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Among the Righteous

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Robert Satloff, Executive Director, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has written an important, gripping examination of a relatively unknown, often untold chapter of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews, that occurred when Nazi Germany and its Fascist allies and client states (Fascist Italy, Vichy France) occupied North Africa in World War II. "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands" is a memorably terse account of Satloff's search for "The Righteous" among the Arab and Muslim worlds, a seemingly quixotic quest in search of those Arabs and Muslims who did try to protect their Jewish neighbors from persecution, imprisonment and execution by the Nazis and their Fascist allies. He embarked upon this search hoping to impress upon Arab intelligentsia in the Middle East of the necessity to come to grips finally with the harsh realities of the Holocaust; something that virtually all have failed to come to terms with since their acknowledgement of the Holocaust might lead eventually to recognizing the validity of Israel's right to exist, and of the important, though quite tragic, reasons why it was established as the world's only independent Jewish state. Much to his everlasting credit, Satloff has succeeded in his admirable quest, demonstrating that there were some Arabs and Muslims willing to protect Jews from Nazi persecution, even though others actively suppported it, while most remain indifferent to the worsening plight of their Jewish neighbors. Satloff's publisher, Public Affairs, deserves ample praise for recognizing the importance of Satloff's work by publishing this fine, if rather terse, book.

Satloff introduces us to wealthy, worldly Arabs in Algeria, Tunisa and Morroco who willingly saved Jews from persecution by Nazi German troops and Fascist Italian and French police, often at great personal risk to themselves, their families and friends. Indeed, there is one especially poignant account of an Arab risking his life to save a Jewish woman from being raped by German soldiers, finding for her and her family, sanctuary, literally at the last minute. He also describes the actions of Tunisian prime minister Mohamed Chenik, who risked his life by peacefully resisting Nazi efforts to have Tunisian Jews moved to local concentration camps. And he notes that Paris's Grand Mosque was the sanctuary for approximately 100 North African Jews, concluding that senior Muslim leaders in the mosque had provided them with necessary documentation to prove to both Nazi and Vichy French authorities that these persons were actually fellow Muslims. Already Satloff's pioneering research has led the Federal Republic of Germany to offer financial compensation to those who were forcibly moved to the more than 100 labor camps established by the Nazis and their Fascist allies throughout Nazi and Fascist-occupied North Africa. While Satloff may not have succeeded in finding the "Arab Schindler" or "Arab Wallenberg", he has nonetheless done an important service in finally revealing the scope of Nazi and Fascist persecution of Jews in North Africa; for this reason alone "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands" deserves to be read widely in the Middle East, as well as here, in the United States.

This book is well written and covers an important and mostly overlooked subject. But the most poignant and important subject of this book is the authors main point. The book sets out to answer the question "was there one Arab who saved one Jew?" The introduction to this book shows that in general the most famous Arab to collaborate with the Nazis, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, and tangentially Ibn Rashid the coup leader in Iraq, are moderatly known and there stories covered. However little light, outside of Michel Abitbol's book, has been shed on the history of the Holocaust and Second World War in North Africa. SO the effort here is to shed light on the many work camps set up in Tunisia, Algeria and Libya during the war and show how thousands of Jews died in North Africa at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. But the treatment was not universal. The Vichy government and the Italian government enacted race laws, but indiviudal local leaders didnt always extend the laws to Jews. However after 1941 the Nazis took an increasing role in North Africa, eventually sending the SS to round up and extort the Jews. In the end the Jews of North Africa and their communities which numbered some 300,000 were destroyed financially, stripped of rights and thrown out of all occupations, despite having been patriotic Frenchmen and Italians.

But the book aims to do something more than give us an intimate history of this. The author admits most Arab countries deny the Holocaust. However the view here is to examine the role of individual Arabs in saving Jews in North Africa so that Arab educators might be able to internalize the Holocaust as a heroic story of Arabs helping others, rather than the way it is taught as the Holocaust leading to the state of Israel.

So this book has a two-fold goal and the goal is admirable and interesting. It helps us understand what happaned to 500,000 Jews during the war who have mostly been forgotten by history. Second it helps to show Arabs that some of them can be proud of being knowledgable of the Holocaust.

Seth J. Frantzman

Before I go too deeply into this book, two general observations right off the top.

Firstly, considering all that has been written about the Second World War in its magnitude, to have a relatively untouched subject such as this be brought to light at this late date is truly welcome and laudable. Secondly, as I've often noted, an unfortunate side-effect of the coverage justifiably given to the evils of the Holocaust has been a certain infrequently-admitted desensitizing to the horror of the mass murder at its heart, and this new study of that period helps reawaken some comprehension of the utter dimension of cruelty that was behind the atrocities.

This book and its true stories of Arabs as rescuers of persecuted Jews (and sometimes as pro-Fascist collaborators who oppressed the Jews in North African labor camps) is a meaningful read for any scholar, or for the curious-minded. Telling tales of bravery in a time of great danger, there are many feel good moments, foremost Tunisian statesman Mohamed Chenik's clever and brave duel of wits and nerves with the occupying Nazis, courage on his part that saved Jewish lives, but there is also a scattering of disheartening tales, too, showing no culture has a monopoly on indecency.

I think anyone who deems peace between Jews and Arabs to be impossible would do well to consult the history recorded here. Not only is it a fact that traditionally Jews received better treatment when dwelling in Muslim nations than in Christian ones, but many Muslims regarded the slaying of Jews, identified in the Koran as "a People of the Book" to be a direct sin against God. Furthermore, I also think it's a sad fact that so many Muslims who worked to assist their Jewish countrymen later denied their roles, lest they suffer repercussions at the hands of reactionary fanatics intent on waging war on Judaism and those seen as soft on it. Progress may not be a constant in human affairs, but a book like this is fuel for the light of optimism.

The "righteous" would be those who risked their lives to help the unfortunate....in this case Arab Jews during the holocaust. We remember the WWII battles in North Africa. We may forget that they were necessary because the Germans and Italians controlled those areas that were at the time colonies and only became nations post WWII. Because there have been no stories about righteous people rescuing Jews in those countries, Robert Satloff set out to find them. He did find some and he also opened up a whole area of research because he is sure there are many he did not find. That said, however, he had trouble finding descendents in families who would admit this heroism. Apparently this kind of heroism is so unpopular these days that a family would rather not be known as heroic. This leaves one extremely depressed.

One interesting fact I learned is that the definition of the word "Zionism" is completely different in Moslem countries than it is elsewhere in the world. Here we see it as another word for Israeli nationalism. There it means, "the purposeful infliction of pain and suffering on Arabs and Muslims." Wow! No wonder we have so much trouble acquiring peace in the region! So let's abandon the term and simply say there are two countries there that need to have borders established.

By all means read the book. It does depress one a bit, but it also shows that simple humanity is possible. Let us build on our common humanity.

Mr. Satloff's book "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands" is an important and gripping book. Satloff has pioneered an innovative approach to dealing with radical global Jihad, hatred of Jews and Christians and Holocause denial by people like Iranian President Ahmadinejad. The book is gripping because Satloff bravely conducted primary research "on the ground" in Arab countries. Instead of simply trying to "educate" Arabs and Muslims susceptible to Holocaust denial about the realities of the tragedy, he has told a hopeful, positive and constructive story. What he found out is that while most Arabs were passive and some even collaborated with the Nazis and their partners, there were Arabs who, like Oskar Schindler, risked everything saved Jews during the Holocaust. Accepting the truth of these stories of heroism makes denying the Holocaust harder. This positive personal response to the events of 9/11 is exactly the type of enlightened public diplomacy that is needed.

David Kamien, Editor: The McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Hanbdook

Robert Satloff follows Germany's genocide plan to wipe out the Jews in North Africa during World War II. As in European countries, some neighbors helped the Nazis and others helped the Jews, either colaborating with the Nazis or risking their own lives helping the Jews of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Satloff did intense research and traveled to the locations of the labor camps and communities. He gives the reader a complete picture and a very well written history.

A most interesting book that I'm not quite sure just how to take. The primise is quite simple, 'were there Arabs that assisted the Jews during the Holocaust.' And the answer comes out a resounding yes. In Arab lands, such as those ruled by Vichy there were concentration camps set up. At the same time there were Arabs that helped Jews escape. It seems that the Arabs were pretty much like the other people in similar situations. Some helped the Germans, some helped the Jews, most simply stood by.

What makes it hard to take, is the present situation. If you found an Oskar Schindler or a Raoul Wallenberg among the Arabs that was still alive he wouldn't admit saving a Jew because of fear of his own life.

Still this book is important from the standpoint of understanding more of what was happening during the farther reaches of the Nazi empire during the war and for understanding a bit more about the history of the middle east and how it got into the confusing situation that it finds itself today.

The book opens with a reference to a line in Casablanca by SS Major Strasser: "It is possible that the French Authorities will find a reason to put him (Victor Lazlo) in a concentration camp here." I never found that line remarkable because where the Nazis went, so did concentration camps, but I never before considered the corollary that there were also local collaborators who built, supplied and manned the camps and helped to round up Jews, as well as the antithesis of these, righteous people who came to their aid.

Satloff believes that Arab acknowledgment of their past vis a vis the Jews could lead to an acceptance (in Arabic "sulha") of the State of Israel. He also feels that there are several reasons for this not occurring and he encountered resistance amongst both Arabs and Jews telling the stories. For Arabs to reveal the acts of honor and sacrifice they would also need to bring forth the acts of shame and conflict with a tendency of modesty towards acts of generousity. In the cases where Satloff interviewed family members of rescuers he discovered that the stories were not passed down, at least not in any detail. Another reason is that the generation who opposed the Nazis were also seen as collaborators with the Free French and Italians - the liberation of Arab countries from Nazi/Fascist rule was replaced by other European colonial rule. A third is the myth amongst Arabs that the creation of Israel was compensation for a European crime in which the Arabs had no complicity at all. To speak Amongst Jews still living in Arab countries (there are about 5000 in Morocco, 2000 in Tunisia) there is a fierce loyalty and fear of the rulers on who's protection they rely and a reluctance to show any appearance of potential disloyalty.


Still Satloff is able to uncover several positive stories that deserve to be celebrated.


I highly recommend this book to begin understanding what happened to the now vanished Jewish communities of North Africa. More scholarly research such as this is needed now as the generation of primary narrative sources are now old and dying of old age. More also needs to be told of the other inhabitants of the camps as well as what happened to them afterwards, not just military prisoners, but also those who were rounded up for ideological reason.

Also recommended: Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Countries

This book documents its author's travels around the Mediterranean world in search of Arab individuals who went out the way to help Jews escape the Holocaust. The book is told first person as the author interviews individuals and goes thru records related to his search. What he finds is unsurprising, many Arabs did go out of the way to help Jews, though some also went out of the way to take advantage of Jews trying to escape the Nazis. His search takes him to places such as Paris, Tunis, Morocco, Berlin and Israel. The book focuses on personal stories of Arabs who helped Jews, but the book also includes solid compilations of records and references. All in all, a very interesting book.

After cringing through the first half of the book where north African Arabs horrifically persecute Jews, it was a relief when I finally came to accounts of courageous Arabs, although not many, who helped them. I found this book difficult to put down. I heartily recommend it.