Photo Credit: Alber, Kurt, 1943, via Wikimedia

In a rare 1943 telegram found in the archives of Israel’s National Library (reported by the Israel’s National Library blog Hasafranim), Heinrich Himmler – Reichsfuhrer-SS, head of the Gestapo and the Waffen-SS, Nazi Minister of the Interior from 1943 to 1945 and organizer of the mass murder of Jews in the Third Reich – writes the Jerusalem Grand Mufi Haj Amin al-Husseini:

“To the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini,




“The great National-Socialist movement of Great Germany has, from its inception, carried the flag of the struggle against world Jewry.

“For this reason, it has closely monitored the struggle of the freedom-loving Arabs – especially in Palestine – against the Jewish invaders.

“The common recognition of the enemy, and the joint struggle against it, are what form the solid foundation between Germany and the freedom-loving Muslims all over the world.

“In this spirit, I am happy to wish you, on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, warm wishes for your continued struggle until the great victory.

“SS commander in the entire Reich, Heinrich Himmler.”

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, in 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini fled from Palestine to Germany and met with Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joachim Von Ribbentrop and other Nazi leaders. He wanted to persuade them to extend the Nazis’ anti-Jewish program to the Arab world.

The Mufti sent Hitler 15 drafts of declarations he wanted Germany and Italy to make concerning the Middle East. One called on the two countries to declare the illegality of the Jewish home in Palestine. Furthermore, “they accord to Palestine and to other Arab countries the right to solve the problem of the Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries, in accordance with the interest of the Arabs and, by the same method, that the question is now being settled in the Axis countries.”

In 1945, Yugoslavia sought to indict the Mufti as a war criminal for his role in recruiting 20,000 Muslim volunteers for the SS, who participated in the killing of Jews in Croatia and Hungary. But the Mufti escaped from French detention in 1946, and continued his fight against the Jews from Cairo and later Beirut. He died in 1974.