Jan. 3



VATICAN CITY:

1946 church letter angers Jewish leaders


A document that surfaced recently has revived debate about the Vatican's
attempt to keep control over some Jewish children protected from Nazis by
Christian families.

The 1946 circular apparently instructed French church authorities that
Jewish children baptized as Roman Catholics, for safety or other reasons,
should remain in the church even if that meant not returning them to
their own families once the Nazi occupation ended.

The document, published last week in Italy's Corriere della Sera
newspaper, caused a stir for its tough, clear wording, although several
historians said it offered no major revelations on an issue that emerged
across Europe after World War II.

One Jewish leader called the letter horrible.

It's a dry, bureaucratic document, which has no feeling for the Holocaust,
I'm sorry to say, Amos Luzzatto, president of the Union of Italian Jewish
Communities, told the Apcom news agency.

The one-page document, dated Oct. 23, 1946, advised French church
authorities on how to handle information requests from Jewish officials,
asking them not to put anything in writing.

Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions that
cannot ensure their Christian education, says a copy of the
French-language letter obtained by The Associated Press.

One of the letter's most jarring lines says that children whose families
survived the Holocaust should be returned, as long as they had not been
baptized. Those whose parents were killed should not be abandoned by the
Church, even if they had not received the sacrament.

That stance on baptism predated the Holocaust by nearly a century. In
1858, papal guards took a 6-year-old Jewish boy named Edgardo Mortara from
his family in Bologna, Italy, after hearing that he had been secretly
baptized by a Catholic housemaid.

(source: Associated Press)





USA///NEW JERSEY:

U.S.: Trenton man served under Nazis

Michael Bojcun, 86, is accused of concealing his war record.


In Trenton, the Justice Department has asked a federal court to revoke the
U.S. citizenship of an 86-year-old Trenton man suspected of serving in the
Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian Auxiliary Police during World War II.

Michael Bojcun is accused of joining the UAP a few months after Nazi
Germany occupied the city of Lviv in 1941. The city, part of Poland then,
is now in Ukraine.

A neighbor described Bojcun (pronounced "boy-SOON") as "a sweet old man"
and said he often fixed things for neighbors.

"He was one of the first people who welcomed us to the neighborhood," said
Maureen Kauffman, 44, who has lived across the street from Bojcun for 13
years. "He and his wife are very lovely people."

People entered Bojcun's house early last night, but no one answered the
door. A woman who answered the phone said Bojcun was unavailable. She did
not identify herself and made no other comment.

Andrey Zielyk, a Morristown-based lawyer for Bojcun, said last night that
he had not yet read the complaint and "really can't say anything other
than that I'm sure this man will be vindicated of anything he's been
charged with."

Bojcun is accused of serving in the UAP during the three years when Nazi
occupiers took increasingly repressive measures against Jewish residents
of Lviv.

"The UAP actively participated in confining and terrorizing the Jews of
Lviv and then in rounding them up to be murdered," Assistant Attorney
General Christopher A. Wray said.

The Justice Department would not say how it had learned of Bojcun's
alleged role during World War II. Papers were served to Bojcun yesterday,
said Bryan Sierra, a department spokesman.

"There are obviously legal proceedings that will accompany the filing,"
said Sierra, who added yesterday afternoon that no hearing dates had been.

Bojcun came to the United States from Germany in 1949 and became a citizen
in 1960, the Justice Department said. According to the complaint, his
wartime assistance in persecution made him ineligible for citizenship.
Authorities said he had concealed his UAP service when he applied for a
visa.

Bojcun is accused of remaining in UAP service until shortly before the
Nazis retreated from Lviv in July 1944.

"The passage of time does not mitigate Bojcun's contribution to the
Holocaust," said Christopher J. Christie, U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
"Even decades later, Nazi collaborators cannot be allowed to continue to
hide amongst us in the United States."

UAP members took part in the forced relocation of Jews into a ghetto in
Lviv, where thousands died of disease, starvation or abuse, authorities
said. People living there were later rounded up violently and sent away to
be shot or gassed, authorities said. Others were sent to forced labor
camps, but only a small number survived.

Next-door neighbor Clarence Wiley, 38, said he could set his clock on
Sunday mornings by the time Bojcun and his wife, Anna, left for church.
The two are members of the Church of St. Gregory the Great in Hamilton
Square, another neighbor said.

"I could see if he was in his 40s or 50s, but he's almost 90," Wiley said
last night. "What are they going to do, throw him in jail? I don't know
the particulars, but the past is past for a reason."

(source: Associated Press)





MIDDLE EAST:

Nazi Influence on the Middle East During WWII


Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to
eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler
for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a
manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the
scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The
answer I got was: 'The Jews are yours.'
- Former Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini in his post-WWII
memoirs. [1]

"The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of
European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and
Himmler in the execution of this plan... He was one of Eichmann's best
friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination
measures."
- Adolf Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny (subsequently executed as a war
criminal) in his Nuremburg Trials testimony. [2]


The end of World War I brought an end to the Ottoman colonization of
Palestine. Towards the end of the war, Britain issued the Balfour
Declaration supporting the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people . . . . The original reaction of the Arabs was
mixed. While many Arabs opposed the Zionists, Emir Faisal who was the son
of former Mecca ruler Sherif Hussein and later King of Iraq signed in
1919 a declaration in support of the Balfour Declaration, even supporting
all necessary measures ...to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews
into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle
Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive
cultivation of the soil. [3]

But peace between Arab and Jew would not last.

On April 4, 1920, Haj Amin al-Husseini organized thousands of Arabs to
attack Jews in Jerusalem. Arab police either stayed away or joined the
rioters. The pogrom continued on April 5. By the time order was restored
by a Zeev Jabotinsky-led Jewish militia, 5 Jews were killed and 211
injured. At least two Jewish girls were raped. Al-Husseini was sentenced
to 10 years imprisonment, but after a few months of hiding in Transjordan
(now Jordan) was pardoned by Herbert Samuel, a British Jew who served as
the High Commissioner of Palestine. [4]

A year later, on May 1, 1921, al-Husseini organized another round of
pogroms. On that day, Zionists clashed with Communists during the May Day
parade. Communists were quickly dispersed, but Haj Amin al-Husseini made
sure not to miss the opportunity and quickly summoned his forces. When
fighting ended on May 6, at least 13 Jews were murdered. While the British
colonial powers admitted that Arabs instigated the violence, they decided
not to press charges against al-Husseini because they felt he was provoked
by Zionists who demanded establishment of the Jewish state. [5]

The 1921 riots came shortly after al-Husseini was appointed Mufti of
Jerusalem by the British in violation of election results. [6]

The two primary Arab families in Jerusalem were the Husseinis and the
Nashashibis. When Great Britain conquered Jerusalem, a member of the
al-Husseini clan was mayor of Jerusalem, but was subsequently removed by
the colonial government with a member of the Nashashibi family appointed
in his place. In March 1921, the Mufti of Jerusalem a Husseini died. The
High Commissioner of the colony considered it desirable to balance the
Nashashibi mayor with a Husseini mufti, with Haj Amin al-Husseini being
his preferred candidate for the position. [7]

The electoral college nominated three candidates for the position of the
Mufti. Under the long-established law, the colonial power was to choose
among the top three vote-getters. However, the preferred candidate of the
Brits, Haj Amin al-Husseini, placed fourth, receiving only about 7% of the
vote. To the local Islamic leaders (outside the Husseini clan), the young
mans lack of religious preparation and knowledge made him an unacceptable
candidate to be the top religious leader in Jerusalem. All of the top
three candidates were Nashashibi-sponsored, while the Husseini clan
focused its energies on promoting Haj Amin. The British intervened and
forced the most popular candidate, Sheikh Husam al-Din, to withdraw, thus
pushing al-Husseini into third place. The young man without any religious
training suddenly became the most powerful Islamic cleric in Jerusalem.
[8]

A few months later, in December of 1921, the British administration
established a Supreme Muslim Council with full control over the Waqf
(religious trusts) and the Shariah (Muslim religious courts). Haj Amin
al-Husseini was appointed President of the body. Within a year, the man
who organized multiple massacres, became the leader of all the most
important bodies in the colony: religious (as a Mufti), legal (Shariah)
and financial (Waqf). A 1937 Royal Commission report noted al-Husseini had
no legal limitation to his power. [9]

Controlling a spectacular sum of money and the right to appoint
Palestinian Islamic preachers, al-Husseini built a political machine that
brought the religious and political establishment under his domination.
Through them, he was able to arouse religious fanaticism against Jews and
the West. His preachers urged their flock to go out and murder the Jewish
infidel in the name of the holy Koran, constantly declaring that he who
kills a Jew is assured of a place in the next world. [10]

Mufti hated Jews for the same reasons as Hasan al-Banna in Egypt. Jews,
especially the arriving Zionist immigrants, brought a modern,
Western/European way of life, a direct opposite of what the
fundamentalists wanted. Just as Banna, Husseini felt personally threatened
by Western culture. The Jews have changed the life of Palestine in such a
way that it must inevitably lead to the destruction of our race . . . .
The Jewish girls who run around in shorts demoralize our youth by their
mere presence. [11]

The year 1922 brought the worst possible news to al-Husseini. The League
of Nations recognized the land west of the Jordan river as the Jewish
National Home. The British White Paper of 1922, divided Palestine with 77%
to the east of the Jordan river given to Arabs, while the 23% to the west
left for the Jewish people. Shortly thereafter, the League of Nations
confirmed the division in its mandate system, urging Great Britain, as the
Mandatory power, to facilitate Jewish immigration, as well as close
settlement of Jews on the land. The League of Nations even mandated that
no territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the
control of, the Government of any foreign Power, thus rejecting any Arab
claims to what has since become known as Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
Indeed, the Arab people are never even mentioned in the Mandate. [12]

Worse yet, al-Husseini did not even get the right to govern eastern
Palestine, by then known as Transjordan. When the Hashemi clan lost
control of Mecca and the rest of the Arabian peninsula, the colonial
powers decided that the Hashemites deserved a consolation prize.

Sherif Husseins two sons were thus appointed Kings. Faisal became the King
of Iraq, while Abdullah the ruler of Transjordan. The Hashemi clan
originally fled from the Arabian peninsula to Cyprus, but then settled in
Transjordan, leading the fight against the British. Making Abdullah the
King of Transjordan satisfied the Hashemites after the embarrassing loss
Mecca. [13]

But as far as al-Husseini was concerned, it wasnt bad enough that he didnt
get a state, but his worst enemies in the Arab world the Hashemites were
now ruling two countries (Transjordan and Iraq), while Zionists had their
goal legitimized by the League of Nations. The Kings of Iraq and
Transjordan despite seeing their father backstabbed by the English were
moderates, friendly to the West and accepting of the Jewish state in the
Middle East. As the world was split into fascist and democratic camps in
the 1930s and 1940s, al-Husseini and Hassan al-Banna found themselves on
the opposite side of the Hashemites.

The Mufti, who supported establishment of Greater Syria in what is now
Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza, decided to focus his
efforts on taking over Palestine and Transjordan, while undermining the
British and the Hashemites in Iraq. Years later, UKs Colonial Secretary
Ormsby-Gore would report to the House of Lords: The Mufti . . . is playing
his own dynastic game, and that game undoubtedly is to become not merely
the sovereign of Palestine, not merely to be crowned or uncrowned King of
Palestine, but first head of Palestine, then Palestine and Transjordan
combined, and then the whole of Syria, and, of course, in that position to
be regarded as the leader of the Sunni world . . . . He is a man of quite
unlimited political ambition. He was a Turkish Staff Officer (during World
War I) and incidentally a Turk who knew him thought he was the
blackest-hearted man in the Middle East. [14]




* * * * *


Within weeks of Adolf Hitlers ascendance to power, Mufti of Jerusalem Haj
Amin al-Husseini contacted the German counsel-general in Palestine. With
exception of funding anti-Semitic riots, Germans rejected the Arabs
overtures until 1937, when Adolf Eichmann and Herbert Hagen were sent to
Palestine to establish a framework to provide Husseini with military and
financial aid by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. [15]

By then, the Mufti had already proven his anti-Jewish credentials to the
Germans by organizing a three-year long riots and massacres.

On April 19, 1936, a crowd of Arabs stumbled upon Jews in the town of
Jaffa. Having been incited by Mufti-spread rumors that Zionists were
killing Muslims, the crowd decided to kill three of the Jews they met. Six
days later, the Arab Higher Committee was created, with al-Husseini
presiding over the new body. The committee openly endorsed past violence
and began organizing future disobedience. On May 5, the British colonial
authorities warned al-Husseini against committing illegal acts, but did
not appear particularly decisive. Within weeks, massive violence broke
out. By October 1936, nearly 300 people were killed and another 1,100
wounded. [16]

Colonial forces arrested a few pawns and one major leader, but took no
action against the Mufti. The New York Times reported on June 14, 1936
that al-Husseini had succeeded in convincing experienced high British
civil servants that he is working for the governments interests [and that]
it was in the interest of the government that he should also be president
of the new Arab High Committee, so that Haj Amin el-Husseini enjoys the
governments complete confidence as its unofficial adviser on the Arab side
of the situation . . . . The government believes that he and only he is in
a position to appease the Moslem masses; therefore it gives him every
support while at the same time playing into his hands. [17]

Continuing its policy of siding with the Mufti, in June the Brits arrested
scores of members of the Defense Party sponsored by the rival Nashashibi
clan, despite lack of any evidence that the Nashashibis were involved in
the massacres. Ninety percent of Arabs in the Sinai concentration camp
belonged to the Defense Party, with another 10% coming from smaller
political movements. None of the Husseini-backed people were sent to the
concentration camp. [18]

The UK was not the only power helping the Mufti in 1936. The
USSR-sponsored Communist Party of Palestine also did its part. After the
1929 massacres (including the slaughter of 68 Jews in Hebron), the
Communist Party issued a statement that revolutionary movement without
pogroms [anti-Semitic riots] is impossible. The Communists even considered
the Mufti too moderate in his fight against Jews. [19]

In the run-up to the 1936-39, the Palestinian leader began coordinating
organization of anti-Jewish violence. In November 1935, Communists
declared that Zionists were killing Arab fellaheen, as part of the Muftis
propaganda campaign to spark Arab rage against the Jews. On the eve of the
first riots, Communists met al-Husseini to work out the final terms of
their roles in the upcoming violence. Communist Party member Nimr Uda
became the Intelligence chief for Muftis military units. Another Communist
representative, Fuad Nasir, was named deputy to Abdul Qadir Husseini,
commander of Arab fighters in southern West Bank. [20]

By 1937, Britain realized that the Mufti was sponsoring the violence not
just against Jews, but against the English as well. Al-Husseini fled
Jerusalem and settled in Lebanon. So glad were the British to see the
Mufti leave that they did not even bother to ask the French powers
governing Lebanon to extradite al-Husseini. Meanwhile, in an attempt to
please the Arabs, UKs Peel Commission violated the League of Nations
Mandate and offered a proposal to divide the land designated as the Jewish
National Home by the League of Nations Mandate of 1922 despite a specific
mandate prohibition against such division. Instead, under the Peel
Commission proposal of 1937, only a small part of the land would become
the Jewish state. A year later, the Peel Commission issued another
proposal, with even less land offered to Jews. Some time later, the
British issued the White Paper of 1939 rejecting the idea of a Jewish
National Home and severely restricting Jewish immigration. It was hoped
for in London that such concessions to Arab nationalists would appease
al-Husseini and his supporters. Yet, only two years after the White Paper,
the Mufti would come back to strike the British again. [21]



* * * * *


In 1940, it looked as if Hitlers armada was unstoppable. Having already
conquered France, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark,
Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, Hitler and his friends in Italy, Spain
and occupied countries were clearly the rulers of continental Europe.
Hitler had also allied himself with the USSR under the Molotov-Ribbentrop
Pact of 1939 which divided Eastern Europe by giving the Baltic States and
parts of Poland and Romania (as well as Finland, which Joseph Stalin
couldnt occupy) to the USSR, while letting the Germans take over western
Poland, Romania and other European nations. Meanwhile, the Japanese were
the dominant force of Asia, seemingly set to impose their control on that
continent. Britains Winston Churchill stood virtually alone against the
Fascist onslaught, with the United States mired in radical isolationism,
refusing to take part in what many Americans saw as a European war.

The one region where the British still had significant influence was the
Middle East. Hitler set out to change that. Husseini wanted to get rid of
the Hashemites. Both men wanted to get rid of the Jews and the Brits. It
was a marriage made in heaven.

Despite a powerful Navy, the United Kingdom its army was modest in size
and spread thin throughout the Empire. Middle East and especially Iraq
seemed like the next pawn to fall to the Third Reich.

In 1940, King Ghazi (son of King Faisal I) died, leaving only his
four-year-old son to govern. Emir Abdul-Illah, the regent for the young
Iraqi King, felt the need to bring Rashid Ali al-Kaylani into the
government as the Prime Minister, despite the latters support for Nazi
Germany and links with al-Husseini. The new head of state immediately
shifted the policies of Iraq in favor of Nazi Germany, guaranteeing supply
of natural resources to Hitler, as well as refusing to cut its tied with
Italy. The former Mufti of Jerusalem and his surrogates frequently acted
as the governments representatives with foreigners. Kaylani also asked
from Hitler the right to deal with Jews in Arab states a request that was
granted. [22]

Britain responded with severe economic sanctions which, coupled with UKs
defeat of German forces in North Africa and pressure from the Iraqi royal
family, brought down the pro-German government on January 31, 1941.
Kaylani and other pro-Axis Iraqi, under the influence from al-Husseini,
conspired to murder the Abdul-Illah. Two months after the Kaylani left
government, the regent of Iraq fled the country and the old Prime Minister
was back in power. [23]

As one of its first acts, the new administration sent its artillery to
attack UKs Royal Air Force in Habaniyya, causing the Brits to respond by
invading Basra. The hoped-for support from Nazi Germany never came and
Kaylani fled to Saudi Arabia. [24]

Haj Amin al-Husseini, who issued a fatwa (Islamic religious ruling)
calling on all Muslims to help pro-Axis government in Iraq, became one of
Englands most wanted men. In May 1941, a group of Jewish fighters,
including David Raziel, the leader of right-wing Irgun (predecessor of
todays Likud Party in Israel), set out for Iraq to assassinate the former
Mufti on a mission sponsored by the Churchill administration. The mission,
however, ended prematurely when Raziel was killed by a German plane.
Realizing the threat to his life, al-Husseini fled to Europe dressed as a
woman. [25]

He was officially received by Adolf Hitler on November 28, 1941, who
agreed to establish a bureau for al-Husseini which was used to spread
propaganda on behalf of Nazi Germany, organize spy rings in Europe and the
Middle East, and most importantly, establish Muslim Nazi SS divisions and
Wehrmacht units in Bosnia, the Balkans, North Africa and Nazi-occupied
parts of the Soviet Union. After the meeting, the Mufti was also named SS
Gruppenfuehrer by Heinrich Himmler and referred to as the Fuhrer of the
Arab World by Adolf Hitler himself. [26]

The largest Muslim Nazi SS unit was the 13th division known as Hanjar.
Husseini also organized smaller, less efficient units, including the 21st
Waffen SS division known Skanderbeg (made up predominantly of Croatians)
and the 23rd Waffen SS division known as Kama and made up mostly of
Albanian Muslims. Thus, the Hitlers Mufti organized or helped to organize
three out of 27 Waffen SS divisions formed before 1945 (eleven other SS
divisions were formed in 1945, but most of these were of questionable
caliber and accepted soldiers of questionable skill). According to the
Encyclopedia of Holocaust, Husseini organized in record time Croatian
units that went on to massacre hundreds of thousands of Serbian Orthodox
Christians. Jacenovac, the third largest death camp where over 200,000
people met their death, was run by Croatian Ante Pavelic with the aid of
al-Husseini. In all, at least 800,000 Yugoslavian civilians were murdered
by pro-Axis regimes of Utasche and Pavelic, with significant aid from the
units established by the Fuhrer of the Arab World. [27] Tens of thousands
of Jewish people outside Yugoslavia also perished when the Mufti persuaded
not to trade them for German POWs held by the Allies.

Al-Husseini opened a North African Bureau in Germany, whose goal was to
recruit 500,000 Arab soldiers from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The plan
failed when the German forces were forced to withdraw from much of North
Africa after a successful British operation. [28]

However, an Arab Legion was founded and fought under the German flag. The
Arab soldiers had hoped to fight in the Middle East, but were instead sent
to the Russian front, where they were completely wiped out while fighting
in the Caucasus region. Some time later, in response to the British
decision to create a Jewish Brigade made up of some of the 26,000
Palestinian Jews who had fought under the United Kingdoms flag, the Mufti
convinced the Germans to create an Arab Brigade. The unit, however, either
did not fight or was not very efficient because very little is known about
it. [29]

The Mufti also made a particularly strong effort to recruit Soviet
Muslims. It was largely due to Haj Amins propaganda that on the arrival of
German armies in the northern Caucasus in 1942, five indigene tribes the
Chechens, the Ingushes, the Balkars, the Karachais, and the Kabardines
welcomed them with bread and salt, wrote Joseph Schechtman in The Mufti
and the Fuhrer. [18] Stalins response was deadly. Caucasian Muslims,
including nearly all Chechens and Ingush, were exiled from their land,
with up to a third dying as a result of inhumane treatment by Soviet
authorities.

The Mufti was similarly instrumental in the recruitment of the Azerbaijani
battalion, which proved their valor, were included in German Storm Troops
and decorated by the German Army, according to a November 1943 broadcast
by DNB. The Muftis representatives in Central Asia recruited some Muslim
fighters for Nazi Germany there as well, despite the widespread support of
the majority of Central Asian Muslims for the plight of the Jews during
the Holocaust. [30]

The Muftis hatred of the West was matched only by his hate of the Jews. It
is not a coincidence that Germany suddenly abandoned the policy of
expelling Jews and adopted far harsher methods a short time after the
Mufti arrived in Germany. When Haj Amin came to Germany again, the Nazis
decided to execute the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem the
Holocaust. The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic
extermination of European Jewry, reported Eichmanns deputy, Dieter
Wisliceny. [He had] played a role in the decision to exterminate the
European Jews. The importance of this role must not be disregarded . . . .
The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of
European Jewry. [31] We do not know if al-Husseini played a major role in
shaping the Final Solution. There is, however, abundant first-hand
evidnece of the part the Mufti played in making foolproof the ban on
emigration (of Jews out of Germany), wrote Joseph Schechtman. [32]

When the war ended, al-Husseini returned to the Middle East as a hero. On
October 1, 1948, he was proclaimed the President of the government of
All-Palestine. The government was, however, fictional because it did not
control any land and was recognized by only a handful of Arab nations. In
1959, the government was disbanded by its sponsor, Egypt. [33]

Support for Nazism was not limited to the former Mufti. "We admired the
Nazis. We were immersed in reading Nazi literature and books . . . . We
were the first who thought of a translation of Mein Kampf. Anyone who
lived in Damascus at that time was witness to the Arab inclination toward
Nazism," recalled Sami al-Joundi, one of the founders of Syrias ruling
Ba'ath Party. [34] Indeed, a popular WWII song was heard in the Middle
East featuring words: Bissama Allah, oria alard Hitler in heaven Allah,
on earth Hitler. Picking up the theme of the book, posters were put up in
Arab markets and elsewhere proclaiming, In heaven Allah is thy ruler; on
earth Adolph Hitler. John Gunther of Inside Asia reported: The greatest
contemporary Arab hero is probably Hitler. [35]

In October 1933, pro-Axis Young Egypt Party was founded. Styling itself of
its German ideal, the new party built a storm-trooper unit, marching with
torches under the slogan One folk, One party, One Leader. Among the
members of the violently anti-Semitic party was the young Gamal Abdel
Nasser. [36] Nassers brother, Nassiri, was the translator of Hitlers Mein
Kampf into Arabic, describing the Fascist despot in glowing terms. After
the Free Officers came to power in the 1950s, President Nasser used
Joachim Daumling, the former Gestapo chief in Dusseldorf, to build the
Egyptian secret service. Gestapo chief of Warsaw organized the Egyptian
security police. [37]

Another future Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, was imprisoned during
World War II for cooperating with Adolf Hitlers regime. Towards the end of
World War II, Sadat wrote to the Fuhrer: My dear Hitler, I congratulate
you from the bottom of my heart. Even if you appear to have been defeated,
in reality you are the victor. You succeeded in creating dissensions
between Churchill, the old man, and his allies, the Sons of Satan. Germany
will win because her existence is necessary to preserve the world balance.
Germany will be reborn in spite of the Western and Eastern powers. There
will be no peace unless Germany once again becomes what she was. [38]

A few years prior to writing this letter, Anwar Sadat contacted Muslim
Brotherhoods leader Hassan al-Banna, an ardent supporter of Nazi Germany.
The meeting put Sadat in contact with Abd al-Munim Adb al-Rauf, who went
on to become a leading member of the Free Officers and a chief
propagandist and protagonist of the Brotherhood. [39] Both men tried to
join the pro-Axis fighters in Iraq, but failed. Sadat also met with Dr.
Ibrahim Hasan, the second deputy of Ikhwan. The two gentlemen agreed that
salvation of the country could be assured only by a coup at the hands of
the military because of the Kings support for the Allies. [40] On February
24, 1945, the Prime Minister of Egypt was assassinated by a member of the
National Party as he was reading the declaration of war against Germany.
[41] The Brotherhood and the military were not involved in the murder, but
clearly did not object to the act. The assassination would become a sign
of the things to come in the decades after the World War.


SOURCES


1. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Cited online on June 22, 2004 at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_Amin_Al-Husseini
2. Ibid.
3. EretzYisroel Web Site. Cited on June 29, 2004 at
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/feisal2.html
4. Joseph Schechtman, "The Mufti and the Fuehrer". p. 19-20
5. Ibid., 28-29
6. Ibid., 21-23
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 24
10. Ibid., 26
11. Ibid. 41
12. United Nations Web Site. League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
Cited online on July 14, 2004 at:
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/ngo/history.html
13. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Cited online on July 2, 2004 at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherif_Hussein_bin_Ali
14. Schechtman, 70
15. Schechtman, 44-46
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., 46
19. Ibid., 38-39
20. Ibid., 46
21. Ibid.
22. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Cited online on June 22, 2004 at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_Ali_al-Kaylani
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Cited online on June 22, 2004 at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_Amin_Al-Husseini
26. Ibid.
27. Sean Mac Mathuna, Flame Magazine, "The Role of the SS Handschar
division in Yugoslavia's Holocaust". Cited online on June 24, 2004 at:
http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/yugoslavia_collaboration.htm
28. Schechtman, 131
29. Schechtman, 135-137
30. Schechtman, 141
31. Schechtman, 141-42
32. Schechtman, 159-60
33. Schechtman, 153
34. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Cited online on June 22, 2004 at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_Amin_Al-Husseini
35. Christian Action for Israel Web Site. "The Arab/Muslim Nazi
Connection". Cited online on June 25, 2004 at
http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/antiholo/arabnazi.html
36. Schechtman, 84-85
37. Christian Action for Israel Web Site. "The Arab/Muslim Nazi
Connection". Cited online on June 25, 2004 at
http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/antiholo/arabnazi.html
38. Sean Mac Mathuna, Flame Magazine, "Postwar Arab links to the ODESSA
network". Cited online on June 24, 2004 at:
http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/nazis_postwar_egypt.htm
39. Sadat's letter, Al Musawwar, No. 1510, September 18,1953, cited in
D.F. Green, ed., Arab Theologians on Jews and Israel (Geneva, 1976 ed.),
p. 87. Cited on August 3, 2004 on the Eretz Yisroel Web site at:
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/missed.html 28. Mitchell, 96-97
40. Mitchell, 25
41. Mitchell, 33

David Storobin, Esq. is a New York lawyer who received Juris Doctor (J.D.)
degree from Rutgers University School of Law. His Master's Thesis (M.A. -
Comparative Politics) deals with Extremist Movements in the Middle East
and the historical causes for the rise of fundamentalism. Mr. Storobin's
book "The Root Cause: The Rise of Fundamentalist Islam and its Threat to
the World" will be published in 2005.

(source: The Conservative Politician)