Einsatzgruppe Egypt (German: Einsatzgruppe Ägypten) was a special mobile SS death squad, which was to carry out a mass killing of Jews in British mandate of Palestine similar to the way they operated in eastern Europe. "Einsatzgruppe Egypt" was standing by in Athens and was ready to disembark for Palestine in the summer of 1942, attached to the "Afrika Korps" led by the famed desert commander General Erwin Rommel. The Middle East death squad, similar to those operating throughout eastern Europe during the war, was to be led by SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Walther Rauff. [1]. In 2006 historians Klaus-Michael Mallman and Martin Cüppers published Halbmond und Hakenkreuz: Das dritte Reich, die Araber und Palästina [Crescent moon and swastika: The Third Reich, the Arabs, and Palestine] (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft); the book is a study of Einsatzgruppe Egypt and Nazi plans for mass annihilation of Jews in the Middle East with the support of the Haj Amin al-Husseini, who had been Grand Mufti of Jerusalem from 1922 to 1937 and who continued to hold considerable influence in the region.