Non­fic­tion

The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: The Berlin Years

Klaus Gen­sicke; Alexan­der Fras­er Gunn, trans.
  • Review
By – August 30, 2011
Based on exten­sive Ger­man and some British offi­cial archival sources as well as pub­lished mem­oirs and stud­ies, this study exam­ines the life, activ­i­ties, and ide­ol­o­gy of the Pales­tin­ian reli­gious-polit­i­cal leader, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husai­ni, focus­ing on his years in Nazi Ger­many and eager col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Nazi regime, intend­ing to gain Ger­man sup­port for his polit­i­cal goals to head the Pales­tin­ian state and pos­si­bly the entire Arab world. The study includes a rich bib­li­og­ra­phy and an index.

Fol­low­ing a suc­cinct dis­cus­sion of pre­vi­ous stud­ies on Husai­ni, Gen­sicke exam­ines the evolve­ment of the posi­tion of the­Mufti of Jerusalem under the British Man­date of Pales­tine, and the grow­ing polit­i­cal role of Husai­ni in the Pales­tin­ian revolts which even­tu­al­ly caused his escape to Iraq, where he was involved in anti-British activ­i­ties, cul­mi­nat­ing in the failed 1941 coup. Husai­ni then fled through Iran to Italy, where he tried to gain Ital­ian sup­port for his polit­i­cal goals. The bulk of the study is devot­ed to the Mufti’s years in Ger­many (1941 – 1945) where he met with senior offi­cials, includ­ing Hitler, aim­ing to achieve his polit­i­cal goals through col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Nazi regime, empha­siz­ing his sup­port for the Nazis’ anti-Semit­ic poli­cies, view­ing Britain, Judaism, and Bol­she­vism as the main ene­mies of Ger­many, the Arab nation, and the Mus­lim world. The Mufti was active in Nazi pro­pa­gan­da direct­ed to the Mid­dle East and in attempts to estab­lish Mus­lim units in the Ger­man army.

Gen­sicke also exam­ines Husaini’s activ­i­ties fol­low­ing World War II, when Britain and France let him evade tri­al for war crimes, escape to the Mid­dle East, and con­tin­ue in his polit­i­cal activ­i­ties, though with less influ­ence than in the 1930’s. The study is well doc­u­ment­ed, clear­ly writ­ten and adds much hith­er­to unknown infor­ma­tion on the Mufti’s close col­lab­o­ra­tion with Fas­cist Italy and espe­cial­ly Nazi Germany.
Rachel Simon, a librar­i­an at Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, does research on Jews in the mod­ern Mid­dle East and North Africa, with spe­cial ref­er­ence to Libya, Ottoman Empire, women, and education.

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