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In Search of "Righteous Arabs"

(Commentary) Robert Satloff- The Holocaust was not solely a European story. German plans to persecute and eventually to exterminate the Jews extended to North Africa, a region that was home to a half-million Jews. For three years - from the fall of France in June 1940 to the expulsion of German troops from Tunisia in May 1943 - the Nazis, their Vichy French collaborators, and their Italian Fascist allies deprived Jews of property, education, livelihood, and free movement, with forced labor, confiscations, deportations, and executions. While, just as in Europe, most members of the local populace stood by and did nothing, a few helped - the Arab world, too, had its "righteous gentiles"; and some made matters demonstrably worse. The writer is director of policy and strategic planning at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2004-07-02 00:00:00
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