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Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East
A groundbreaking account of the Nazi-Islamist alliance that changed the course of World War II and influences the Arab world to this day
During the 1930s and 1940s, a unique and lasting political alliance was forged among Third Reich leaders, Arab nationalists, and Muslim religious authorities. From this relationship sprang a series of dramatic events that, despite their profound impact on the course of World War II, remained secret until now. In this groundbreaking book, esteemed Middle East scholars Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz uncover for the first time the complete story of this dangerous alliance and explore its continuing impact on Arab politics in the twenty-first century. Rubin and Schwanitz reveal, for example, the full scope of Palestinian leader Amin al-Husaini’s support of Hitler’s genocidal plans against European and Middle Eastern Jews. In addition, they expose the extent of Germany’s long-term promotion of Islamism and jihad. Drawing on unprecedented research in European, American, and Middle East archives, many recently opened and never before written about, the authors offer new insight on the intertwined development of Nazism and Islamism and its impact on the modern Middle East.
During the 1930s and 1940s, a unique and lasting political alliance was forged among Third Reich leaders, Arab nationalists, and Muslim religious authorities. From this relationship sprang a series of dramatic events that, despite their profound impact on the course of World War II, remained secret until now. In this groundbreaking book, esteemed Middle East scholars Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz uncover for the first time the complete story of this dangerous alliance and explore its continuing impact on Arab politics in the twenty-first century. Rubin and Schwanitz reveal, for example, the full scope of Palestinian leader Amin al-Husaini’s support of Hitler’s genocidal plans against European and Middle Eastern Jews. In addition, they expose the extent of Germany’s long-term promotion of Islamism and jihad. Drawing on unprecedented research in European, American, and Middle East archives, many recently opened and never before written about, the authors offer new insight on the intertwined development of Nazism and Islamism and its impact on the modern Middle East.
340 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
31 people are currently reading
281 people want to read
About the author
Barry Rubin
86 books21 followersBarry Rubin is an American-born Israeli expert on terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), and a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel. He is also editor of the journal 'Turkish Studies'.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), and a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel. He is also editor of the journal 'Turkish Studies'.
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March 14, 2015
As we witness the increasing level of anti-Semitism in Europe exemplified by recent attacks against Jews in Paris the role of Islamist ideology appears ever present. The perpetrators of the attacks were of Mideast origin and claimed to be associated with the Islamic State or ISIS. With renewed interest in the role of anti-Semitism and Islamist radicalism in Europe it is important to seek out the origins of these movements. Some political commentators point to the actions of Israel against the Palestinians, particularly its war against Hamas last summer resulting in the carnage caused by repeated missile launches to and from the Gaza Strip. Others, like historians, the late Barry Rubin and Wolfgang Schwanitz, acknowledge the role of Israel, but point out in their new book, NAZIS, ISLAMISTS AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST that the historical and ideological roots of the latest conflict between Israelis and Arabs goes much deeper. Citing the recent release of Nazi and Arab documents dealing with World War II from American and Russian archives, a more complete account of the interactions between Arabs, Muslims and Germans can now be presented.
To support their views the authors bring together a number of key elements. First, they explore the German role in the Middle East dating back to the late 19th century. Beginning with the beliefs of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ideological, political, and strategic goals of Germany are presented by analyzing the intellectual and practical development of employing Islam and jihad as a vehicle for German expansion in the region which would continue through the reign of Adolf Hitler. Secondly, after the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945 the alliance forged with these Middle East groups during the war would have long term ramifications. These groups would experience political victories over their European masters and over more moderate Arab and Muslim rivals. “Their success was so thorough that liberal democratic forces-not uncommon in the Arab speaking world before the 1930s-do not emerge again as contenders for power” until the Arab spring in 2011. Today, we are in the midst of another round in the conflict between revolutionary Islamism, one of the movements that cooperated with Imperial Germany through the end of World War I. Its cooperation would continue with Nazi Germany up until 1945, then reemerge to challenge its former partner Arab nationalism, that had crushed it in the 1950s. I agree with the authors that an “Islamist spring” has emerged today that spews its anti-Semitism and hatred of the west and it can only be understood by examining the role of the Nazi-Islamist alliance that culminated during World War II.
The narrative begins in June, 1942 as SS Chief Heinrich Himmler prepares for visitors at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Earlier in 1941 the facility had tested new camouflaged gas chambers with four new crematoria which proved very successful. At that time, the Arab visitors witnessed the results and they planned to build their own facilities near Tunis, Baghdad, and Jericho. The authors then present a letter from Amin al-Husaini, the Palestinian political and religious leader, to Adolf Hitler in January 1941 that asked the Nazi leader to “assist the Arabs in solving their Jewish problem the way it was carried out in Germany.” The introduction of al-Husaini, who was also the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is critical to the author’s arguments. During the First World War, the Kaiser tried to foment a jihad to encourage Muslim support during the war. His plan was doomed to failure as relying the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire as his spokesperson was not sound, as most Muslims did recognize him as the religious leader of the Middle East (or caliph). By 1933, with Hitler’s ascension to power al-Husaini offered his services to the German Chancellor to carry out his plan against the Jews laid out in MEIN KAMPF. Thus, the relationship and alliance between the Fuhrer and the Grand Mufti began. Throughout the 1930s the Nazis supplied weapons and money to be employed in the 1936 Intifada against the Jews in Palestine, a people that al-Husaini referred to as “scum and germs.” al-Husaini saw himself as the leader of the Arab world and in return for Germany’s assistance in eradicating the Middle East of its Jewish population, and supporting his goal for the creation of a unified Arab state in the Middle East under his leadership, he would work to bring Muslims and Arabs into an alliance with Germany, spread Nazi ideology and wage terror against England and France. As a result of al-Husaini’s cooperation Germany was able to establish a special relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ba’ath Party and other radical groups in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine, which still exist today. The author’s provide a detailed history of al-Husaini’s activities throughout his career as the self-styled political and religious leader of the Arab world. The evidence presented affirms the similarities between al-Husaini’s beliefs and those of the Nazis. To further their critique the authors offer a list created by al-Husaini that offers “parallels between the Islamic world view and National Socialism.” The list highlights eight parallels, with al-Husaini “backing each assertion with quotes from al-Qur’an and Muhammad’s sayings.” Views presented deal with the hatred of Jews, belief in a single powerful leader, the role of woman, and holy war. (182-183)
The documentation that the authors present is extensive in dealing with al-Husaini’s paramount role in Hitler’s vision for the Middle East. One aspect that they discuss even places some level of the blame for the Holocaust on the Grand Mufti. Up until 1941 the Nazis had not decided on the Final Solution and the Hitlerite regime concentrated on expelling Jews from Germany. The problem for al-Husaini was that most of those Jews would wind up in Palestine. Since part of the agreement with the Nazis was to close Palestine’s doors to Jewish immigration, that process was stopped. With one of the last places Jews could be sent now closed the Nazi regime moved on to plan the Final Solution. The timing of the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 and al-Husaini’s activities including a conversation with Adolf Eichmann, “who had prepared the background briefing for the genocide discussion at Wannsee, was ordered to be give[n] to al Husaini….before any high-ranking Germans.” (163) As the war progressed and the German hierarchy realized the conflict was lost, they began to try to soften their role in the Holocaust and began trying to arrange the exchange of Jews for prisoners of war and low level war material. When al-Husaini learned of these activities in Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary and Turkey he immediately interfered to put an end to them. As a result, even more Jews perished in the ovens, all because of his hatred of Jews.
The critique of al-Husaini continues after the war and the evidence offered reflects al-Husaini’s role in the 1947-8 war that saw the creation of the state of Israel. After W.W.II, al-Husaini and his cohorts, many of which were Nazi collaborators worked to prepare for the next war, i.e.; uncovering Nazi weapons hidden since 1942, using Nazi funds to purchase new weapons, and employing escaped Nazis to train and lead Arabs. "Without al-Husaini’s presence as the Palestinian Arabs’ and transnationalist Islamist leader there might have been other options.” (200) The author’s conjecture that had moderate Arab leaders not bowed down to al-Husaini’s radical Arabism, and perhaps had the allies treated him as a war criminal as they should have the course of Middle Eastern history might have been different. Whether things would have progressed in another fashion is fine to speculate about but American, British and French fears of losing Arab support, the need for oil, and the emergence of the Cold War was more important and al-Husaini was allowed to proceed with his machinations for the rest of his life.
Another fascinating aspect that the authors address is the relationship between former Nazis and the Arab world following W.W.II. A detailed chapter is put forth that explores the role of ex-Nazis in Arab governments, particularly that of Nasser’s Egypt. Cairo became a haven for escaped Nazis and many were employed in Egyptian industries, intelligence operations, and military training to enhance Nasser’s national security apparatus. Another home for these men was Syria, under the Ba’athist regime, an Arab version of National Socialism, that mimicked Egypt to a lesser scale, but did hid the likes of Alois Brunner, who Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal labeled as “Eichmann’s right-hand man with brains.” In addition, he accompanied al-Husaini on his tour of Auschwitz around June, 1943. (225) Another important individual was Francois Genoud, al-Husaini’s personal banker since 1933, who worked with German military intelligence during the war. Later, he would finance the ODESSA network and bankroll the Ayatollah Komeini when he was in Paris until he came to power in 1979, and later helped fund al-Qaida and Hamas, until his operations were shut down after 9/11.
What is especially relevant about the author’s narrative is how they link the actions of al-Husaini and his radical Islamist allies to today’s political situation in the Middle East. As the authors explain, Nazi ideology may have died in defeat in 1945, but its basic concepts changed surprisingly little as practiced by radical Islamists today. Just substitute the word “Israel” for “Jew” and the similarities are clear. It is the belief in many Nazi principles by Islamists and Pan Arabs today that contribute to the inability to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. A case in point are the comments made by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on March 8, 2015 that “Israel should be annihilated.” These sentiments were offered earlier in November,, 2014 by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameini that the fate of Jewish state should be “elimination and annihilation.” If one examines the beliefs of Osama bin-Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Assad rulers, spokespersons for Hamas and Hezbollah, and of course ISIS, their comments have a certain familiar tone. But if we return to the earlier period, the speeches of Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yasir Arafat, who was a distant relative of al-Husaini and a disciple, we hear the same ring of Nazi ideology. It is fascinating to me that al-Husaini would only accept the leadership of an Arab state because of violence, in 2000, Arafat refused what many consider a reasonable deal with Israel because he too could not accept a Palestinian state unless it germinated from violent revolution. They are many more examples offered, the most important of which is the Muslim Brotherhood, that supposedly moderate organization that came to power in Egypt in 2011 during the “Arab spring.” I agree with the author’s assessment that “any effort to persuade the West that it should tolerate the Muslim Brotherhood requires erasing its legacy of cooperation with the Nazis, and of equal importance, the ideological parallels between the Nazis and the Brotherhood, as well as Islamists generally.” (250) However, what cannot be denied is that currently Europe and the Middle East are witnessing an increase in violent anti-Semitism, and Islamist anti-western hatred, that had its origins in the calls for jihad dating back to World War I.
There is much more to Rubin’s and Schwanitz’s effort including the intellectual development of many individuals and groups throughout the period under discussion. The range from Wilhelm I to Adolf Hitler to radical Islamist proponents today, for many will be startling. However, if one examines this scholarly and well researched monograph any doubts of their linkage will disappear. I would recommend this book to all who have an interest in the Middle East, and in general, the peace that seems so elusive.
Other books you might wish to consult:
Achar, Gilbert. THE ARABS AND THE HOLOCAUST (New York: Picador, 2010).
Dalin, David G.; Rothmann, John F. ICON OF EVIL (New York: Random House, 2008).
Motadel, David. ISLAM AND NAZI GERMANY’S WAR (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014).
To support their views the authors bring together a number of key elements. First, they explore the German role in the Middle East dating back to the late 19th century. Beginning with the beliefs of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ideological, political, and strategic goals of Germany are presented by analyzing the intellectual and practical development of employing Islam and jihad as a vehicle for German expansion in the region which would continue through the reign of Adolf Hitler. Secondly, after the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945 the alliance forged with these Middle East groups during the war would have long term ramifications. These groups would experience political victories over their European masters and over more moderate Arab and Muslim rivals. “Their success was so thorough that liberal democratic forces-not uncommon in the Arab speaking world before the 1930s-do not emerge again as contenders for power” until the Arab spring in 2011. Today, we are in the midst of another round in the conflict between revolutionary Islamism, one of the movements that cooperated with Imperial Germany through the end of World War I. Its cooperation would continue with Nazi Germany up until 1945, then reemerge to challenge its former partner Arab nationalism, that had crushed it in the 1950s. I agree with the authors that an “Islamist spring” has emerged today that spews its anti-Semitism and hatred of the west and it can only be understood by examining the role of the Nazi-Islamist alliance that culminated during World War II.
The narrative begins in June, 1942 as SS Chief Heinrich Himmler prepares for visitors at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Earlier in 1941 the facility had tested new camouflaged gas chambers with four new crematoria which proved very successful. At that time, the Arab visitors witnessed the results and they planned to build their own facilities near Tunis, Baghdad, and Jericho. The authors then present a letter from Amin al-Husaini, the Palestinian political and religious leader, to Adolf Hitler in January 1941 that asked the Nazi leader to “assist the Arabs in solving their Jewish problem the way it was carried out in Germany.” The introduction of al-Husaini, who was also the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is critical to the author’s arguments. During the First World War, the Kaiser tried to foment a jihad to encourage Muslim support during the war. His plan was doomed to failure as relying the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire as his spokesperson was not sound, as most Muslims did recognize him as the religious leader of the Middle East (or caliph). By 1933, with Hitler’s ascension to power al-Husaini offered his services to the German Chancellor to carry out his plan against the Jews laid out in MEIN KAMPF. Thus, the relationship and alliance between the Fuhrer and the Grand Mufti began. Throughout the 1930s the Nazis supplied weapons and money to be employed in the 1936 Intifada against the Jews in Palestine, a people that al-Husaini referred to as “scum and germs.” al-Husaini saw himself as the leader of the Arab world and in return for Germany’s assistance in eradicating the Middle East of its Jewish population, and supporting his goal for the creation of a unified Arab state in the Middle East under his leadership, he would work to bring Muslims and Arabs into an alliance with Germany, spread Nazi ideology and wage terror against England and France. As a result of al-Husaini’s cooperation Germany was able to establish a special relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ba’ath Party and other radical groups in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine, which still exist today. The author’s provide a detailed history of al-Husaini’s activities throughout his career as the self-styled political and religious leader of the Arab world. The evidence presented affirms the similarities between al-Husaini’s beliefs and those of the Nazis. To further their critique the authors offer a list created by al-Husaini that offers “parallels between the Islamic world view and National Socialism.” The list highlights eight parallels, with al-Husaini “backing each assertion with quotes from al-Qur’an and Muhammad’s sayings.” Views presented deal with the hatred of Jews, belief in a single powerful leader, the role of woman, and holy war. (182-183)
The documentation that the authors present is extensive in dealing with al-Husaini’s paramount role in Hitler’s vision for the Middle East. One aspect that they discuss even places some level of the blame for the Holocaust on the Grand Mufti. Up until 1941 the Nazis had not decided on the Final Solution and the Hitlerite regime concentrated on expelling Jews from Germany. The problem for al-Husaini was that most of those Jews would wind up in Palestine. Since part of the agreement with the Nazis was to close Palestine’s doors to Jewish immigration, that process was stopped. With one of the last places Jews could be sent now closed the Nazi regime moved on to plan the Final Solution. The timing of the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 and al-Husaini’s activities including a conversation with Adolf Eichmann, “who had prepared the background briefing for the genocide discussion at Wannsee, was ordered to be give[n] to al Husaini….before any high-ranking Germans.” (163) As the war progressed and the German hierarchy realized the conflict was lost, they began to try to soften their role in the Holocaust and began trying to arrange the exchange of Jews for prisoners of war and low level war material. When al-Husaini learned of these activities in Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary and Turkey he immediately interfered to put an end to them. As a result, even more Jews perished in the ovens, all because of his hatred of Jews.
The critique of al-Husaini continues after the war and the evidence offered reflects al-Husaini’s role in the 1947-8 war that saw the creation of the state of Israel. After W.W.II, al-Husaini and his cohorts, many of which were Nazi collaborators worked to prepare for the next war, i.e.; uncovering Nazi weapons hidden since 1942, using Nazi funds to purchase new weapons, and employing escaped Nazis to train and lead Arabs. "Without al-Husaini’s presence as the Palestinian Arabs’ and transnationalist Islamist leader there might have been other options.” (200) The author’s conjecture that had moderate Arab leaders not bowed down to al-Husaini’s radical Arabism, and perhaps had the allies treated him as a war criminal as they should have the course of Middle Eastern history might have been different. Whether things would have progressed in another fashion is fine to speculate about but American, British and French fears of losing Arab support, the need for oil, and the emergence of the Cold War was more important and al-Husaini was allowed to proceed with his machinations for the rest of his life.
Another fascinating aspect that the authors address is the relationship between former Nazis and the Arab world following W.W.II. A detailed chapter is put forth that explores the role of ex-Nazis in Arab governments, particularly that of Nasser’s Egypt. Cairo became a haven for escaped Nazis and many were employed in Egyptian industries, intelligence operations, and military training to enhance Nasser’s national security apparatus. Another home for these men was Syria, under the Ba’athist regime, an Arab version of National Socialism, that mimicked Egypt to a lesser scale, but did hid the likes of Alois Brunner, who Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal labeled as “Eichmann’s right-hand man with brains.” In addition, he accompanied al-Husaini on his tour of Auschwitz around June, 1943. (225) Another important individual was Francois Genoud, al-Husaini’s personal banker since 1933, who worked with German military intelligence during the war. Later, he would finance the ODESSA network and bankroll the Ayatollah Komeini when he was in Paris until he came to power in 1979, and later helped fund al-Qaida and Hamas, until his operations were shut down after 9/11.
What is especially relevant about the author’s narrative is how they link the actions of al-Husaini and his radical Islamist allies to today’s political situation in the Middle East. As the authors explain, Nazi ideology may have died in defeat in 1945, but its basic concepts changed surprisingly little as practiced by radical Islamists today. Just substitute the word “Israel” for “Jew” and the similarities are clear. It is the belief in many Nazi principles by Islamists and Pan Arabs today that contribute to the inability to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. A case in point are the comments made by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on March 8, 2015 that “Israel should be annihilated.” These sentiments were offered earlier in November,, 2014 by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameini that the fate of Jewish state should be “elimination and annihilation.” If one examines the beliefs of Osama bin-Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Assad rulers, spokespersons for Hamas and Hezbollah, and of course ISIS, their comments have a certain familiar tone. But if we return to the earlier period, the speeches of Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yasir Arafat, who was a distant relative of al-Husaini and a disciple, we hear the same ring of Nazi ideology. It is fascinating to me that al-Husaini would only accept the leadership of an Arab state because of violence, in 2000, Arafat refused what many consider a reasonable deal with Israel because he too could not accept a Palestinian state unless it germinated from violent revolution. They are many more examples offered, the most important of which is the Muslim Brotherhood, that supposedly moderate organization that came to power in Egypt in 2011 during the “Arab spring.” I agree with the author’s assessment that “any effort to persuade the West that it should tolerate the Muslim Brotherhood requires erasing its legacy of cooperation with the Nazis, and of equal importance, the ideological parallels between the Nazis and the Brotherhood, as well as Islamists generally.” (250) However, what cannot be denied is that currently Europe and the Middle East are witnessing an increase in violent anti-Semitism, and Islamist anti-western hatred, that had its origins in the calls for jihad dating back to World War I.
There is much more to Rubin’s and Schwanitz’s effort including the intellectual development of many individuals and groups throughout the period under discussion. The range from Wilhelm I to Adolf Hitler to radical Islamist proponents today, for many will be startling. However, if one examines this scholarly and well researched monograph any doubts of their linkage will disappear. I would recommend this book to all who have an interest in the Middle East, and in general, the peace that seems so elusive.
Other books you might wish to consult:
Achar, Gilbert. THE ARABS AND THE HOLOCAUST (New York: Picador, 2010).
Dalin, David G.; Rothmann, John F. ICON OF EVIL (New York: Random House, 2008).
Motadel, David. ISLAM AND NAZI GERMANY’S WAR (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014).
October 28, 2023
Amin Al-Husaini is probably the most responsible for radicle Islam.
Al-Husaini Was a verdant supporter of the Nazis. His hope was that Hitler’s armies march into the land which is called Israel. After the Nazis arrived, they would round up the jews and put them into concentration camps. As one Nazi said “ he hated Jews more than Hitler did.
Al-Husaini met Hitler and other prominent Nazis many times and discussed how to get rid of Jews. Al-Husaini pushed his radical form of Islam onto other Arab countries. His work reverberates today as can be found with the war between the palestinians and the Israelis.
The question I have is why isn’t this brought to the attention of the world?
Al-Husaini Was a verdant supporter of the Nazis. His hope was that Hitler’s armies march into the land which is called Israel. After the Nazis arrived, they would round up the jews and put them into concentration camps. As one Nazi said “ he hated Jews more than Hitler did.
Al-Husaini met Hitler and other prominent Nazis many times and discussed how to get rid of Jews. Al-Husaini pushed his radical form of Islam onto other Arab countries. His work reverberates today as can be found with the war between the palestinians and the Israelis.
The question I have is why isn’t this brought to the attention of the world?
July 13, 2014
I suspect this is the most thoroughly-researched and documented story of the history of the close collaboration between the Islamists and the Nazis from the 1930's on. It seems many of the ideas that I thought Islamists had "borrowed" from Nazis were actually original, implemented by the Nazis but still alive and thriving in the Middle East. Scary.
i-get-the-picture
December 13, 2023Though the topic is interesting, this book is suspect. Written by two authors, we are not told anything about the collaboration. The book is written in a sensationalist English, based on archival research that is almost entirely in German and Arabic. Also, this book seems to have been one of the sources of Netanyahu’s recent claim that the Holocaust was inspired by the grand mufti, al-Hussaini
August 14, 2014
Published in 2014, a well-documented book about the dramatic history of the Middle East focusing on the political and military relations between Arabs and the Nazis. However, while explaining the making of the Middle East, the role of the hatred against the Jews is exaggerated. On the other hand, the authors expect the readers to believe that all Arab states, leaders and NGOs (the Ba'ath parties, Arafat, Sadat, Naser, Muslim Brotherhood etc) were financed and instructed by the Nazis for decades. This biased approach harms the credibility of the book and authors.
August 26, 2018
Hajj Amin and Associates: Connections
A detailed assessment of the relationship between Nazi Germany and the Arab Nationalist movement in Palestine. The story begins even before WW I. German adventurer/scholars such as Max von Oppenheim and Carl H. Becker are backed by the German government to create a program of Islamic propaganda to generate uprisings that would weaken Germany's European rivals by destroying their colonial influence. By funding cultural centers throughout the middle east they exposed the locals to a variety of materials, both written and visual, advocating attacks against Christians and European infidels. In the short term this policy failed. The Germans misunderstood the lack of resonance the Ottoman Sultan and the Sheich ul-Islam had given that the Islamic world was fragmented into both Shia and Sunni as well as a number of different legalistic and traditional schools. The Allies countered by promising political independence after a preliminary period of guidance and development which stoked the national ambitions of Arabs, Greeks and Jews. However the German strategy worked in Russia where German backing of the Bolsheviks led to the collapse of the Russian front in WW I and it misfired horribly with the Armenian genocide.
These assets, relationships and strategies were picked up again on the eve of WW II and many of the same players used in the last round were redeployed in service of the Nazis.
Meanwhile in Palestine the authors take a brief look at the career of Hajj Amin al-Husaini who came to prominence in the 1920s and 30s. Most of this has been covered in better detail elsewhere but what is new here is evidence that at the end of WW I in 1917 operating out of Damascus he had acted as a double agent for the English and later for the French. Nor were his ambitions limited to Palestine - between 1918 and 1920 he worked for the General Syrian Congress as a lobbyist for an enlarged Syrian state including today's Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories with the Faisal as King. Beyond his connections as a member of one of Jerusalem's leading Arab families and in spite of his conviction the previous year for instigating the Nabi Musa riots and lack of religious qualifications, his family was able to convince the British to name him "Grand Mufti" of Jerusalem (which he later changed to "Palestine") and place him as head of the newly created Supreme Muslim Council who's sinecures provided him with both income and power base for years to come. Surprisingly the book skips over the 1929 riots, but instead focuses on his networking skills, his travels from India to Iran, and Egypt to Berlin along with his creation of the World Islamic Congress in 1931, with himself at the helm, with an impressive list of contacts including then current and future Islamic leadership.
Contrary to what has been written in other reviews, the authors do not portray Hajj Amin al-Husaini as the architect of the Final Solution or responsible for conditions that led to the creation of Israel. However, they argue, by making his alliance and (in Nazi eyes) the alliance of the Arab world conditional on stopping Jewish immigration to Palestine, a ploy his Arab Higher Committee also offered to the British, he was likely the catalyst in the change of German policy from expulsion to extermination. Backed generously by the Nazis he and Rashid al-Kalaini ran espionage and recruitment networks. Hitler made it clear that after a Nazi victory al-Kalaini, the lesser partner, would be given control of Iraq and that al-Husaini not only Palestine but much of the Arab world (with a degree of imprecision excluding territories promised to Italy and Vichy France), with a license to do to the Jews there what Hitler was doing in Europe - this they had as a common interest. They were also quite prolific in creating general propaganda and training material for military imams articulating a common ground between Islam and National Socialism, (pp182-183), even to the point of mixing Islamic eschatology and Nazi ideology by portraying the current war as the final jihad between Muslims and non-believers. (pp156).
Though he was well connected for the purposes of espionage and propaganda the Germans overestimated the Mufti's ability to deliver Muslim leaders to the Nazi side - with the exception of Jordan's King Abdallah most were interested but were waiting for decisive Nazi victories before they would be willing to switch sides. As a consequence the Arab nations proved to be poor partners for the Allies - for example the 1941 Iraqi revolt led by Rashid al-Kailani, and in Egypt the pro-Nazi sentiment ran so high as Rommel approached in 1942 the British found it necessary to demobilize and disarm most of the Egyptian troops.
After the war al-Husaini's influence continued, facilitating contacts and employment for former Nazis in Arab military, intelligence or propaganda portfolios, publishing his own Jerusalem newspaper al-Jihad and a joint publication in Damascus with the Muslim Brotherhood. So safe was the Arab world for some 4000 Nazi collaborators seeking refuge, not one was given up for prosecution. He continued to run the World Islamic Congress which gave him political access to Arab and Muslim leadership and standing within the Unaligned Nations movement while running secret terrorist cells that operated out of Jordan and Lebanon.
The authors conclude with a look at the Mufti's relationship with Arafat. Though al-Hussaini fully endorsed his successor and is remembered fondly to this day, the relationship divided on Arafat's decision to seek Soviet support rather than to continue with the backing of the Saudis and the Muslim Brotherhood, however this is understandable given the eclipse of religion by populist revolutionary Arab nationalism until the 1990s. On the surface, they observed "it may seem peculiar that al-Husaini was revered rather than discredited" given his Nazi links, his failure to prevent the formation of Israel and his campaigns of terror and assassination direct against his Arab rivals but it made sense in a world of conspiracy oriented authoritarian regimes where strident militancy rather than compromise and accommodation would be the test for legitimacy. Hajj Amin survived, often at the expense of more moderate opponents. The lessons were not lost on his successors.
A detailed assessment of the relationship between Nazi Germany and the Arab Nationalist movement in Palestine. The story begins even before WW I. German adventurer/scholars such as Max von Oppenheim and Carl H. Becker are backed by the German government to create a program of Islamic propaganda to generate uprisings that would weaken Germany's European rivals by destroying their colonial influence. By funding cultural centers throughout the middle east they exposed the locals to a variety of materials, both written and visual, advocating attacks against Christians and European infidels. In the short term this policy failed. The Germans misunderstood the lack of resonance the Ottoman Sultan and the Sheich ul-Islam had given that the Islamic world was fragmented into both Shia and Sunni as well as a number of different legalistic and traditional schools. The Allies countered by promising political independence after a preliminary period of guidance and development which stoked the national ambitions of Arabs, Greeks and Jews. However the German strategy worked in Russia where German backing of the Bolsheviks led to the collapse of the Russian front in WW I and it misfired horribly with the Armenian genocide.
These assets, relationships and strategies were picked up again on the eve of WW II and many of the same players used in the last round were redeployed in service of the Nazis.
Meanwhile in Palestine the authors take a brief look at the career of Hajj Amin al-Husaini who came to prominence in the 1920s and 30s. Most of this has been covered in better detail elsewhere but what is new here is evidence that at the end of WW I in 1917 operating out of Damascus he had acted as a double agent for the English and later for the French. Nor were his ambitions limited to Palestine - between 1918 and 1920 he worked for the General Syrian Congress as a lobbyist for an enlarged Syrian state including today's Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories with the Faisal as King. Beyond his connections as a member of one of Jerusalem's leading Arab families and in spite of his conviction the previous year for instigating the Nabi Musa riots and lack of religious qualifications, his family was able to convince the British to name him "Grand Mufti" of Jerusalem (which he later changed to "Palestine") and place him as head of the newly created Supreme Muslim Council who's sinecures provided him with both income and power base for years to come. Surprisingly the book skips over the 1929 riots, but instead focuses on his networking skills, his travels from India to Iran, and Egypt to Berlin along with his creation of the World Islamic Congress in 1931, with himself at the helm, with an impressive list of contacts including then current and future Islamic leadership.
Contrary to what has been written in other reviews, the authors do not portray Hajj Amin al-Husaini as the architect of the Final Solution or responsible for conditions that led to the creation of Israel. However, they argue, by making his alliance and (in Nazi eyes) the alliance of the Arab world conditional on stopping Jewish immigration to Palestine, a ploy his Arab Higher Committee also offered to the British, he was likely the catalyst in the change of German policy from expulsion to extermination. Backed generously by the Nazis he and Rashid al-Kalaini ran espionage and recruitment networks. Hitler made it clear that after a Nazi victory al-Kalaini, the lesser partner, would be given control of Iraq and that al-Husaini not only Palestine but much of the Arab world (with a degree of imprecision excluding territories promised to Italy and Vichy France), with a license to do to the Jews there what Hitler was doing in Europe - this they had as a common interest. They were also quite prolific in creating general propaganda and training material for military imams articulating a common ground between Islam and National Socialism, (pp182-183), even to the point of mixing Islamic eschatology and Nazi ideology by portraying the current war as the final jihad between Muslims and non-believers. (pp156).
Though he was well connected for the purposes of espionage and propaganda the Germans overestimated the Mufti's ability to deliver Muslim leaders to the Nazi side - with the exception of Jordan's King Abdallah most were interested but were waiting for decisive Nazi victories before they would be willing to switch sides. As a consequence the Arab nations proved to be poor partners for the Allies - for example the 1941 Iraqi revolt led by Rashid al-Kailani, and in Egypt the pro-Nazi sentiment ran so high as Rommel approached in 1942 the British found it necessary to demobilize and disarm most of the Egyptian troops.
After the war al-Husaini's influence continued, facilitating contacts and employment for former Nazis in Arab military, intelligence or propaganda portfolios, publishing his own Jerusalem newspaper al-Jihad and a joint publication in Damascus with the Muslim Brotherhood. So safe was the Arab world for some 4000 Nazi collaborators seeking refuge, not one was given up for prosecution. He continued to run the World Islamic Congress which gave him political access to Arab and Muslim leadership and standing within the Unaligned Nations movement while running secret terrorist cells that operated out of Jordan and Lebanon.
The authors conclude with a look at the Mufti's relationship with Arafat. Though al-Hussaini fully endorsed his successor and is remembered fondly to this day, the relationship divided on Arafat's decision to seek Soviet support rather than to continue with the backing of the Saudis and the Muslim Brotherhood, however this is understandable given the eclipse of religion by populist revolutionary Arab nationalism until the 1990s. On the surface, they observed "it may seem peculiar that al-Husaini was revered rather than discredited" given his Nazi links, his failure to prevent the formation of Israel and his campaigns of terror and assassination direct against his Arab rivals but it made sense in a world of conspiracy oriented authoritarian regimes where strident militancy rather than compromise and accommodation would be the test for legitimacy. Hajj Amin survived, often at the expense of more moderate opponents. The lessons were not lost on his successors.
February 9, 2017
jumps from date to date, back and forth...........a lot of unnecessary data...........would have wanted to see more on how the Nazi and Muslim association led to the present day jihad.....has made, ad nauseum, a case for the bond in the 30's through the 50's
May 7, 2024
Reception
Holocaust scholar Jeffrey Herf excoriates the book, writing that Schwanitz and Rubin "ignore the previous scholarship on Holocaust decision-making as well as the existing scholarship on Husseini's collaboration with the Nazis.
Partly as a result, they exaggerate the Mufti's impact on Nazi policy.
.........
They turn a series of coincidental correlations in time into causal chains."
Reviewing the book in the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Matthias Küntzel raises a number of issues with the book, identifying some of its claims as "nothing but speculation" and concluding that "certain facts that do not fit the picture have simply been left out," damaging the book's credibility.
In another article in the same journal, Meir Litvak calls the book "controversial" and argues its "allegations, however, do not stand the test of historical scrutiny and have been largely discounted."
In his review, Houwink ten Cate describes the book as "seminal" and "extremely well-researched and documented" but makes a "minor criticism": he is not convinced by Schwanitz and Rubin's argument that the mufti convinced the Nazis to commit the Holocaust, which he considers to be refuted by research by Christopher R. Browning that the authors ignored.
David Mikics concurs, arguing that "the notion that al-Husaini played a key role in Hitler’s settling on the Final Solution is based on one piece of thin hearsay evidence."
He calls this claim "implausible, even silly."
Nils Riecken makes a similar criticism, that "temporal proximity remains their only argument."
He also criticizes the book for ignoring other research on the Holocaust, and sees the authors' methodology as "deeply problematic."
However, as one of the authors Schwanitz responded to Mikics, that he misrepresents the book and argues it "is not a biography of the grand mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husaini [...] and Mikics fails to show how it compares to related works."
David Rodman described the book as a "fascinating and insightful volume".
Rodman opined that Nazism is no longer prominent in the West, but radical Arab nationalism and Islamism continue to be prominent in the Middle East.
He called the book an "indispensable guide to explaining why the greater Middle East has been an utter shambles for the past seven decades".
On the other hand, a review in Countercurrents.org questions whether the book contributes anything of value due to its ideological biases, "highly problematic theses," and "bizarre theories."
Mia Lee contends that the book's "focus on the Mufti also creates a false link between contemporary anti-Semitism in the Middle East and the Nazis’ racial programme."
This is not a false link but an old one, responds Schwanitz. The perpetrators and their ideologies were connected before, in, and after both world wars. Born in the two decades before 1900, some experienced and later lead multiple genocides against local minorities while establishing from 1914 to 1918 a German-Ottoman axis and from 1939 to 1945 a Nazi-Islamist axis.
Often the same persons connected both regions also by their genocidal cooperation based on nationalism, racism, and anti-Semitism. These efforts were led on the German side by about 100 key officials, politicians and Middle Eastern experts, and on the other side Islamists and nationalists that drove ahead their joint jihadization of Islamism.
Schwanitz shows this with the example of Jerusalem's Kedem auction house that posted three of six previously unknown photos on the Internet. On one photo taken in 1942, the grand mufti al-Husaini, Iraq’s former prime minister Rashid Ali al-Kailani, and the Hindu nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose inspect Trebbin’s satellite camp of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen near Berlin along with two Nazi officials who were involved in the Holocaust.
The photos of the visit to a Nazi camp associated with an SS artillery training school, both Arab leaders’ written genocidal pact with the Nazis, and their subsequent close involvement with the Final Solution demonstrate that they wanted the Jews of the Mideast to share the same fate as the Jews of Europe.
December 9, 2024
Excellent distillation of hidden history
This book provides a vital missing piece of the historical puzzle for understanding the big picture of why the middle east is the way it is today, a puzzle piece western liberals and leftists are robbed of by our media, universities and political leaders.
A must read for anyone who claims to have a firm grasp of real history.
This book provides a vital missing piece of the historical puzzle for understanding the big picture of why the middle east is the way it is today, a puzzle piece western liberals and leftists are robbed of by our media, universities and political leaders.
A must read for anyone who claims to have a firm grasp of real history.
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January 15, 2021https://likoed.nl/2017/11/nazis-islam... Translated it in to the Duch language. Thank you!
March 30, 2016
Important history lessons abound.
April 21, 2016
I never fully understood how intertwined the events in the Middle East of today are related to the plans and operations of the Germans in WWI and WWII.
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