VARIOUS: Tunisian expected to become first Arab to be awarded Israeli "Righteous Among the Nation" title for saving Jews during Holocaust

A deceased Tunisian farmer is expected to become the first Arab to be awarded the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" by Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. The title is awarded to non-Jews who helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. The story of the Tunisian farmer, Khaled Abdul Wahab, was originally recorded in a book by America Jewish writer Robert Satloff. Israel's national Holocaust museum and memorial Yad Vashem is considering whether to grant a Tunisian farmer the honour of "Righteous Among the Nations." Khaled Abdul Wahab, who was born in 1911 and died in 1997, is slated to become the first Arab to be honoured as a "Righteous Gentile," a special title granted to non-Jews who put their own lives in risk to save Jews during the Holocaust. Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem, explains that the project of recognising the "Righteous among the Nations" is a part of the essential goals of the memorial, established in 1953 to perpetuate the legacy of the killing of six millions Jews by the Nazi regime during World War II. Shalev says the legal honouring procedure contains several stages. First, details and documents relating to each case are presented to Yad Vashem officials who open a file and launch an investigation. The completed research is then submitted to a jury, chaired by a supreme court justice, which examines the results of the investigation. If the results meet the criteria required by law, then the candidate is recognised and awarded the title of "Righteous among the Nations." "We got information about this case and started, we opened a file and we are completing the investigation," Shalev said regarding Abdul Wahab's case. "I hope that the case in the very near future would be presented to the jury and seemingly, as far as we know, it looks that they will look into the matter very seriously," he added. Still photos of north African Jews taken during the Holocaust period can be found in the library of Yad Vashem, but they are rare and mostly originate form Libya and not Tunisia. Algeria and Morocco fell under the rule of the French Vichy government when France was defeated by Nazi Germany in 1940. The Vichy regime collaborated with Nazi Germany and implemented its policies. Tunisia also came under Vichy rule, but in November 1942, Nazi Germany took control of the country until British forces took it in May 1943. Libya was under Italian rule at the start of the Second World War, but moved to German control in 1942. In all parts of north Africa under French Vichy and German Nazi control, Jew suffered from varying degrees of ill treatment and many were forcibly sent to labour camps. The case of Abdul Wahab was submitted to Yad Vashem by Robert Satloff, an American Jewish writer and researcher on Arab and Islamic affairs, who studied the role of Arabs in northern African countries during the Holocaust and presented his findings in his book "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands." Satloff, who is also the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he wanted to contribute to efforts to combat militant Islam following the September 11 attacks by countering what he describes as Holocaust denial in the Arab world. He said he looked for a novel way to do this, and hit upon the idea of looking for Arabs who had helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Satloff was told by a Jewish Holocaust survivor that Abdul Wahab rescued 23 Jews including her family. Satloff documented the events surrounding the rescue in his book. More than 21,000 non-Jews, including Muslims mostly from Albania and Bosnia, were granted the Jewish honour, but Satloff says that no candidate had hitherto emerged from the Arab world. "Khaled Abdul Wahab was the 32-year-old son of a very prominent Tunisian writer in the coastal town of Mahdia in Tunisia, who was an interlocutor with the German authorities during the occupation, Tunisia being the only Arab country to have German occupation," explained Satloff. "And one evening he learned that a German officer was going to rape a Jewish woman. And Khaled, who didn't know the family that well, Khaled got to that woman and her family first. And he ferried them and several other Jewish families who had all sought refuge together in an olive press factory, he ferried them to a farm that he owned 20 kilometres outside town and gave them refuge and protection. And by all measures this would merit that Khaled deserves recognition as a righteous," he added. In a central Israeli kibbutz, two Tunisian Holocaust survivors were surprised to learn of Abdul Wahab's case. "Before the Germans arrived (in Tunisia) we had a good life, to such an extent that both of us gladly returned there for a visit, twice," said Gad Shachar from Kibbutz Regavim. Shachar, an 82-year-old son of a merchant, was born and raised in the capital city of Tunis. His fellow Kibbutz resident Shoshan Cohen, aged 80, was born in the Tunisian island of Jerba, and a few years later moved with his family to Tunis were he met Shachar. Both Shachar and Cohen say they experienced a happy childhood growing up among Arabs and other nationals in Tunisia, but they also agree that most of the the local environment turned hostile when the German and Italian forces invaded Tunisia in November 1942. "And then (after German invasion) we had very bad (relations) with the Arabs. All the Arabs, even your friends, those you had known very well and worked with, hated us," said Cohen. Shachar said Tunisians saw the German army as a force which could liberate them from French occupation. Cohen said many Tunisians welcomed the German troops and referred to Adolf Hitler as "haj" in a show of respect. Shachar depicted a moment that dramatically affected his life when he was taken by the Nazis to a forced labour camp while his childhood neighbours and friends looked on, cheering and called for his death. It was then, he said, that he started subscribing to Zionism and thinking of immigrating to what was then Palestine under the British Mandate. That is why Shachar said he was surprised to hear of Abdul Wahab's story. "When I hear that someone committed an exceptional deed that merits granting him the honour of a Righteous Gentile, it makes me happy. I had no knowledge about this. I never imagined something like this could happen, since I never came across situations where I could say a certain person deserved to be honoured," said Shachar. In March 1943, after four months in a slave-labour camp called Saf-Saf, as the prisoners were being transferred to another location, Shachar and Cohen managed to escape and joined the Tunisian resistance. After the Germans were defeated by the allied forces, Shachar and a number of friends established a north African zionist movement named Youths of Zion. After two years, in April 1945, he arrived in British Mandate Palestine, which was declared the state of Israel three years later. Cohen followed him after six months. Satloff believes stories such as Abdul Wahab's can counter what he refers to as Holocaust denial in the Arab world. "I think there's a very powerful social and political message that is important both for Israelis and Jews on one hand and for Arabs on the other. If you accept the idea that this is a praiseworthy story, and that Khaled and other Arabs should be honoured for their deeds, you have to accept the context, that there is something to save Jews from. And this becomes therefore a very positive way to discuss the Holocaust with Arab audiences, with Arab groups. It's a window that provides an opening to discuss this in a positive way. It's not just: 'Oh, you should remember (the Holocaust),' but it's: 'You actually have something positive to remember of your own history,'" Satloff said.

ITN Source | April 17, 2007

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