be in harmony with the Minister's promise that the `annihilation of the Jewish home in Palestine is an unchangeable component of the policy of Great Germany'. And the Mufti asked Herr von Ribbentrop to prevent the return of any Jews to Palestine, thereby giving a `new example' of the naturally `allied and friendly Gerrnany to the Arabian nation'.
"Two days later a similar letter went from the Mufti to Heinrich Himmler. To the Gestapo chief, the Mufti merely reproached the fact that despite his telegram (Exhibit I) certain Palestine Jews were still being exchanged by Berlin for German civilians.
Children Were Targets
"Exhibit III. Four letters from the Mufti. They are addressed respec¬tively to the Foreign Office of Bulgaria, to the Foreign Office of Hungary, to the Foreign ~ffice of Romania, and to the Foreign Office of Italy. The dates are between May and June, 1943. To the four foreign ministers, Haj Amin explained the various reasons why they ought not to permit any Jews to leave their countries for Palestine, particularly not any Jewish children, and advised that it would be more proper and preferable to send all Jews to Poland i Here they would be under `more severe control', under `active surveillance'. Indeed, they would have !
"To anyone who, like Haj Amin, knew that Poland had been set aside as the extermination hell of European Jewry, this meant sending the Balkan Jews, including the children, to certain and horrible death.
"Exhibit IV. A proposal for a Nazi pro-Arab Declaration, submitted by the Mufti to the Germans and the Italians. During his stay in Germany, the Mufti repeatedly urged the Germans to issue a Declaration to the Arabs, promising them the establishment of an `Arab Union', the formation of an Arab pro-Axis army, etc. One of these Mufti-suggested Declarations en¬titled, `Declaration officielle de l'Allemagne et de l'Italie concernant les pays arabes', found in the archives of the Mufti's Bureau in Germany con¬tains among others : `Article 7, Germany and Italy declare, that the Jewish national home in Palestine is illegal. They recognize the right o f the Arabs of Palestine and the Arabs of other Arab countries to solve the problem of the Jewish elements in Palestine and the other Arab countries according to the national interest of the Arabs and in the same way that this problem was solved in the Axis countries."'
On November 2, 1942, in a broadcast from Berlin, the Mufti praised the Germans for "knowing how to get rid of the Jews and eventually solving the Jewish problem." In another broadcast on March 4, 1944, he urged his listeners to "kill the Jews wherever they find them."
On November 2, 1943, the S. S. leader, in a telegram to the Mufti, read over the Berlin radio that the Nazi party had "inscribed upon its flag the extermination of world Jewry."
On February 9, 1945, the Czech London weekly, Central European Observer, carried an article by Joseph Kalmer, in which the statement was made, "the least known of the Mufti's activities is the part he is play¬ing in the extermination of the Jews in Europe. This is his chief role, however." According to Kalmer, Eichmann served as the Mufti's execu¬tioner, working with him first in Poland. "Now news has come through that he, the great executioner of the Jews, is one of Himmler's chief execu¬tioners. He is said to have been at one time in command at the notorious concentration camp at Oswïciem. He is reputed to be the inventor of the monstrous crematoria, the gas chambers and other instruments of devilish brutality against the Jews. Mass executions started only when Eichmann and the Mufti had come together again."
Grand Mufti's Escape from France to Egypt
The Grand Mufti, who had been held in forced residence in France at the war's end, found it possible to escape on May 29, 1946, despite the fact that on May 8, it was announced that France had agreed to keep the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and see to it that he did not leave for any country in the Middle East.
As far back as February 18, 1946, Alexander Uhl, foreign editor of PM, in a dispatch from Washington to that paper, pointed out that "confidential information reaching the United States indicates that one of these days Haj Amin el Husseini, ex-Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who played stooge for Hitler, is going to escape from forced residence in France and turn up in the Middle East." Mr. Uhl said in his story that the negotiations for the flight of the Mufti had been going on for months between French and British quarters seeking to use the Mufti "as a powerful weapon to keep the Arab world united against possible Soviet influence".
On April 10, Mr. Uhl again warned that the Mufti was planning to return to the Middle East a free man. On May 29, the Mufti did escape, allegedly in an American Transworld Airways Skymaster.
When news of this flight reached the world early in June, the British put on a great show of making a search for the Mufti to insure that he would not settle in the Middle East. On June 9, the Mufti arrived in Damascus. From Damascus, the Grand Mufti moved to Cairo and was granted asylum by King Farouk, by whom he was received. A month later the Mufti moved frotn King Farouk's palace in Cairo to one of his villas in Alexandria. In addition to granting asylum, King Farouk supplied the Mufti with special liaison officers; and the Arab League supplied him with funds.
Under the pressure of the British, the Egyptian Government was moved to request the Mufti to refrain from participating in politics. The British did not ask for his extradition.
The announcetnent of the curb on the political activities of the Mufti was
protested by the Egyptian press and by the Wafdist bloc. By August of 1946, however, the strictures on the political activities of the Mufti were lifted. Immediately, he went into consultation with leaders of the Arab League coming from all sections of the Arab world, among them represen¬tatives of Syria and Palestine.
Escape of Other Pro-Axis Arabs
The success of the Mufti has stimulated other pro-Axis Arabs to escape from protective custody and to find asylum in the Middle East.
The escape of the Grand Mufti from France has now been paralleled by the arrival in Lydda, Palestine, on February 22, 1947, of the Mufti's aide¬de-camp, Fawzi el Kawukji. Kawukji, a leader of the Arab revolt in 1936,had been held in protective custody in the Russian zone of Berlin. He ar¬rived at the Lydda airport in a plane that had been grounded en route to Cairo.
Like the escape of the Grand Mufti, the escape of Fawzi el Kawukji had been widely reported a week earlier. He had left the Russian zone of Berlin, reached Paris, and together with his German wife, departed for Cairo. Reports from Cairo stated that the Mufti had ordered Kawukji to come to Cairo in order to assume joint command of the Arab illegal armies in Palestine, in an effort to persuade Arab landowners it would be unhealthy to sell land to Jews.
Kawukji, like the Mufti, was an accomplice of Rashid Ali~ in the Iraqi rebellion against the Allies. Like the Mufti, he escaped to Germany when the revolt collapsed. He was imprisoned by the Russians, but released, it was alleged, on the intervention of the Lebanese Government.
Rashid Ali has found refuge in the palace of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.
Arab Attitude Toward the Grand Mufti
The record of the Grand Mufti has lost him no followers. On the contrary, it has given him added prestige in the entire Arab world. Today he is the unofficial leader of both the Arab League and of the Arab Higher Committee of Palestine.
Jamal el Husseini, Vice-Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, according to Richard Crossman, presented a written statement to the Anglo¬ American Committee, which began with the declaration that the Mufti alone could speak truly for the people of Palestine. Moreover, Husseini began his oral testimony with a statement that, "We find ourselves in this inquiry deprived of the presence of our first leader, the Grand Mufti, for whom we can accept no substitute".
Asked the attitude of the Arabs to the Mufti's war record, Jamal el Husseini replied to the Anglo-American Committee: "The Grand Mufti in Germany was working for the interests not of the English who were warring with the Germans, but for the interests of his people who had no direct interest at least in the controversy".
The Anglo-American Committee's comment is : "They felt that it was not their war and that the Mufti was right in taking such steps as he could to do the best for Palestine, whoever might be victorious".
Richard Crossman, reporting on his discussions with Arabs in Cairo on this subj00@t, writes : "This was the answer which I got : The Arabs had been summoned to fight the Germans and Italians by the two countries¬
France and Britain-which they regarded as enemy No. 1. The Arab Nationalists, intent on their own liberation, could not be expected to remain deaf to Nazi and Fascist blandishments. They could be sure, if Germany won, that they would be permitted to do what they liked with the Jews of Palestine, and, at the very least, the I3ritish and French regimes in the Middle East would be wound up".
triton
Haj Amin el-Husseini, the most powerful leader of the Palestine Arabs, has a long-time record of complicity with terrorism. Responsible for the Arab riots in Palestine in 1920, he fled to Transjordan to escape a ten-year sentence of imprisonment, to return to Palestine only after complete amnesty had been granted !
In 1922, he became the Mufti of Jerusalem and later the President of the Supreme Moslem Council, during which period he had at his disposal more than 100,000 pounds a year.
The Shaw Commission, appointed by the British Government to inves¬tigate the 1929 riots, attributed to the Mufti a share in the responsibility for these riots, in which 133 Jews were killed and 239 wounded. No action was taken to curb his activities, with the result that in 1936 he again was respon¬sible for new attacks upon the Jews of Palestine. At the same time, he caused the assassination of hundreds of prominent Arabs, including 24 lead-ing Palestine Arabs who refused to accept his leadership.
The captured files of the German High Command in Flansburg at the war's end reveal that the Arab riots of 1936 in Palestine were carried out by the Mufti with funds supplied by the Nazis. The report states: “Only through funds made available by Germany to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was it possible to carry out the revolt in Palestine."
Following his escape from Palestine to Syria and later to Iraq, he and his henchmen were directly responsible for the anti-Jewish pogrom, in which almost four hundred Jewish men, women and children were stabbed or brutally clubbed to death in the streets of Baghdad. An investigating com¬mittee appointed by the legitimate Iraq government, following its restoration after the revolt in 1941, declared that the causes of the disturbance, "are, in the opinion of the investigating committee, Nazi propaganda emanating from the following sources : (1) the German League ; (2) the Mufti of Jerusalem and his henchmen Wizo followed him to Iraq. This man was accorded enthusiastic reception in Iraq and has turned it to his own use to disseminate many-sided Nazi propaganda. His influence on Government and Army circles became so strong that he could give orders to his group to set to world to spread anti-Jewish and anti-British propaganda among all classes of the population."
In Iraq the Mufti's first undertaking was to organize the Iraqi revolt with Jamal el Husseini as his Chief of Staff.
After the failure of the Iraqi revolt, the Mufti escaped to Teheran and found refuge in the Japanese Embassy. From there he escaped to Italy. In October of 1941 he conferred with Mussolini, Ciano and Dino Alfieri, From Rome he communicated with Balkan Moslems under Italian rule in Yugoslavia and Albania.
Mufti as the Agent of the Axis
In December 1941, he went to Berlin. The Nazis established a special office for him in Berlin entitled, "Buro des Grosmufti", with branches organized later in other parts of Germany and Italy. His activities included propaganda, espionage, organization of Moslem military units in Axis¬occupied countries and in North Africa and Russia, establishment of Arab legions in an Arab brigade and organization of fifth column activities in the Middle East, including sabotage and parachutist expeditions.
In the course of his propaganda work, the Grand Mufti had at his dis¬posal not only the German-controlled radio, but radio stations in Bari, Rome, Tokyo and Athens. In addition, he was responsible for sending to the Middle East various propaganda publications in Arabic.
His espionage service extended throughout the Middle East. He had a sub-office in Geneva linking him to Egypt and Turkey, and another in Istanbul, branching out all along the Syrian-Turkish frontier in Messine,
Alexandretta, Antioch, Adana and Diarbekr. These stations received infor¬mation directly from the Mufti's agents in Palestine, Syria and Iraq, and maintained close contact with members of the German Intelligence in Turkey.
In Athens the Mufti established a parachutist and sabotage school for Arabs.
In The Hague, under his direction, Arab students were trained in wireless transmission, high explosives and demolitions. The Mufti's agents were parachuted into Turkey, Syria and Iraq. A number of them were caught by the British. On a number of occasions these agents, with the help of local Arabs, cut telephone and pipe lines in Transjordan and Pales¬tine and sabotaged railways and bridges in Iraq.
Another of the Mufti's accomplishments was the organization of Moslem military units. He attempted to recruit for the German military command some 500,000 soldiers from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. In Asiatic
Russia, he collaborated with Moslem Russian quislings and White Russian traitors whom he helped to form pro-Axis legions.
In 1942, he started to organize Axis Arab legions from among Arab students in Germany and Arab prisoners of war who followed him to Germany. His Legionnaires wore the German uniform with "Free Arabia" patches on their shoulders.
After the Jewish Brigade had been recognized by Winston Churchill in 1944, the Mufti, on November 2, with the consent of Ribbentrop, called upon all Arabs in Germany hailing from Palestine, Iraq, Egypt and Syria to join the Arab Brigade.
Accepting a proposal of the Japanese that he broadcast to Moslems in the South Pacific and India, the Mufti recorded numerous broadcasts which were beamed to India, Indonesia and Java.
On September 3, 1941, Major General Erwin Lahousen, one of the top officials of the Abwehr, whose secret diary was among the captured German documents wrote: "The Grand Mufti, who left Iraq to go to Iran, is currently in connection with the Abwehr II (Sabotage division of the Abwehr. According to reports from Teheran he is safe with the Japanese envoy."
A year later, on June 2, 1942, Lahousen wrote in his secret diary : "The Italian national, Captain Simen, took part in discussions with the Grand Mufti concerning the utilization of the connections with the Grand Mufti for the purpose of Abwehr II, in order to demonstrate the solidarity of the Axis powers."
A month later, on July 13, 1942, Lahousen made the further entry in his secret diary : "A meeting between the chief of the Abwehr" [Admiral Canaris, who was also Hitler's representative in arranging for the Franco revolt against the Spanish Republican government], "and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem took place in the apartment of the chief. I [Lahousen] took part in the discussion. The Mufti made an offer to the chief that the followers of the Arabian Freedom Movement, which was led by him, as well as the followers of the former Iraq Prime Minister, Kailani [leader of the Iraqi revolt against Britain], were to be used for purposes of sabotage and sedition in the Near East in accordance with the purposes of Abwehr II"
Bartley Crum after examining the documents on the Mufti and his activities at Nuremburg, wrote : "The record of the ex-Mufti's intrigues was fantastic. This file showed clearly that he had climaxed a record of fascism, anti-British intrigues and anti-Semitism by helping to spearhead the extermination of European Jewry. I had in my hand a German document sïgned by an agent of the Mufti scarcely twenty-four hours before Germany surrendered. In this the Mufti, in consideration of monies and gold paid up to that date, agreed to set up a new Pan-Islamic Empire and `to fight against the common enemy'." expansion of anti-Bolshevik front and ernphasizing readiness of Azer¬baijan people to fight on German side. First Azerbaijan field battalions statedly active on front for over one year proved tleir valor during this period were included in German storm troops and decorated by German army (signed-Harrison)."
The Mufti and Russian Quislings
Edgar Mowrer, in an article in the New York Post, revealed the efforts of the Grand Mufti against the Soviet Union. Mr. Mowrer's presentation was based on private and official papers left behind by the Mufti in his villa at Oybin and Bad Gastein, captured f les of the Gestapo, the Foreign Office, and the files of the Allied Wilitary Tribunal at Nuremburg.
In this connection, Mr. Mowrer revealed that the Grand Mufti, in a series of anti-Russian broadcasts, attempted to incite the Moslems of the Caucasus and Eastern Russia to turn against Moscow and join the Axis. Mowrer reports the Mufti was in close contact with numerous Asiatic Qualings. lIe listed as among those pro-German persons and organizations :
"Ali Khan of the Northern Caucasus Oesenbashli of the Crünea Tartars Wali Quyum Khan of the Turkestan National Union Committee-Dr. Szymkewicz, Mufti of the German occupied `Ostland' (Poland and occupied U. S. S. R.)
General Vlasov's armies of Russian deserters and their mouthpiece, the newspaper, Novoye
Slove, in Berlin Abbas Ali Dudanginski, Chief of the (deserter) Azerbaijan Axis Legion :
Mohammed el Gazani, Russian Moslem poet and one time leader of the Anti-Sovie Moslem Organization."
The American Legation in Berne, Switzerland, on November 16, 1943, in a dispatch to the Secretary of State of the United States confirmed the activities of Dudanginski.
"Berlin dispatch November eighth reports meeting there of Azer¬baijan conference attended by all Azerbaijan groups under leadership Dudanginslci Major Azerbaijan Legion, and by Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and representatives of German state and Army and people of Caucasus, Urals and Turkestan. Conference described as symbolizing
On June 27, 1946, the New York Times reported the Supreme Soviet Government had deprived two Soviet Republics of their autonomy as punishment for their collaboration with the iVazis and the Mufti. As a result 400,000 Moslems of the Crimean Tartars and the Chechen Ingush republics have been scattered over the areas of Kazakhstan, east of the Caspian, where other troublesome elements, such as the Volga Germans have been settled.
Eighty thousand Russian-Moslem quisling troops were still prisoners of war in the American zone of Germany, according to dispatches in the New York Times in December, 1946, and in PM in February, 1947.
ln addition to his Moslem Legions, says Mowrer :"The Mufti toolc pride in having formed from Soviet nationalities other so-called anti-Soviet Moslem units. The recently discovered notes on a conference at the Mufti's home in Oybin, Germany, between Haj Amin and Dr. G. Von Mende, Chief of the German `Fuehrungestab-Politik', prove the Mufti's complicity in the formation in Gerr.iany of the anti-Soviet military formations and of a school to train politico-religious teachers (Imams) to work among General Vlasov's Russian deserters.
"It was, therefore, with good reason that Abdul Rahman Rassulayev, Mufti of the (loyal) Moslems of Soviet Russia and head of the Central Moslem Council of the U. S. S. R., in 1942, denounced Haj Amin as a Gestapo agent and a traitor to the Moslem world. Rassulayev branded the Mufti's crimes as being on the same level with those of Hitler and of Mussolini."
Mufti's Role in Extermination of the Jews
That the former Grand Mufti was responsible in large part for the Nazi program of extermination of the Jews was also revealed by Edgar Mowrer in his articles in the New York Post in June of 1946.
The revelations of Mr. Mowrer, based on captured documents, were confirmed by Bartley Crum in the course of his investigations as a member of the Anglo-American Committee. Discussing his examination of the archives of the Allied Tribunal investigating war erimes, Mr. Crum says:
"I' saw another document-a deposition of Dr. Rudolph Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew, who conducted negotiations with the Nazis in an atternpt to ransom Hungarian Jews. Many of these dealings were with Adolf Eichmann, the Gestapo specialist in Jewish affairs, who had been the confidant of the Mufti. During his negotiations Dr. Kasztner spoke frequently with one Dieter von Wisliczeny. Von Wisliczeny was at this moment held in a cell in Nuremburg as a war criminal and an important witness. `The Grand Mufti', he said, `has repeatedly suggested to the Nazi authorities-including Hitler, von Ribbentrop and Himmler-the extermin¬ation of European Jewry'. The Mufti told Wisliczeny that he `considered this a comfortable solution to the Palestine problem'. And Nazi records show that, accompanied by Eichmann, the Grand Mufti, incognito, visited the gas chambers of Auschwitz, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were exterminated. Hitler had instructed that in any ransoming of concentration¬camp inmates, no Jews were to be included because an agreement had been reached with the Mufti that all Jews be exterminated. I also learned that the Hitler-Mufti agreement included relegation of Ibn Saud to secondary importance by making the Mufti the supreme head of a new Pan Islam. This became clear as I read on. It was the Mufti who insisted to the Nazi leaders that no matter what deals were made, no matter what monies were paid for the ransom of the Jews by Jews, no Jews should be permitted to go to Palestine. Negotiations were under way at that time for the ransorn of the Jewish community of Bratislava. These negotiations broke down because the Mufti refused to countenance their being ransomed and as a result the entire community was liquidated.
"It became evident that Nazi policy in relation to the Jews could be divided into three phases. Until 1940, the general policy was to settle the Jewish question by forced expulsion of them, coupled with extortion. From 1940 to 1942, the Nazi plan was to concentrate them in ghettos in Poland and in occupied eastern territories.
"In 1941, the Mufti fled to Germany for refuge. He immediately set to work with all his influence to agitate against ghettoization of the Jews and Eor a final solution: extermination. The result was the third stage of Nazi policy: the planned destruction of the Jewish race.
"There was proof of this in these documents before me. A letter from the Mufti to Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, on July 25, 1944, com¬plained of Gerrnan clemency toward the Jews.
"Your Excellency: I have previously called the attention of Your Excellency to the constant attempts of the Jews to emigrate from Europe in order to reach Palestine, and asked Your Excellency to undertake the necessary steps so as to prevent the Jews from emigrating.
"Other letters of the Mufti showed that he encouraged the deportation of European Jews to Polish extermination camps. On June 5, 1943, he protested to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria against a plan by the Bulgarian government allowing emigration of 4,000 Jewish children. These children, he argued, presented `a degree of danger to Bulgaria whether they be kept in Bulgaria or be permitted to depart from that country'. Instead, he said, they should be sent to a place in which they would be `under stringent controlas, for instance, Poland'. The Mufti's protest was successful. No children's transport left Bulgaria after July, 1943.
"A few weeks later he dispatched a similar letter to the Foreign Min¬ister of Rumania, concerning 1,800 Jewish children. This time he again suggested Poland, pointing out they would be under what he called `active supervision', a euphemism for the gas chambers.
"On the same date he wrote again to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, concerning a proposed transport from Hungary of 900 children and 100 adults. Again he pointed out that surveillance in Poland was the appro¬priate course.
"A few days later he wrote to the Italian Foreign Minister on the same subject. This time he urged the Italians to talke necessary measures, with the governments of Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania, to prevent the escape of Jews.
"On July 27, 1944, the Mufti wrote to Heinrich Himmler. Von Ribben¬trop and Himmler were too lenient toward the Jews, he declared, because, though he had protested to both of them on July 5, 1944, some Jews had been permitted to depart from Germany. `If such practices continue', the Mufti wrote, they will certainly be `incomprehensible to Arabs and Moslems and provoke a feeling of disappointment in them', and he warned that such practices might also encourage the Ballcan states to permit Jewish emi¬gration.
"On November 3, 1943, the Mufti broadcast from Berlin, in one of his nurnerous exhortations to the Arabs: `The Treaty of Versailles was a disaster for the Germans as well as the Arabs. But the Germans know how to get rid of the Jews. That which brings us close to the Germans and sets us up in their camp is that up to today the Germans never harmed any Moslem, and are fighting our common enemy who persecuted the Arabs and the Moslems'.
"This `common enemy', of course, was Britain. He went on to say, `But rnost of all they have definitely solved the Jewish problem. These ties, and especially the last one, the common war against Jews, malce of our friendship with Germany not a provisional friendship dependent upon conditions but a permanent and Iasting one based on mutual interests: "At the beginning of the war the estimated number of Jews in the world was 17 000,000. Even in 1944 we had no knowledge of the extent of Jewish massacres. The Mufti had. In a broadcast from Berlin on September 20, 1944, he asked the Arab world the rhetorical question, `Is it not in your power to repulse the Jews whose number is not more than eleven million ?'
"By this time, six million Jews had in fact been murdered. What was the source of the Mufti's information? He could have learned it only from Adolf Eichmann."
United States Official Weekly Review No. 18
Edgar Mowrer produced the following documentary evidence of the NTufti's complicity in the extermination of the Jews of Europe:
"Exhibit I. A telegram of the German post office from Heinrich Himm¬ler, head of the Gestapo,
to the Mufti. This bears no date and no stamp, for I-Timmler sent it by hand to a special mass meeting held in Berlin on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, November 2, 1943.
"This telegram, which was subsequently broadcast by tl~e Gennan radio and monitored by the American F. C. C., began:
“To the Grand Mufti:
“The National Socialist Movement of Greater Germany has, since its begiuning, inscribed upon its flag the fight against world Jewry. It has therefore, followed with particular sympathy the struggle of the freedom¬ loving Arabians, especially in Palestine, against the Jewish interlopers. It is in the recognition of this enemy and of the common struggle against him that lies the firm foundation of the natural alliance that exists between National-Socialist-Greater Germany and the freedom-loving Moslems of the whole world. In this spirit I am sending you on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration my hearty greetings and wishes for the suc¬cessful pursuit of your struggle until the certain fïnal victory.'
Signed : Reichsfuehrer-S. S. Heinrich Himmler"
Exhibit II. On July 25, 1944, the Mufti wrote a letter to the German Foreign Minister, Freiherr von Ribbentrop. In it Haj Amin recalled that he had previously directed the Minister's attention to the efforts of the Jews to leave Europe and get to Palestine and asked that Jews of Egyptian origin who happened to live in countries under Axis control should not be `ex-changed' for German civilians interned in Palestine.Such an exchange, the Mufti feared, might encourage the Balkan states to expel their Jews. Moreover, it would not be in harmony with the Minister's promise that the `annihilation of the Jewish home in Palestine is an unchangeable component of the policy of Great Germany'. And the Mufti asked Herr von Ribbentrop to prevent the return of any Jews to Palestine, thereby giving a `new example' of the naturally `allied and friendly Gerrnany to the Arabian nation'.
"Two days later a similar letter went from the Mufti to Heinrich Himmler. To the Gestapo chief, the Mufti merely reproached the fact that despite his telegram (Exhibit I) certain Palestine Jews were still being exchanged by Berlin for German civilians.
Children Were Targets
"Exhibit III. Four letters from the Mufti. They are addressed respec¬tively to the Foreign Office of Bulgaria, to the Foreign Office of Hungary, to the Foreign ~ffice of Romania, and to the Foreign Office of Italy. The dates are between May and June, 1943. To the four foreign ministers, Haj Amin explained the various reasons why they ought not to permit any Jews to leave their countries for Palestine, particularly not any Jewish children, and advised that it would be more proper and preferable to send all Jews to Poland i Here they would be under `more severe control', under `active surveillance'. Indeed, they would have !
"To anyone who, like Haj Amin, knew that Poland had been set aside as the extermination hell of European Jewry, this meant sending the Balkan Jews, including the children, to certain and horrible death.
"Exhibit IV. A proposal for a Nazi pro-Arab Declaration, submitted by the Mufti to the Germans and the Italians. During his stay in Germany, the Mufti repeatedly urged the Germans to issue a Declaration to the Arabs, promising them the establishment of an `Arab Union', the formation of an Arab pro-Axis army, etc. One of these Mufti-suggested Declarations en¬titled, `Declaration officielle de l'Allemagne et de l'Italie concernant les pays arabes', found in the archives of the Mufti's Bureau in Germany con¬tains among others : `Article 7, Germany and Italy declare, that the Jewish national home in Palestine is illegal. They recognize the right o f the Arabs of Palestine and the Arabs of other Arab countries to solve the problem of the Jewish elements in Palestine and the other Arab countries according to the national interest of the Arabs and in the same way that this problem was solved in the Axis countries."'
On November 2, 1942, in a broadcast from Berlin, the Mufti praised the Germans for "knowing how to get rid of the Jews and eventually solving the Jewish problem." In another broadcast on March 4, 1944, he urged his listeners to "kill the Jews wherever they find them."
On November 2, 1943, the S. S. leader, in a telegram to the Mufti, read over the Berlin radio that the Nazi party had "inscribed upon its flag the extermination of world Jewry."
On February 9, 1945, the Czech London weekly, Central European Observer, carried an article by Joseph Kalmer, in which the statement was made, "the least known of the Mufti's activities is the part he is play¬ing in the extermination of the Jews in Europe. This is his chief role, however." According to Kalmer, Eichmann served as the Mufti's execu¬tioner, working with him first in Poland. "Now news has come through that he, the great executioner of the Jews, is one of Himmler's chief execu¬tioners. He is said to have been at one time in command at the notorious concentration camp at Oswïciem. He is reputed to be the inventor of the monstrous crematoria, the gas chambers and other instruments of devilish brutality against the Jews. Mass executions started only when Eichmann and the Mufti had come together again."
Grand Mufti's Escape from France to Egypt
The Grand Mufti, who had been held in forced residence in France at the war's end, found it possible to escape on May 29, 1946, despite the fact that on May 8, it was announced that France had agreed to keep the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and see to it that he did not leave for any country in the Middle East.
As far back as February 18, 1946, Alexander Uhl, foreign editor of PM, in a dispatch from Washington to that paper, pointed out that "confidential information reaching the United States indicates that one of these days Haj Amin el Husseini, ex-Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who played stooge for Hitler, is going to escape from forced residence in France and turn up in the Middle East." Mr. Uhl said in his story that the negotiations for the flight of the Mufti had been going on for months between French and British quarters seeking to use the Mufti "as a powerful weapon to keep the Arab world united against possible Soviet influence".
On April 10, Mr. Uhl again warned that the Mufti was planning to return to the Middle East a free man. On May 29, the Mufti did escape, allegedly in an American Transworld Airways Skymaster.
When news of this flight reached the world early in June, the British put on a great show of making a search for the Mufti to insure that he would not settle in the Middle East. On June 9, the Mufti arrived in Damascus. From Damascus, the Grand Mufti moved to Cairo and was granted asylum by King Farouk, by whom he was received. A month later the Mufti moved frotn King Farouk's palace in Cairo to one of his villas in Alexandria. In addition to granting asylum, King Farouk supplied the Mufti with special liaison officers; and the Arab League supplied him with funds.
Under the pressure of the British, the Egyptian Government was moved to request the Mufti to refrain from participating in politics. The British did not ask for his extradition.
The announcetnent of the curb on the political activities of the Mufti was
protested by the Egyptian press and by the Wafdist bloc. By August of 1946, however, the strictures on the political activities of the Mufti were lifted. Immediately, he went into consultation with leaders of the Arab League coming from all sections of the Arab world, among them represen¬tatives of Syria and Palestine.
Escape of Other Pro-Axis Arabs
The success of the Mufti has stimulated other pro-Axis Arabs to escape from protective custody and to find asylum in the Middle East.
The escape of the Grand Mufti from France has now been paralleled by the arrival in Lydda, Palestine, on February 22, 1947, of the Mufti's aide¬de-camp, Fawzi el Kawukji. Kawukji, a leader of the Arab revolt in 1936,had been held in protective custody in the Russian zone of Berlin. He ar¬rived at the Lydda airport in a plane that had been grounded en route to Cairo.
Like the escape of the Grand Mufti, the escape of Fawzi el Kawukji had been widely reported a week earlier. He had left the Russian zone of Berlin, reached Paris, and together with his German wife, departed for Cairo. Reports from Cairo stated that the Mufti had ordered Kawukji to come to Cairo in order to assume joint command of the Arab illegal armies in Palestine, in an effort to persuade Arab landowners it would be unhealthy to sell land to Jews.
Kawukji, like the Mufti, was an accomplice of Rashid Ali~ in the Iraqi rebellion against the Allies. Like the Mufti, he escaped to Germany when the revolt collapsed. He was imprisoned by the Russians, but released, it was alleged, on the intervention of the Lebanese Government.
Rashid Ali has found refuge in the palace of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.
Arab Attitude Toward the Grand Mufti
The record of the Grand Mufti has lost him no followers. On the contrary, it has given him added prestige in the entire Arab world. Today he is the unofficial leader of both the Arab League and of the Arab Higher Committee of Palestine.
Jamal el Husseini, Vice-Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, according to Richard Crossman, presented a written statement to the Anglo¬ American Committee, which began with the declaration that the Mufti alone could speak truly for the people of Palestine. Moreover, Husseini began his oral testimony with a statement that, "We find ourselves in this inquiry deprived of the presence of our first leader, the Grand Mufti, for whom we can accept no substitute".
Asked the attitude of the Arabs to the Mufti's war record, Jamal el Husseini replied to the Anglo-American Committee: "The Grand Mufti in Germany was working for the interests not of the English who were warring with the Germans, but for the interests of his people who had no direct interest at least in the controversy".
The Anglo-American Committee's comment is : "They felt that it was not their war and that the Mufti was right in taking such steps as he could to do the best for Palestine, whoever might be victorious".
Richard Crossman, reporting on his discussions with Arabs in Cairo on this subj00@t, writes : "This was the answer which I got : The Arabs had been summoned to fight the Germans and Italians by the two countries¬
France and Britain-which they regarded as enemy No. 1. The Arab Nationalists, intent on their own liberation, could not be expected to remain deaf to Nazi and Fascist blandishments. They could be sure, if Germany won, that they would be permitted to do what they liked with the Jews of Palestine, and, at the very least, the I3ritish and French regimes in the Middle East would be wound up".
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