by Rafael Medoff
Did you know that two Nazi collaborators are honored on Broadway?
There are 206 granite plaques embedded in the sidewalks along a half-mile stretch of Lower Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes.” Among those honored are Pierre Laval and Philippe Pétain, the leaders of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime in France during the Holocaust.
The plaques for Laval and Petain were added in 1931, to honor their service in World War I, long before they embraced the Nazis. After World War II, both Laval and Petain were convicted of treason for collaborating with the Nazis, and sentenced to death. Despite the convictions, New York City never got rid of their plaques.
City workers recently removed some of the plaques, including Laval’s, because they had become a tripping hazard. Whether Laval’s marker will be reinstalled after the work is completed remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world, another Nazi collaborator is being honored. The official Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, reported last week that “Under the auspices of [PA chairman] Mahmoud Abbas,” an event was held at which the mayor of Jericho and the PA’s Jordan Valley District Governor “laid the cornerstone for the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini Multi-Purpose Hall.”
Governor Hamayel announced that “the laying of the cornerstone was done out of loyalty to the great figures of our people, and according to direct instructions from President [Abbas] regarding the need to commemorate the memory of the leaders and fighters.”
A large sign at the site likewise emphasizes that the naming of the site was done “Under the auspices of His Honor President Mahmoud Abbas, may All-h protect him.”
(Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)
As mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini was the senior Islamic religious authority of the Palestinian Arab community. He instigated mass violence against Jews in British Mandatory Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1941, Husseini took part in the pro-Nazi coup in Iraq, and then traveled to Nazi Germany, where he was personally welcomed by Adolf Hitler. The Mufti remained in Berlin for the rest of the war.
Husseini composed fiery anti-Jewish speeches that were broadcast from Germany to the Arab world. He helped develop an Arab Legion of the German army, and organized Arab sabotage squads that were parachuted into the Mideast to attack Allied facilities. They nearly succeeded in carrying out one of the Mufti’s pet schemes—dumping large quantities of German chemical poison into the Tel Aviv water system.
Husseini repeatedly interfered with negotiations for the ransoming of Jewish refugees from Nazi territory. In one case, his objections persuaded the Nazis to reject a proposed exchange of 4,000 Jewish children for German POWs held by the British. Instead of being placed on a train to freedom, the children were sent to Auschwitz.
The Mufti also recruited Bosnian Muslims for an all-Muslim unit of the SS called the “Handschar” division. It committed so many atrocities that 38 of its officers were later tried as war criminals.
In July 1945, Husseini himself was indicted for war crimes by the government of Yugoslavia. He eluded justice only because the French and the British, who were nervous about angering the Arab world, allowed him to escape to Egypt.
It’s bad enough that New York City has resisted removing an offensive plaque that wasn’t offensive when it was originally installed. It’s much worse to have the leader of a regime knowingly and publicly honoring a Nazi war criminal today. That’s the wrong message to be sending to the Palestinian Arab public—and yet another reason so many Israelis doubt that the Palestinian Authority is interested in living in peace with Israel.
Dr. Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and the author of more than 20 books about Jewish history, Zionism, and the Holocaust. Follow him on Facebook to read his daily commentaries on the news.