Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands

New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2007. Presumed first paperback edition, first printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. Signed by author.. 263 p. Illustrations. xiii, [1], 263, [3] p. Maps. Timeline. French Archival Document reproduced. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Was there an Arab "Schindler"? This is the never-before-told story of the Holocaust in the Arab lands of North Africa, and one man's quest to find the truth. Thousands of people have been honoured for saving Jews during the Holocaust, but not one single Arab. Looking for a hopeful response to the plague of Holocaust denial sweeping across the Arab and Muslim worlds, Robert Satloff sets off on a quest to find the Arab hero whose story will change the way Arabs view Jews, themselves and their own history. The story of the Holocaust's long reach into the Arab world is difficult to uncover, covered up by desert sands and desert politics. We follow Satloff over four years, through eleven countries, from the barren wasteland of the Sahara, where thousands of Jews were imprisoned in labour camps, through the archways of the Mosque in Paris, which may once have hidden 1700 Jews, to the living rooms of octogenarians in London, Paris and Tunis. The story is cinematic; the characters are rich and handsome, brave and cowardly. There are heroes and villains. The most surprising story of all is why, more than sixty years after the end of the war, so few people-Arab and Jew-want this story told. This incredible book made a huge impression in the Arab world. Rob has toured Tunis, Egypt and Israel to discuss his book, and thanks to his research, an Arab has been nominated as a 'Righteous Gentile' in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel. From Wikipedia: "Robert Satloff is an American writer and, since January 1993, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). Satloff's expertise includes "U.S. policy, public diplomacy, Arab and Islamic politics, Arab-Israeli relations, U.S. -Israel relations, peace process, Middle East democratization."[1] Satloff is also a member of the board of editors of the Middle East Quarterly, a publication of the Middle East Forum. Satloff received a Ph. D from St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. He earned an M.A. from Harvard University and B.A. from Duke University....Satloff authored or edited nine books. His writing has appeared in major newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. In 2006, he wrote Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands, which reported that there were Muslims and Arabs who rescued potential victims of the Nazi-directed programs related to the Holocaust as well as those who collaborated in those programs. During the Second World War, several Arab countries were under Axis influence or control. Libya was an Italian colony (effectively controlled till 1943). Algeria was then part of France, under the rule of the pro-German Vichy regime. Morocco and Tunisia were French protectorates, also under pro-Nazi Vichy France. From Latvia to European North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya), there was no exception in the Nazis policy of racial discrimination and physical extermination of the Jews. The war itself brought German troops to Libya to help the floundering Italian army and from there they occupied Tunisia and western Egypt. In November 9, 1942, following Operation Torch, Nazi Germany occupied French Tunisia. During the six months of their brutal occupation, the Germans continued to implement the Final Solution in Tunisia. S.S. Obersturmbannführer (Colonel) Walter Rauff, a brutal and notorious killer involved in the development of death gas van and the Final Solution in Eastern Europe, was posted as commander of Tunis, and headed an Einsatzkommando (SS task force) to take care of the Jews. Oswald Pohl, charged by Himmler to organize the camps in Eastern Europe joined him. Despite constant attacks by the Allies from the East, the South and the air, Rauff instigated drastic anti-Jewish policies. In French Tunisia, a total of five thousand Jews worked in thirty two forced labor camps near the front line, under horrid conditions. With the.