Thread by @Claire_V0ltaire

As an addendum to my previous thread on the influence of Nazism in the Arab world, We must also honor the Arabs and Muslims who participated in efforts to help save Jewish residents from the Holocaust, risking their own lives, while fascist regimes controlled their territories.🧵

From June 1940 through May 1943, Axis powers controlled large portions of North Africa. 1% of the Jewish residents, about 5,000 Jews, of that territory were murdered by these regimes during that time.
Arab collaboration with Nazis was far less common in NA than Europe.

Before I continue, a short explainer on the Israeli program: The Righteous Among the Nations.

Mohamed Helmy was the first Egyptian Arab to be honored as Righteous Among the Nations. He hid a Jewish family in a cabin for the duration of the war, while under investigation by the Nazis, and provided fake conversion and marriage certificate from Jerusalem.

Dr. Helmy's certificate and medal of honor have been on display at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Memorial until next of kin were located and agreed to accept the award.

In Algeria, Muslim clerics openly declared their opposition to take over confiscated Jewish property. Many others risked their own lives to attempt to save Jews from persecution and genocide.

Arab rescue efforts were not limited to the Middle East. Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris, helped from 100 to 500 Jews disguise themselves as Muslims.

In Tunisia, 60 Jewish internees escaped from an Axis labor camp and banged on the farm door of a man named Si Ali Sakkat, who hid them until liberation by the Allies.

In the Tunisian coastal town of Mahdia, a dashing local notable named Khaled Abdelwahhab scooped up several families in the middle of the night and whisked them to his countryside estate to protect one of the women from the predations of a German officer bent on rape.

In 2009 two trees were dedicated to honor his bravery. One tree was planted in Adas Israel Garden of the Righteous in Washington, D.C., the other was planted in the Garden of the Righteous Worldwide. His daughter Faiza attended the ceremony in Milan.

Taieb el-Okbi a member of Algerian Islah (Reform) Party, discovered that the leaders of the pro-fascist group the Légion Français des Combattants were planning a pogrom against Jews with the help of Muslim troops.
El-Okbi issued a fatwa ordering Muslims not to attack Jews.

Albania, a predominantly Muslim country, saved almost all of its resident Jewish population.
Prior to WWII, only 200 Jews lived in Albania, yet by the end of the war, about 2,000 Jews lived within the country because so many Jews fled Greece, and Austria, to take shelter there.