Is there any thought/evidence that the Holocaust was in any part motivated by an attempt to win favor with Arab countries in the Middle east?

by pet_medic

Note: After writing this, I realize that it sounds like a contrived question meant to malign the Palestinian side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by bringing up an old relationship. That is not my intention; in fact, my sympathies currently lie more with Palestine than Israel, but the reason I'm reading in this area is because I think any judgments I make are premature given my lack of understanding of the roots of the conflict. This is an honest question spurred by a Wikipedia article, and I hope it can be answered in an objective way.


Reading the Wikipedia article on the Arab-Israeli conflict, I see that a faction of Arabs lead by al-Husseini was very active in Nazi propaganda and asked the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv. I also know there was already a lot of Jewish-Arab conflict and mutual violence in the region prior to WWII. I've never heard it suggested before, but is there any chance that part of the motivation for the Holocaust could have been to curry favor with Arab countries? I don't know if a) there was any significant benefit to Germany to be gained from allying with these countries or b) if any additional incitement was necessary, but… it seems like if there is mutual hatred between two races, mass murder of one of those races might be undertaken as a way to get the other on your side.

Is there any evidence that these two issues are related?

estherke

In short: no.

Antisemitism is an ancient European ill and did not need any encouragement by Arabs or other non-Europeans to degenerate into the Holocaust. The nazis were virulently antisemitic before they even contemplated going to war or needing allies.

In fact, their antisemitism caused something of an embarassment with Arab countries initially as the Arabs are semites as well, and some fancy diplomatic footwork was needed to reassure them that Germany meant the Jews only. I have written about this before, in answer to a question that asked whether the Nazis "renounced antisemitism to appeal to Arabs". The book that question refers to makes the opposite case from what you are speculating about, namely, it argues that the Nazis fanned the flames of anti-Jewish feelings in the Arab countries, not the other way around (the Holocaust being inspired by existing anti-Jewish Arab feelings).