A welcome documentary reminder that there was more to the story of Muslims and the Holocaust than Haj Amin al-Husseini:
Vichy, September 24, 1940
Deputy political director
NOTE TO THE MINISTER
The occupation authorities suspect the staff of the mosque of Paris of fraudulently supplying individuals of the Jewish race with certificates declaring that they are Muslims. The Imam has been summarily ordered to discontinue all practices of this kind. It appears, indeed, that many Jews are resorting to all sorts of schemes to conceal their identity.
Robert Satloff writes in Washington Post:
[T]here is strong evidence that the most influential Arab in Europe — Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris — saved as many as 100 Jews by having the mosque’s administrative personnel give them certificates of Muslim identity, with which they could evade arrest and deportation.
Satloff has also unearthed reports of both treachery and decency by North African Arabs toward Jews during the Nazi occupation.
Unfortunately, as Satloff notes, the humane actions are today largely neglected or forgotten by both Jews and Muslims as Holocaust denial spreads through the Islamic world.
