Khaled Abdul-Wahab

Khaled Abdul-Wahab

Khaled Abdul Wahab in 1936
Born March 1, 1911
Died September 4, 1997 (aged 86)
Cause of death
 heart attack
Resting place
 Cremated

Khaled Abdul-Wahab (Arabic: خالد عبد الوهاب‎; 1911–1997) was a Tunisian man who saved several Jewish families from Nazi persecution, in Vichy-Tunisia, during the Holocaust.[1] He has been called the 'Arab Schindler'.[2]

Wartime saving of the Jews

Abdul-Wahab, the son of a wealthy aristocratic family, had frequently travelled abroad during his youth, mostly to France. Before the war he had studied art and architecture in New York.[3] He was 31 when German troops occupied Tunisia in November 1942. Tunisia was then home to approximately 100,000 Jews. Under the Nazis' anti-Semitic policies, they were forced to wear yellow badges and were subject to fines and having their property confiscated. More than 5,000 Tunisian Jews were sent to forced labor camps, where 46 are known to have died. Another 160 Tunisian Jews in France were sent to European death camps - which might have been the fate of Jews in Tunisia itself, had Nazi rule lasted longer.

Abdul-Wahab, an interlocutor between the Nazis and the population of the coastal town of Mahdia, heard that German officers were planning to rape a local Jewish woman, whom he realized must be Odette Boukhris, the wife of an acquaintance. He plied the German with wine until he was drunk and drove to the oil factory where the family had taken refuge, and picked up the Buchris family and their neighbours, the Ouzzan family,[4] 25 people and took them to his family's farm, and kept them there for 4 months, allocating a small room to each family member. Despite the contiguity of Khaled's farm to a Red Cross camp where injured German soldiers were tended, none of the farm-hands, who knew of the presence of these hidden Jews, revealed the fact. They stayed until the end of the Nazi occupation ended, and in April 1943, with the arrival of the British at Mahdia, all the families returned to their homes.[3][5]

"Righteous Among the Nations" status

Robert Satloff, who had been searching for records of Arabs who had saved Jews from the Holocaust, was first informed of Abdul-Wahab by Odette Boukhris' daughter, Annie Boukhris, who had also been hidden by Abdul-Wahab at the age of 11; shortly after recording her testimony, she died at age 71. Satloff then went to Mahdia and confirmed the story.[6]

Although nominated, Abdul-Wahab still has to be approved by the Yad Vashem commission that grants the honor. Yad Vashem has conferred the honor on 60 Muslims, including Turks, Tatars and Bosnians, but thus far no Arab had ever been nominated. Most of the Muslims who received the award are Albanians. Abdul-Wahab's case has already been once studied by the Righteous Among the Nations Department of Yad Vashem but it was declined on the basis that that Khaled Abdul-Wahab did not risk his own life; that he has "hosted" rather than hidden Jews, and that the Germans were aware of the presence of Jews on his family's farm.[3] Saving Jews in Tunisia was not against the law at the time and the saviors did not risk their own lives and safety which is a necessary condition in proclaiming a person Righteous among the nations.[7] His daughter Faiza Abdul Wahab commented:""My father opened his home to Jews and Yad Vashem did not open their home to us."[3] Specifically, investigations revealed, through interviews with Annie Boukris and Edmee Masliah (Ouzzan), that the Germans were fully aware of the situation, that the male Jews continued to work under German supervision, and that, during German visits, the group would put on their yellow badges in order to be counted to ensure none had escaped in the meanwhile. They also were furnished with medicine by the German Red Cross facility nearby.[4]

See also

Arab rescue efforts during the Holocaust

External links

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Further reading

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References

  1. ↑ "Khaled Abdul Wahab A Tunisian Arab who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust". gariwo. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  2. ↑ Paul Harris, 'Israel called on to honour the 'Arab Schindler', at The Guardian, 11 April 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Anat Meidan ['Righteous among the Arabs,'] at Ynet, 15 October 2010.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Irena Steinfeldt, ['A truly inspiring story ,'] at Jerusalem Post, 30 January 2012.
  5. ↑ "Honoring All Who Saved Jews". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
  6. ↑ Amanda Borschel-Dan,'Why hasn’t Yad Vashem honored more Arabs for saving Jews?,' The Times of Israel 15 April 2015.
  7. ↑ Irena Steinfeldt. Paying the Ultimate Price