Israel Matzav: The Arab Schindler

The Arab Schindler

Unless this story is totally made up (which I doubt), there apparently was an Arab Schindler, albeit on a smaller scale.

Satloff discovered Abdul-Wahab's story as he was researching his book. He had posted a message on a website popular with Tunisian Jews, who were now dispersed all over the world. He received a response from an old woman called Anny Boukris, now living in America, who remembered how her family had been saved by Abdul-Wahab.

"The Arabs saved many Jews. I don't know very well these stories. I remember very well only our story," she wrote. That story, which Satloff slowly uncovered, was Abdul-Wahab's. It began in November 1942 after German and Italian troops occupied Tunisia, which was home to 100,000 Jews. Jews were forced to wear yellow stars and more than 5,000 were sent to forced labour camps, where at least 46 died.

Abdul-Wahab, a well-to-do farmer and son of an eminent Tunisian historian and writer, sheltered 24 people from two Jewish families on his farm after he overheard a Nazi officer planning to rape one of the women, Boukris's mother. He shielded them from harm by keeping them on his estate. He even intervened when a drunken German soldier threatened to kill one of the girls, shouting: "I know that you are Jews and I am going to kill you tonight!"

Like Schindler in occupied Poland, Abdul-Wahab protected those under his charge by remaining close to the German occupiers, often wining and dining them at parties. The crisis finally ended when the Allies liberated the country four months later. Abdul-Wahab, who died in 1997, has been honoured by numerous Jewish groups, including the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

Yet the story of Arabs, Jews and Nazis in North Africa remains an ignored but important chapter in the Holocaust's history. Satloff believes that only by confronting the historic truth – that Arabs helped Jews as much (or as little) as anyone else – can some of the problems of the present be tempered.

This story is probably true (I doubt that the Wiesenthal Center would have accepted it if it were not true), and if so, the man ought to be honored.

Yes, there are a few good Arabs in the World. There were Arabs who saved Jews during the Hebron pogrom in 1929.

But unfortunately, the overwhelming majority, especially among the leadership, are Jew haters.

Maybe the government should invite the Holocaust-denying Abu Mazen to attend the ceremony if Abdul-Wahab gets the award. Heh.

Israel Matzav: The Arab Schindler