Arab antizionist leader محمد أمين الحسيني MOHAMED AMIN AL-ḤUSAYNI urged Hungarian officials to send יהודים YEHUDIM for extermination in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Höpp prints a French text of the letter from the 1947 publication Le Haut Comité Arabe: Ses origines, ses membres, ses buts, page 7. The edition does not cite an archival page image for this text, so it is a published French witness, not a verified transcription of the surviving archival sheet.²

Rome, 28. 6. 43

Excellence !

Vous savez sans doute ce que fut et ce qu'est encore la lutte entre Arabes et Juifs en Palestine, lutte sanglante et longue, dont la raison est le désir de ces derniers de se créer un foyer national, un Etat juif dans le proche orient avec l'aide et l'appui de l'Angleterre et des Etats-Unis d'Amérique. Ceci dévoile en vérité l'espoir que les Juifs n'ont cessé d'avoir à savoir: la domination du Monde entier par ce centre stratégique important qu'est la Palestine. En effet leur programme, entre autres buts principaux, a toujours visé l'encouragement de l'émigration des Juifs en Palestine et vers les autres pays du Proche-Orient. Mais la guerre, la certitude qu'ont eu les Puissances du Pacte tripartite du rôle joué par les Juifs dans son déclenchement et enfin leurs mauvaises arrière-pensées envers les pays qui les abriteront jusqu'ici sont autant de raisons qui justifient leur placement sous surveillance vigilante avec laquelle leur émigration en Palestine ou autre se trouve fermement arrêtée.

Je fus dernièrement mis au courant des efforts ininterrompus prodigués par les Anglais et les Juifs en vue d'obtenir pour les Juifs résidant dans votre Pays la permission de le quitter pour la Palestine à travers la Bulgarie et la Turquie.

Je sus également que ces démarches aboutirent avec succès, puisque quelques uns des Juifs de Hongrie eurent ainsi satisfaction pour quitter votre Pays à destination de la Palestine à travers la Bulgarie et la Turquie et qu'un convoi de ses Juifs arriva vers la fin du mois de mars dernier dans ledit pays. L'agence juive qui surveille l'exécution du programme juif publia un bulletin contenant d'importants renseignements sur les pourparlers en cours entre le gouvernement anglais et les gouvernements des Etats intéressés afin de transporter les Juifs des pays balkaniques en Palestine. Elle cite entre autre l'obtention par elle d'un nombre suffisant de certificats d'immigration pour 900 enfants juifs à transporter de Hongrie accompagnés de 900 adultes.

Autoriser ces Juifs à quitter votre Pays dans les circonstances actuelles et de cette façon ne résoudra nullement le problème juif, et ne mettra pas non plus votre Pays à l'abri de leurs maux. Bien au contraire; car cet échappement leur permettra de communiquer librement et de se concerter avec leurs frères de race dans les pays ennemis pour se créer une forte existence ayant une plus dangereuse influence sur l'issue de la guerre, surtout qu'à la suite de leur long séjour dans votre Pays ils se trouvent nécessairement éclairés sur beaucoup de secret et efforts de guerre. Ceci en plus de l'immense mal fait à la Nation arabe amie qui prit place à vos côtés dans cette guerre et qui nourrit envers votre Pays les sentiments les plus sincères et les vœux les meilleurs.

C'est pourquoi je prie votre Excellence de bien vouloir me permettre d'attirer votre haute attention sur la nécessité d'empêcher ces Juifs de quitter votre Pays pour la Palestine; et, s'il y a là des raisons qui rendent leur éloignement nécessaire, il serait indispensable et infiniment préférable qu'ils quittent le Pays à destination d'autres pays où ils se trouveraient sous une surveillance active comme en Pologne par exemple, de façon à se garder de leurs dangers et en éviter les dommages.

Veuillez croire Excellence à mes très haute considérations.³

The postwar American Jewish Archives dossier preserves an English translation from a French copy:

ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:

You no doubt know of the struggle between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine, what it has been and what it is, a long and bloody fight, brought about by the desire of the Jews to create a national home, a Jewish State in the Near East, with the help and protection of England and the United States. In fact, behind it lies the hope which the Jews have never relinquished, namely, the domination of the whole world through this important, strategic center, Palestine. In effect, their program has, among other purposes, always aimed at the encouragement of Jewish emigration to Palestine and the other countries of the Near East. However, the war, as well as the understanding which the members of the Three-Power Pact have of the responsibility of the Jews for its outbreak and finally their evil intentions towards these countries which protected them until now—all these are reasons for placing them under such vigilant control as will definitely stop their emigration to Palestine or elsewhere.

Lately I have been informed of the uninterrupted efforts made by the English and the Jews to obtain permission for the Jews living in your country to leave for Palestine via Bulgaria and Turkey.

I have also learned that these negotiations were successful, since some of the Jews of Hungary have had the satisfaction of emigrating to Palestine via Bulgaria and Turkey and that a group of these Jews arrived in Palestine towards the end of last March. The Jewish Agency, which supervises the execution of the Jewish program, has published a bulletin which contains important information on the current negotiations between the English Government and the governments of other interested states to send the Jews of Balkan countries to Palestine. The Jewish Agency quotes, among other things, its receipt of a sufficient number of immigration certificates for 900 Jewish children to be transported from Hungary, accompanied by 100 adults.

To authorize these Jews to leave your country under the above circumstances and in this way, would by no means solve the Jewish problem and would certainly not protect your country against their evil influence—far from it!—for this escape would make it possible for them to communicate and combine freely with their racial brethren in enemy countries in order to strengthen their position and to exert a more dangerous influence on the outcome of the war, especially since, as a consequence of their long stay in your country, they are necessarily in a position to know many of your secrets and also about your war effort. All this comes on top of the terrible damage done to the friendly Arab nation which has taken its place at your side in this war and which cherishes for your country the most sincere feelings and the very best wishes.

This is the reason why I ask your Excellency to permit me to draw your attention to the necessity of preventing the Jews from leaving your country for Palestine; and if there are reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable and infinitely preferable to send them to other countries where they would find themselves under active control, for example, in Poland, in order thereby to protect oneself from their menace and avoid the consequent damage.⁴

Höpp’s published French text reads “900 adults,” while the American Jewish Archives English translation reads “100 adults.” The count is unresolved. This article preserves both witnesses and uses the dossier’s 100-adult reading in its opening summary; the French archival copy should be checked before the figure is treated as settled.

The text's allegations of Jewish world domination and collective treachery are Nazi conspiracy propaganda, not factual statements.

Al-Husayni asked Hungary to stop 900 Jewish children from reaching safety in ארץ ישראל EREẒ YISRAʾEL. If they had to leave Hungary, he proposed sending them to Nazi-occupied Poland for active control, i.e. the Nazi extermination system. Poland was his chosen alternative to rescue, not an incidental place name. In June 1943, Nazi Germany was murdering יהודים YEHUDIM at killing centers there. His proposal would put the children in the hands of the regime carrying out that murder.⁵

He had already heard Hitler describe the intended destruction of the Jewish element in the Arab region in their November 1941 meeting. That statement concerned a different territory, but it shows that al-Husayni had been told plainly that his Nazi ally intended to destroy יהודים YEHUDIM.⁶ In his later memoir, al-Husayni himself reported Himmler saying that the Nazis had already exterminated about three million יהודים YEHUDIM, and dated the conversation only to summer 1943. The memoir is retrospective and does not establish whether that conversation preceded the 28 June letter.⁷

Taken together, his earlier direct exposure to Nazi aims, his deliberate choice of Poland over rescue, and his own later account make ignorance of the lethal meaning of that choice implausible. TJD infers that he knew what he was proposing. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum likewise reads his preference as explicit: the children were to be killed in Poland rather than reach ארץ ישראל EREẒ YISRAʾEL. The letter uses active control instead of the word kill; that euphemism does not make its proposed destination harmless.⁸

No such causal result is established. Mattar reports that the governments acknowledged al-Husayni's letters and said they would consider the requests, but made no commitment. USHMM finds that German authorities had already obstructed the rescue operation before and independently of al-Husayni's intervention, whose impact it calls nil.⁹

The later German occupation of Hungary and deportation of Hungarian Jews in 1944 must not be attributed to this letter without an evidence chain that does not presently exist.

No. The companion Romanian letter bears the same date but names 1,800 children and 200 adults. Separate articles prevent their populations and recipients from being collapsed.

The American Jewish Archives image is an English translation from a French copy in a postwar evidentiary dossier. Höpp reproduces a French text from a 1947 publication, but does not cite an archival page image for it. The French archival copy, autograph status, dispatch proof and Hungarian response remain unverified; Mattar says the captured letters were mostly unsigned drafts.

כ״ה בסיוון ה׳תש״ג

5703 Sivan XXV — 1943 Jun. ○

Rome, Europe

The palestophile leadership demands that European countries with populations of יהודים YEHUDIM transfer them to Poland for “active control” — i.e. extermination. https://hv.proquest.com/pdfs/003097/003097_021_0033/003097_021_0033_From_1_to_127.pdf p. 81

Rome

June 28, 1943

His Excellency

The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Hungary

Your Excellency:

You no doubt know of the struggle between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine, what it has been and what it is, a long and bloody fight, brought about by the desire of the Jews to create a national home, a Jewish State in the Near East, with the help and protection of England and the United States. In fact, behind it lies the hope which the Jews have never relinquished, namely, the domination of the whole world through this important, strategic center, Palestine. In effect, their program has, among other purposes, always aimed at the encouragement of Jewish emigration to Palestine and the other countries of the Near East. However, the war, as well as the understanding which the members of the Threo-Power Pact have of the responsibility of the Jews for its outbreak and finally their evil intentions towards these countries which protected them until now - all these are reasons for placing them under such vigilant control as will definitely stop their emigration to Palestine or elsewhere.

Lately I have been informed of the uninterrupted efforts made by the English and the Jews to obtain permission for the Jews living in your country to leave for Palestine via Bulgaria and Turkey.

I have also learned that these negotiations were successful, since some of the Jews of Hungary have had the satisfaction of emigrating to Palestine via Bulgaria and Turkey and that a group of these Jews arrived in Palestine towards the end of last March. The Jewish Agency, which supervises the execution of the Jewish program, has published a bulletin which contains important information on the current negotiations between the English Government and the governments of other interested states to send the Jews of Balkan countries to Palestine. The Jewish Agency quotes, among other things, its receipt of a sufficient number of immigration certificates for 900 Jewish children to be transported from Hungary, accompanied by 100 adults.

To authorize these Jews to leave your country under the above circumstances and in this way, would by no means solve the Jewish problem and would certainly not protect your country against their evil influence -- far from it J --- for this escape would make it possible for them to communicate and combine freely with their racial brethren in enmy countries in order to strengthen their position and to exert a more dangerous influence on the outcome of the war, especially since, as a consequence of their long stay in your country, they are necessarily in a position to know many of your secrets and also about your war effort. All this comes on top of the terrible damage done to the friendly Arab nation which has taken its place at your side in this war and which cherishes for your country the most sincere feelings and the very best wishes.

This is the reason why I ask your Excellency to permit me to draw your attention to the necessity of preventing the Jews from leaving your country for Palestine; and if there are reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable and infinitely preferable to send them to other countries where they would find themselves under active control, for example, in Poland, in order thereby to protect oneself from their menace and avoid the consequent damage.

Yours, etc.

¹⁰

The calendar’s English witness is reproduced above with its wording intact. Its spelling faults remain part of this witness. The comparison already in this article explains the separate French and English readings and the limits of evidence for dispatch and effect. Reproducing the calendar witness does not resolve those limits.

The translated copy is headed Rome, June 28, 1943. TJD's Hebrew-calendar conversion places that civil date on כ״ה בסיון ה׳תש״ג 25th 𝑜𝑓 Sivan, AM 5703.¹¹ No time is supplied.

• How do the choice of Poland, the earlier Hitler meeting and al-Husayni's later memoir bear on what he knew when he wrote the letter?
• How should the conflict between the French edition's 900 adults and the American Jewish Archives translation's 100 adults shape what readers can conclude about the proposed group?