This is Part 2, (please see Part 1)
(The Grand Mufti Amin Al-Husseini inspects the Bosnian Handzar divsion, part of the German army in Yugoslavia.)
It really is a fantastic documentary showing the amazing degree of cooperation and mutual admiration between the Muslims and the Nazis. Much more so than even those of us who are aware of it knew, and this features a lot of rare footage of Hitler and the Grand Mufti. Thank you to a large team of people who have been working for a long time to translate this and time stamp it, and to Henrik R Clausen who did the actual German to English translation.
Content Guide to Video 2
[00:10:04:00] Al-Husseini raises the Islamic sites in Jerusalem to the status of symbols against the Jewish immigration.
[00:10:08:00] He sees himself at the head of a Greater Arabia and a Jew-free Palestine.
[00:10:18:00] I saw him from a distance in the mosque. He was agitating and speaking against the Jews.
[00:10:25:00] He was a special type–“ginger”–a redhead: red lashes, red lips, and all.
[00:10:39:00] And he had great charisma.
[00:10:54:00] Coexistence of Jewish settlers and Arabs is no longer peaceful.
[00:11:05:00] They distrust each other, arm themselves and separate from one another,
[00:11:09:00] above all, since 1933, when more and more Jews are seeking haven from Nazi Germany in the Holy Land.
[00:11:23:00] Hitler seems to be welcome in the Arab sections of Jerusalem.
[00:11:28:00] These days the Hitler cult and the German hatred of the Jews is not alien to Arab thinking.
[00:11:34:00] Hitler’s name has a good ring to it here. And Al-Huesseini wastes no time declaring his loyalty to the new Germany.
[00:11:40:00] At the end of March, 1934, the German consul wired Berlin:
[00:11:46:00] “Mufti made detailed assurances to me yesterday, that Muslims welcome the new regime.”
[00:11:51:00] Jewish influence on the economy and politics, he says, is deleterious and must be resisted.
[00:11:59:00] A month later, Al-Husseini speaks more concretely. He does not want German Jews sent to Palestine.
[00:12:12:00] The Grand Mufti works intensively for contact and a lasting alliance with the Nazis.
[00:12:21:00] A proverb says: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
[00:12:28:00] That was the reason Al-Husseini felt compelled at that time to make an alliance with the Germans.
[00:12:43:00] To be sure, the Nazis are looking around in the Near East, but at first only as tourists, like propaganda chief, Goebbels in Egypt.
[00:12:49:00] They are completely in sympathy with the Arabs and Al-Husseini’s policy, but do not intervene openly.
[00:12:56:00] The Mediterranean is an Italian sphere of influence.
[00:13:00:00] They are still secretly looking for contact with the Grand Mufti, like Adolf Eichmann in 1937.
[00:13:06:00] The SS man, however, is not allowed into the country by the British.
[00:13:09:00] The Mufti has to be patient, but the SS secretly maintains contact and supports him with money.
[00:13:25:00] Also with money for the great uprising!
[00:13:28:00] Since April 1936, Palestine has been in an uproar. The Arabs are rising against the British and Jewish immigration.
[00:13:37:00] The Grand Mufti has called for violent uprising.
[00:13:43:00] It was he who set the direction and led.
[00:13:48:00] He made fiery speeches to wake the sleepers and talk to them so that they would rise up.
[00:13:54:00] For, he says, the Al-Aksa Mosque is in danger; the sacred sites are in danger.
[00:14:00:00] That is true. At that time, the sacred sites were very much in danger, and the English didn’t care.
[00:14:09:00] The agitation. the Arab propaganda increased day by day.
[00:14:13:00] Life in Jerusalem, and not just Jerusalem, was becoming very difficult.
[00:14:26:00] In Jerusalem and other cities, Jews flee their living quarters to get to safety.
[00:14:32:00] Centuries of living together is destroyed forever.
[00:14:40:00] The English strike at the insurgents hard and without compromise.[00:14:46:00] Al-Husseini is relentless. In one racist appeal, he calls the Jews the “scum of all lands” and “plague-carrying microbes.”
[00:14:54:00] During these days, some of the insurgents even carry the swastika along.
[00:14:59:00] The insurgents rampage against everyone who does not support their goals, even among their own people.
[00:15:16:00] After the murder of a high British official, the British finally proceed against Al-Husseini.
[00:15:26:00] In time, he flees to the sacred district of the Temple Mount and avoids captivity.
[00:15:37:00] Naturally every political leader has opponents and enemies.
[00:15:43:00] They said whatever they wished against Al-Husseini.
[00:15:47:00] The English could find no evidence that personally incriminated him.
[00:15:52:00] Many people on both sides fell to assassinations.
[00:15:56:00] The country sank into political chaos, similar to what is seen today in Iraq.
[00:16:06:00] In October of 1937, disguised as a woman, the Mufti fled to Lebanon.
[00:16:12:00] He directed the rebellion in his country from Beirut, unmolested.
[00:16:27:00] At the end of 1940, Italian bombers attack British positions in Tel Aviv and Jaffa,
[00:16:33:00] and especially the harbor at Haifa where the oil pipeline from Iraq ends.
[00:16:37:00] German airmen also take part. Hitler’s war has reached Palestine.
[00:16:50:00] The Mufti has nothing against bombing in his homeland.
[00:16:54:00] Soon he himself will suggest the Germans bomb Jerusalem too.
[00:17:00:00] Al-Husseini has been in Iraq since the beginning of the war. From Baghdad in January, 1941, he offers Hitler his direct help in the war.
[00:17:16:00] “Excellency, the Arab peoples’ warmest sympathy for Germany is a firm fact.
[00:17:22:00] If the Arab lands are relieved of certain material deficiencies,
[00:17:27:00] they will be everywhere prepared to act against the common enemy,
[00:17:31:00] and rise up enthusiastically to play their part in the defeat of the English-Jewish coalition.
[00:17:41:00] Mufti of Palestine, Mohammed Al-Husseini.”
[00:17:50:00] Many Palestinian Jews join the British, and later form a Jewish brigade of the Royal Army.
[00:18:00:00] We reported as volunteers for the army when the Germans were at the height of their power.
[00:18:08:00] Joining the army at that time, when the English were still fighting the Nazis alone, without America or Russia,
[00:18:18:00] was not simple and required a great deal of self-sacrifice.
[00:18:21:00] However, we did it because we wanted to,
[00:18:26:00] because our families in Europe were being persecuted by the Nazis.
[00:18:30:00] and we understood that someone had to stand up against evil.
[00:18:41:00] Even the radical Jewish underground fighters of the Irgun joined in.
[00:18:48:00] In 1941, they march toward Baghdad with the British army.
[00:18:50:00] With the energetic cooperation of the Mufti, the German-leaning officers in Iraq wanted
[00:18:58:00] to carry out a putsch that would align the country with Nazi Germany.
[00:19:01:00] The fighters of the Irgun have a completely different objective.
[00:19:06:00] The leader of the Irgun came to Iraq with the British and died there in the fighting,
[00:19:12:00] when he tried to find and kill the Mufti.
[00:19:21:00] The Mufti survives; the putsch fails.
[00:19:24:00] Husseini goes into hiding. The secret helpers from Germany,
[00:19:27:00] who stood by the Iraqi officers, are interned overseas.
[00:19:32:00] Besides the agents, Berlin had sent only a few airplanes. It was too little against the superior British forces.
[00:19:44:00] The defeat in Iraq is not a subject of discussion in Germany. Only victories count.
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Thanks again to Vlad Tepes Blog and all involved in bringing this documentary to the people so we can learn from our history and are more able to understand the present times while preparing for the future. Parts 3,4, and 5 will be published as they are translated and content guides created.