Husseini, Mohammad Amin Al-, Hajj

(1895–1974)

   The grand mufti of Jerusalem was the leader of Arab Palestine during the period of Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship in Germany. Husseini was among the first to greet Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and informed the German consul in Jerusalem that “Muslims . . . welcome the new regime of Germany and hope for the extension of the fascist anti-democratic, governmental system to other countries.” An admirer of Hitler, Husseini organized the “Nazi Scouts,” based on the Hitler Youth, and the swastika became a symbol among many Arabs in Palestine. During the late 1930s, the mufti led the Arab effort to curtail Jewish immigration into Palestine and also orchestrated violence against Jews living in the Yishuv. The mufti’s campaign against the Jews was aided by the Nazi government, which sent both monetary and logistical support as the violence intensified and which soon included the bombing of British offices in Palestine. With the outbreak of war, the British sought to have him arrested, whereupon the mufti fled to Berlin where he served as a consultant on Jewish affairs, transmitted anti-Jewish radio broadcasts to the Middle East, and expressed support for the mass murder of European Jews. Having been taken on tour of Auschwitz by Heinrich Himmler, Husseini expressed the desire to “solve the problems of the Jewish element in Palestine and other Arab countries” by employing the same method being used in “the Axis countries.” In his memoirs, the mufti wrote, “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 . . . according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was: ‘The Jews are yours.’” Husseini helped to organize thousands of Muslims in the Balkans into military units known as Handselar divisions that carried out atrocities against Yugoslav Jews, Serbs, and Gypsies.

   Following the war, Husseini was declared a Nazi war criminal at the Nuremberg Trials and sought by Yugoslavia as a war criminal. He subsequently escaped to Egypt, where he was given asylum and helped to organize former Nazis against Israel. Husseini’s pro-Nazi sympathies were widespread among his Arab followers in Palestine, who regarded him as a hero even after the disclosure of his role in Nazi atrocities.

   See also White Paper Of 1939.