From the Grand Mufti's purported memoirs: We have so far exterminated about three million of them

Did Himmler ever admit to "Three Million"?

 

THE Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was Haj Amin al-Husseini. Fleeing from the British in 1941, he took refuge in Germany, and returned to Palestine after the war, where he stayed during the remaining years of the British Mandate. Living in Berlin, he and the Nazis warily circled each other - the Nazis eager to win over the Arabs, but reluctant to upset the Vichy French by coming too close.

Introduced to the Mufti on November 25, 1941, Adolf Hitler told him, "enjoining him to lock it in the uttermost depths of his heart," that once his armies had reached the southern exit of the Caucasus he would proclaim to the Arab world that its hour of liberation had arrived. Germany's goal would then be what he termed the "destruction of Jewry living in Arabia." (Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, Series D, Vol. XIII no. 515). He used the vague word Judentum, rather than Jews, meaning in this context roughly the Jewish element, or even stranglehold

The Grand Mufti, left, with Heinrich Himmler. Note that while the autograph is possibly, though not definitely, a genuine Himmler signature, the caption - written before the signature was added and seemingly in the same ink - "To his Eminence the Grand Mufti, a Souvenir, July 4, 1943" - is not in Himmler's handwriting and in our view not even written by a German.

Himmler embraced the Mufti more closely, and raised a Muslim legion within the SS. Recently a debate has sprung up over memoirs which the Mufti purportedly wrote. These were published in 1999. The Mufti reports a conversation he had with Himmler in the summer of 1943, perhaps on July 4, 1943 (see their photograph above). I reproduce the relevant printed Arabic text at the top of this page.

Our own Arabic expert Eric Müller has translated the passage as follows.

"I used to hear coming from Himmler all the time [things] that showed the intensity of his hatred for the Jews. He accused them of being oppressors/wrongdoers while they claim to be oppressed/wronged. He would say that they lit the fires of wars, that they are egotists, and that sort of thing, showing the extent of harm that they had brought down on Germany in the previous war and that they were always igniting the fires of war and then using them for their material interests, without losing anything in them themselves. Therefore we have determined to give them a taste of the evil consequences of their actions in advance. We have so far exterminated about three million of them. (This talk with him was in the summer of the year 1943)."

Now, as Müller points out, Himmler clearly did not use any Arabic word, he used a German word. From the connotations, it seems likely he used that multi-purpose, many-nuanced word, Ausrottung - roughly, extirpation.

If Himmler was referring to Operation Reinhardt, the disposal by whatever means of waste Jews in the camps along the Bug River demarcation line, the three million estimate would broadly agree with the popular consensus.

Have our readers any comments?

 

Our Heinrich Himmler dossier

John Rosenthal reviews Klaus Gensicke's biography of the Grand Mufti

 

 

See: Mufti-Papiere. Briefe, Memoranden, Reden und Aufrufe Amin al-Husainis aus dem Exil 1940-1945. (Edited by Gerhard Höpp) Schiler Hans Verlag 2002

Note that the List of Exhibits filed in the Trial of Adolf Eichmann includes inter alia these items relating to the Grand Mufti:

• T/37(11) Statement by Dieter Wisliceny regarding Eichmann's relations with the Mufti; 26.7.46. Submitted during the course of the trial and marked T/89 (B06-129, Vol. I, p. 243)
• T/1262 Affidavit by Tuvia Arazi authenticating documents found in the Mufti's archives (Vol. III, pp. 1139-1140)
• T/1265 Memorandum by Hencke, the Foreign Ministry, to State Secretary Pruefer, reporting that the Italian Embassy had received a letter from the Mufti concerning an alleged Bulgarian agreement to permit the IRC to arrange for the emigration of 4,500 Jews to Palestine, and asking for German comment on the matter; Berlin, 12.5.43 (BO6-1308, Vol. III, p. 1141)
• T/1266 Letter from Hajj Amin al-Husseini and Raschid `Ali el-Gilani to Ribbentrop, referring to talks with the Reich Foreign Minister, in which they had declared the Arab's willingness to participate in the struggle against the common enemy. They ask that the German Government commit itself to support of the Arabs' struggle for their liberation from the British and to the elimination of the "Jewish National Home" in Palestine; Rome, 28.4.42 (E- 260993, Ser:4729 pt.1, BO6-1302, Vol. III, p. 1141)
• T/1267 Page from the diary of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, containing a six-word entry in Arabic, of which three had been deciphered and translated as "the Arabs' best friend"; and a one-word entry "Eichmann," in Latin characters; 9.11.44 (BO6-1306, Vol. III, pp. 1141-1142)
• T/1268 Page from Hajj Amin al-Husseini's diary containing two entries in Arabic, of which one has been translated as meaning that al-Husseini wants to meet the "expert on Jewish affairs" and the other as referring to the bombing Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea and Haifa; 25.3.44 (BO6-1305, Vol. III, p. 1142)
• T/1269 Page from Hajj Amin al-Husseini's diary containing an entry stating "Subject: The Jews of Italy, France and Hungary, and who is the expert dealing with the affairs of the Jews?" 29.9.43, (B06-1304, Vol. III, p. 1142)
• T/1270 Photograph of Himmler given to Hajj Amin al-Husseini as a souvenir (Vol. III, p. 1142)
• T/1271 Photograph of Himmler with Hajj Amin al-Husseini (Vol. III, p. 1143)
• T/1272 Telegram from Himmler to Hajj Amin al-Husseini on the occasion of the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration; Berlin, 2.11.43 (B06-1313, Vol. III, p. Vol. III, p. 1143)
• T/1273 Notebook of the Mufti with a comment on his meeting with Pruefer (B06-1307, Vol. III, p. 1143)
• T/1274 Draft of a German-Italian declaration prepared by Hajj Amin al-Husseini on their Middle East policy; no place or date (B06-1429, Vol. III, p. 1114)