Hitler wanted to expel the Jews, not exterminate them: Netanyahu (DOUBLE ARTICLE)

I24 NEWS

In a speech which caused outrage in some quarters and left many historians scratching their heads, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Wednesday that Adolf Hitler had no intention of killing the Jews, but only wished to expel them. According to Netanyahu, the idea for mass extermination came from the then-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.

In a speech at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, Netanyahu described a meeting between Husseini and Hitler in November, 1941:

“Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’ ‘So what should I do with them?’ he asked. He said, ‘Burn them.'”

The claim that Husseini came up with the idea of the extermination of European Jewry has been proposed by some historians at the fringes of Holocaust research, but is generally rejected as a theory.

In response, opposition leader Isaac Herzog said that Netanyahu was playing into the hands of Holocaust deniers. Herzog demanded that Netanyahu backtrack on his statement, calling it a “dangerous distortion of history.”

The Israeli leader’s words quickly caused a storm on social media, although this was not the first time he has made the explosive claim – in 2012 he described Husseini as “one of the leading architects” of the final solution, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Haaretz reports that the argument concerning Husseini’s role was recently mentioned in a book by Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, “Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East.” In a similar vein to Netanyahu, the authors make a connection between the Jerusalem mufti’s support of the Nazi regime and the policies of the PLO under Yasser Arafat. However they do not claim that the conversation described by Netanyahu ever took place – they say Hitler formulated the plan to exterminate the Jews in a bid to nurture Husseini.

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HAARTETZ

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked public uproar when on Wednesday he claimed that the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was the one who planted the idea of the extermination of European Jewry in Adolf Hitler’s mind. The Nazi ruler, Netanyahu said, had no intention of killing the Jews, but only to expel them.

In a speech before the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, Netanyahu described a meeting between Husseini and Hitler in November, 1941: “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jew. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here (to Palestine).’ According to Netanyahu, Hitler then asked: “What should I do with them?” and the mufti replied: “Burn them.”

Netanyahu’s remarks were quick to spark a social media storm, though Netanyahu made a similar claim during a Knesset speech in 2012, where he described the Husseini as “one of the leading architects” of the final solution.

The claim that Husseini was the one to initiate the extermination of European Jewry had been suggested by a number of historians at the fringes of Holocaust research, but was rejected by most accepted scholars.

The argument concerning Husseini’s role was recently mentioned in a book by Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, “Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East.” The authors, like Netanyahu, draw a straight line between the mufti’s support of Hitler and the policy of the Palestinian Liberation Organization under Yasser Arafat.

But even these two researchers do not claim that the dialogue described by Netanyahu ever took place. They say Hitler reached the conclusion to exterminate the Jews because of his desire to nurture Husseini, who opposed the transfer of Jews to pre-state Israel.