The Nazis, with the help of an Arab cleric, used Islamic extremists as a tool - It didn't end well for anyone

[Ubiquitous]

When the Nazis heard Mohammed Amin al-Husseini calling for Arabs to “kill the
jews wherever you find them,” they knew they had found an ally in their
terrible ideology.

Adolf Hitler believed Muslims could be manipulated into being a powerful tool
for the Nazis. For the most part, he was wrong, and the majority of Muslims
fought _against_ Germany. However a significant number—a whole division—were
radicalized through a partnership with virulently anti-Semitic Islamic
extremists.

The main such extremist was al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the
highest ranking Muslim political leader in Palestine. He was virulently
anti-Semitic, with a history of organizing aggressive actions against Jewish
people in the Middle East. He also regularly broadcast propaganda over Nazi-
controlled radio stations.

As Al-Husseini later explained to Hitler, the Arabs had the same enemies as
the Nazis: the Jews, English, and Russians. According to the German record of
their meeting, Al-Husseini said the Muslims under his sway “were prepared to
cooperate with Germany with all their hearts and stood ready to participate
in the war, not only negatively by the commission of acts of sabotage and the
instigation of revolutions, but also positively by the formation of an Arab
Legion.” He was tasked by Hitler with recruiting Bosnian Muslims into what
became the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS, the first non-German SS
devision.

Such a partnership was at odds with the Nazi narrative of racial purity, of
course. Hitler had declared Muslims racially inferior in Mein Kampf, yet he
recruited and met with Al-Husseini. Hitler went on to say say that the Mufti
seemed “a man with more than one Aryan among his ancestors” and declared him
an honorary Aryan. Bosnia’s Muslims were also declared pure Aryan too. It
seemed military and political ends trumped genes for Hitler, who warmed to
Islam so long as their enemies remained in common.

Heinrich Himmler, the commander of the SS and one of the chief architects of
the Holocaust, also said he had nothing against Islam because it promises
followers “heaven if they fight and are killed in action” and that is was “a
very practical religion for soldiers.” He saw an opportunity to manipulate
that belief. In fact, it was Himmler who suggested to Hitler raising a Muslim
SS division in the first place.

But the prospect did make for some odd imagery. Members of the 13th Waffen
Mountain Division wore fezzes emblazoned with Nazi insignias, a contradictory
mix of Middle Eastern culture and white nationalism. Pictures from the time
show SS members with a pamphlet of anti-Semitic propaganda which, judging by
the title, framed Jews as the enemy of Islam.

The Waffen Mountain Division of the SS comprised 20,000 troops and mostly
fought Communist resistance forces in Bosnia—a key reason the division was
formed in the first place. It fought seven other campaigns for the Nazis in
the Balkans region, playing an active role in atrocities committed against
Jews there. In all, 12,000 of 14,000 Bosnian Jews were murdered by the Nazis
and their allies. Ancient synagogues were destroyed, and some Jews were
forced to do that very destroying. The last members of the division
surrendered to the British in May of 1945. Ten of them were eventually
executed for war crimes.


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