Yad Vashem considers honouring first Arab as 'Righteous'

[Kiwi]

Yad Vashem considers honouring first Arab as 'Righteous'



Reporter: David Hardaker




LISA MILLAR: The Holocaust Museum, in Jerusalem, is for the first time considering honouring an Arab man for helping to save the lives of Jews during the Second World War.

Already the museum has recognised the role played by thousands of Europeans - people like Oscar Schindler who placed their own lives at risk.

However, the part played by Arabs has gone unrecognised. So much so that the museum has had to defend itself against claims it has deliberately ignored the contribution of Arabs.

Middle East Correspondent David Hardaker, reports.

DAVID HARDAKER: The Yad Vashem Holocaust museum is a monument to the evil men can do.

But there's also a special place for the good.

The Museum calls them the Righteous among the Nations - those who risked death to save Jewish lives.

The names of more than 21,000 of the so-called Righteous are recorded here, but not one of them is an Arab.

Robert Satloff is campaigning to change that.

ROBERT SATLOFF: I think the story of Khaled Abd al-Wahab is a remarkable story.

DAVID HARDAKER: It took two years for Robert Satloff to track that story down. He travelled eventually to the north African country of Tunisia, which the Nazis had occupied.

ROBERT SATLOFF: Khaled was a Tunisian who learned one evening that a German officer wanted to rape a Jewish woman.

DAVID HARDAKER: According to Mr Satloff, Khaled Abd al-Wahab was already friends with the family of the Jewish woman who was to be raped. Despite the risk of death at the hands of the Nazis he undertook his own rescue mission.

ROBERT SATLOFF: And he got to the place where this family, and several other families, had sought refuge, and he told them you have to come with me.

And throughout that evening he ferried all the people back and forth in his car to a piece of property his family owned outside the town of Mahdia, and he kept them there until the end of the German occupation of the town.

DAVID HARDAKER: The story of Khaled Abd al-Wahab remained unknown for close to 60 years until an old Jewish woman living in Los Angeles contacted Robert Satloff.

She was one of the children who'd been saved by Mr Wahab's actions. She provided dates, places and names - just in time, because weeks later she died.

By the time Robert Satloff got to Tunisia, Khaled Abd al-Wahab too was dead. But he had the addresses of those who knew the old Jewish woman.

ROBERT SATLOFF: And I knocked on their doors to ask them, do you remember anything special about what happened to the Buchurst (phonetic) family? And without any prompting they told me yes Khaled Abd al-Wahab took them and saved them. And that was wonderful, there was confirmation from her own childhood friends.

DAVID HARDAKER: Did you speak to Mr Wahab's own descendants? If so, what was their reaction?

ROBERT SATLOFF: I did speak with one of the daughters of Khaled Abd al-Wahab, who did not know about the story of her father.

It was clear that Khaled did not boast about this, did not try to pass this on as a family tale.

Neither of his daughters were I should say surprised to learn about their father's exploits, but neither of them knew about it.

DAVID HARDAKER: Was it a matter of pride for them, given the changes that have taken place in relations between Israelis and Arabs in the intervening decades?

ROBERT SATLOFF: For the daughter who lives in Tunisia, I can't say it was a matter of pride or not pride, for the daughter who lives in Paris, I think she was a bit more welcoming of learning about this story.

DAVID HARDAKER: Robert Satloff's mission was a success. He found and documented evidence to present to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. Now it's for the museum to answer why it's taken more than six decades to recognise the deeds of an Arab.

MORDECHAI PALDIEL: It's not a question of so long. Most of our cases are born when the persons involved in the rescue stories come out of the closet and tell their story.

DAVID HARDAKER: Dr Mordechai Paldiel is in charge of the Museum's Righteous among the Nations Department.

MORDECHAI PALDIEL: People who saved Jews did not go and send their stories into the national archives at the time, so it's not that the story is there and we didn’t go and fetch it.

In this particular case, the story of Khaled, right?, Abd al-Wahab, it's a story which we learned only this past year, I mean, just a few months ago, and we hope that the story of Khaled will encourage other people to step forward.

DAVID HARDAKER: What chance, though?

Robert Satloff's personal story was bound up in his quest for an Arab hero.

Dr Satloff is a Jew. He speaks Arabic and works as the Director of the influential Washington Institute on Near East policy. His search for Mr Wahab was triggered by September 11 and a belief that Arab ignorance of the Holocaust had played at least some role.

ROBERT SATLOFF: Because there is this great reluctance to talk about the Holocaust and genocide more generally, Arabs are virtually exempt from this part of education that almost every other society in the world expends time and effort on. And for me this is an issue of national security. I think it's very important that nobody be exempt from these discussions.

DAVID HARDAKER: But the mixed reaction Robert Satloff got from Khaled Abd al-Wahab's family was symptomatic of a wider truth: that stories of Arabs saving Jews aren't terribly popular with either side.

ROBERT SATLOFF: On one hand we didn't look that hard - Jews, others - on the other hand Arabs didn't want to be found. And there are many stories that I came up with of this or that Arab who helped or saved Jews and I was looking for more information, and people were reluctant, reticent, not an issue people wanted to get into.

LISA MILLAR: That's Dr Robert Satloff ending David Hardaker's report.

http://www.bnaibrith.org.au/index.asp?pRef=Newsletter&NewsletterID=85#

Very intersting piece.