When the Hussainiyat Al-Rasool Al-Adham Islamic Centre opened in the heavily Jewish London neighborhood of Golders Green in 2017, they promised to reach out to Jewish residents. In January 2019, they planned to launch a major exhibit highlighting Muslim heroes who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Local Muslims were outraged. Some were particularly incensed that the Islamic Center partnered with Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Center. Faced with mounting opposition, the Islamic Center cancelled the exhibit.
That’s a shame because the story they planned to tell is a vital one: among the thousands of “Righteous Among the Nations” heroes identified by Yad Vashem as having risked their lives to save Jews, scores of these saviors were Muslim. Their remarkable stories deserve to be known.
Here are four Muslims who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Let’s not allow extremists to erase their history.
Dr. Mohamed Helmy
Mohamed Helmy was born in Sudan to Egyptian parents, and moved to Berlin at the age of 21 to study medicine. Dr. Helmy settled in Germany, eventually rising in his profession to become head of the Urology Department at the Robert Koch Hospital in Berlin. There, he witnessed Jewish doctors being fired in 1933. Dr. Helmy was even briefly imprisoned along with other Egyptians living in Germany, but was eventually released and allowed to continue practicing medicine. Despite the dangers, Dr. Helmy publicly spoke out against Nazi policies.
When war broke out and Jews began to be arrested in Berlin, Dr. Helmy risked his life to save one family. He was good friends with a Jewish woman named Anna Boros, and he told her she could stay in a cabin he owned in a picturesque Berlin neighborhood named Buch. German authorities investigated Dr. Helmy several times, suspecting him of hiding Jews.
In those periods he arranged for Anna to hide with a different family. “The Gestapo knew that Dr. Helmy was our family physician,” Anna later testified, “and they knew that he owned a cabin in Berlin-Buch. He managed to evade all their interrogations. In such cases he would bring me to friends where I would stay for several days, introducing me as his cousin from Dresden. When the danger would pass, I would return to his cabin...Dr. Helmy did everything for me out of the generosity of his heart and I will be grateful to him for eternity.”
Unbeknownst to Anna, Dr. Helmy even obtained documents from the Central Islamic Institute in Berlin, declaring (falsely) that Anna had converted to Islam and had married an Egyptian in Dr. Helmy’s home, believing that this might save her from deportation if she was ever caught. Dr. Helmy also helped Anna’s mother Julie and step-father Gerog Wehr and her grandmother Cecilie Rudnik find shelter with other families, and helped them with medical problems during the war. In 1944, the Wehrs were caught and interrogated and they let slip that Dr. Helmy was helping them and hiding their daughter. Dr. Helmy raced to move Anna to another safe spot, and provided the authorities with a false letter from Anna saying she was staying with her aunt in the town of Dessau to throw them off her track.
Anna Boros Gutman (second from left) during her visit to Berlin with her daughter Carla (extreme left), Dr. Helmy and his wife Emmi (right), 1969 (Photo: Yad Vashem)
Anna, her parents and her grandmother all survived the war thanks to Dr. Helmy and the other Berliners who helped shelter the family. Anna and her relatives moved to the United States and immediately began writing letters to the Berlin Senate seeking recognition for Dr. Helmy and his friends. In 2013, Yad Vashem named Mohamed Helmy a Righteous Among the Nations for risking his life to help Jews during the Holocaust.
Salahattin Ulkumen
When World War II broke out, Selahattin Ulkumen, a 30-year-old Turkish civil servant, was the Turkish Consul General on the Greek island of Rhodes. The island was home to nearly 2,000 Jews, many of whom could trace their roots back to the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain. Most of these Jews had Greek or Italian citizenship, but some had Turkish papers. When Germany started deporting Rhodes’ Jews in 1944, Ulkumen realized he could help save the island’s Turkish Jews.
Identification portrait of Salahattin Ulkumen, Turkish Consul-General in Rhodes.
On July 19, 1944, the local Gestapo ordered all Jews to report to the island’s train station. They were destined for the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Ulkumen went up to Ulrich Kleeman, the general in charge, protesting, telling him that Turkey was a neutral party and demanding that all Jews with Turkish citizenship – and their spouses – be released at once.
Ulkumen later recalled that “The German commander said that, according to Nazi laws, all Jews are Jews and had to go to concentration camps. I objected. I said that, under Turkish law there is no difference between whether a citizen was Jewish, Christian or Muslim...I said that I would advise my government if he didn’t release the Jewish Turks and that it would cause an international incident. Then he agreed.”
Ulkumen’s speech was largely a bluff: he had no orders to save the Jewish Turks and was acting on his own initiative. Moreover, Turkish law didn’t dictate that the spouses of Turks had Turkish citizenship; he made that up on the spot. In all, Ulkumen saved about 13 Turkish citizens and another 40 Jews with Turkish connections.
Salahattin Ulkumen at Yad Vashem
In some cases, he intervened personally to help individual Jews evade deportation. Albert Franko was married to a Turkish wife. Learning that he had this Turkish connection, Ulkumen had Franko removed from a train that was already on its way to Auschwitz. In another case, Ulkumen went up to a Turkish Jewish citizen, Matilda Toriel, as she queued to report to Gestapo headquarters, and told her not to enter. He then went into headquarters and insisted that her husband, who was an Italian citizen, be released as well. In all, Ulkumen succeeded in adding another 25-30 names to the Gestapo’s list of Turkish Jews, insisting that these Jews were Turkish and had simply allowed their Turkish documents to lapse.
After the war, Albert Franko, Matilda Toriel and other Jews Ulkumen saved told Yad Vashem of his bravery. In 1989, Selahattin Ulkumen was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
Lime Balla
In 1943, Lime Balla was a 22-year-old housewife living with her husband Destan in the Albanian village of Shengjerji. During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in 1943, 17 Jews escaped from the city of Tirana to the countryside, finding refuge in Lime’s village. Lime and Destan, like other Albanian Muslims, adhered to an intense honor code called “Besa”, which mandated that people protect guests at all cost. For many of Albania’s Jews, Besa was a lifesaver, as Albanian Muslims shielded Jews from deportation by German occupying authorities.
Villagers took in the 17 Jews, disguising them as farmers and sheltering them for 15 months. Lime and Destan took in two brothers, Solomon and Mordechai Lazar. “We were poor,” Lime later recalled. “We didn’t even have a dining table – but we never allowed them (the Lazar brothers) to pay for the food or shelter. I went into the forest to chop wood and haul water. We grew vegetables in our garden so we all had plenty to eat.”
One of Lime’s nephews was a partisan fighting the Nazis in the city of Pristina, and in December 1944 the village’s Jews left for Pristina where partisans continued to shelter and help them. Lime lost contact with Solomon and Mordechai until 1990, when the brothers contacted her. They were living in Israel. Once the Soviet Union had dissolved, it became possible for Albanians like Lime to speak about their wartime activities openly for the first time. In 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Lime and Destan Balla as Righteous Among the Nations.
Khaled Abdul Wahab
Khaled Abdul Wahab was a wealthy Tunisian landowner in the picturesque Tunisian town of Mahdia when World War II broke out. He sheltered Jews and saved Jewish women from being attacked by German soldiers.
In the 1940s, Tunisia had a large Jewish population. Jews from Tunisia were not deported to death camps the way Jews in Europe were, but after Germans invaded Tunisia in 1942, they started enforcing draconian anti-Jewish laws. Annie Buchris was a Jewish girl in Mahdia whose world was turned upside down with the German occupation. Jews had to wear yellow stars on their clothes and many Jews lost their homes. Annie’s house was taken over by German soldiers and her father and brothers were sent to a forced labor camp. German troops forced Annie and her mother live and work in an olive oil factory from which they were barred from leaving.
Khaled was friends with Annie’s father Jacob. Khaled started frequenting German establishments and befriending Nazis in order to spy on them and learn what new horrors they were planning. One evening he heard a plan that made his blood run cold. The Germans were forcing some Jewish women to work in a brothel – and one Nazi told Khaled that he wanted his friend Jacob Buchris’ wife to work there too. Khaled knew he had to intervene.
He plied the Nazi officer with alcohol until he was drunk, then drove to the olive oil factory and informed the Buchris family that they were in danger. He waited as the Buchrises and about two dozen other Jews living in the factory packed their belongings and then took them to a farm his family owned nearby.
One of the Jewish girls who sheltered in the farm was Eva Weiseldec, who later recorded testimony about Khaled’s bravery. “One night,” she recalled, “he ferried the women, children and old men in our family to a farm he owned about 20 miles outside of town. There, he said, we would be safe…. As luck would have it, however, a German unit arrived in the area not long after we did. Our host told us to get rid of our yellow stars, stay inside the farm walls and keep far away from the main house.”
Khaled hosted Germans in his farm while two dozen Jews hid just meters away in a different part of the property.
Some Nazis knew Jews were hiding on the farm. One night, drunken German officers wandered over to the barn and shouted, “We know you are Jews and we’re coming to get you!” Khaled rushed over and somehow persuaded the officers to leave the Jews alone. “The next day,” she recalled, “our host came to the stables. We rushed to express our thanks to him, but he was more eager to apologize to us. He said he was sorry that we had to face the terrifying ordeal of the Germans’ threats, expressed relief that he had intervened in time to prevent a horrible tragedy, and promised that it would never happen again.”
The two dozen Jews stayed in Khaled’s farm until British troops took over the area in 1943 and they could return to their homes.
Click here to read the incredible story of Zayneba and Mustafa Hardaga.
Addendum: An unnamed mosque in the Redbridge neighborhood of London has told a local community group that it will host the exhibit on January 20 - though it is not yet making its identity known for fear of incurring renewed protests. The exhibit, titled "Love Your Neighbor" will also be hosted in London in February by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which has announced that it will host the exhibition during a meeting with the Albanian ambassador to Britain.
(13) Anonymous, January 22, 2019 9:30 AM
Yeay, this event did take place
at the Eton road Mosque. So beautiful. https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/essex-mosque-defiantly-holds-muslim-shoah-heroes-exhibit-despite-boycott-calls/
(12) Anonymous, January 16, 2019 7:02 AM
Besa, "To Keep the Promise"
It has been wonderful to read about the Code of Honor that Albanians held that was at the root of saving Jews in the Holocaust, steeped in loving-kindness and considered a national honor. This exhibit is scheduled to take place at a different mosque and I wish it every success. The location has not been disclosed to help avoid the protests from the original site. I am wanting to know more about what the Koran says and learned there is a recent Hebrew translation that is out, Israeli Presidents father also authored one.
(11) Rabbi. Hussein Mohamed Warsame., January 14, 2019 7:11 PM
Shalom and Laila Tov to my brothers of the CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB ( ISRAEL).. Kein, Muslims aren't our enemies, but , our realy enemies were/are/will be Arabian reach money GOVERMENTS leaders as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and Kadar and Kuit and Bahrain kings and their families and their reachpersons from these Arabian counties. They are playing and planning Everytime and every where how to ERIDICATING our HOLY LAND OF ISRAEL STATE and our people ( the children of ABRAHAM AND ISAAC AND JACOB) . The Arabian GOVERMENTS are laughing and pretending our realy FRIENDS!!! And other hand, they are creating infinitive wars against our HOLY LAND OF ISRAEL STATE and our people and our RELIGION OF JUDAISM. Please don't mixed MUSLIMS PEOPLE AND CRIMINAL ORGANIZED TERRORIST ARABIAN LEADERS AND THEIR TERRORIST CRIMINAL KINGS. BELIEVE OR NOT""" ALL MUSLIMS PEOPLE RESPECT B'NAI ISRAEL AND ERETZ ISRAEL AND BEIT YERUSHALAYIM AND JUDAISM. FOR GOOD EXAMPLE "** ALL SOMALIAN PEOPLE TALK AND THANKFUL FOR ISRAEL GOVERMENT WHEN UNO VOTED FOR SOMALIA FREEDOM IN ENDING OF 1950s. That ISRAEL REPRESENTATIVE VOTED YES FOR SOMALIA FREEDOM**** WHEREAS ALL ARABIAN REPRESENTATIVES THEIR STATE'S VOTED"" NO" FOR SOMALIA FREEDOM!!!!!! . SOMALIAN PEOPLE THANKS EVERY TIME TO ISRAEL PEOPLE AND ISRAEL STATE AND ISREAL LEADERS**'". WHEREAS SOMALIAN PEOPLE HATE AND ABUSE ARABIAN CRIMINAL ORGANIZED TERRORIST KINGDOMS AND THEIR STATES AND THEIR PEOPLE!!! SHALOM VE HELITRAOT. KOL TUV. TODA.
(10) Vafa, January 14, 2019 7:25 AM
One more example
It is with great pleasure that I read this week's lead article on "Muslim Heroes of the Holocaust". I congratulate Ms. Alt Miller for the great piece of reporting. I am certain that Ms. Alt Miller had no intention of offering an all-inclusive report on Muslim Heroes of the Holocaust. As an Iranian Jew, I am aware of Mr. Abdol Hossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat in Paris (and subsequently, the Iranian ambassador to Belgium), who saved the lives of many Iranian and non-Iranian Jews during the Holocaust. Mr. Sardari and his family have been honored by the Yad Vashem Society in the past and if possible, I would like to see him acknowledged, by Ms. Alt Miller, in a follow-up to her original article. Additional information can be obtained on Mr. Sardari using the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdol_Hossein_Sardari#Brief_Overview
(9) David Levine, January 13, 2019 7:23 PM
The VERY Few
Yes, there were some decent Moslems at that time--but VERY FEW! Most were either neutral to these abuses or outright supportive. All of us, I assume, have seen the infamous picture of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini inspecting the Bosnian Moslem unit of the SS in Yugoslavia and I'm afraid that this picture is more representative of Moslem sentiment at that time and today. But one must honor those very few Moslem individuals who did risk everything by helping at that (and this) time.
(8) irwin pollack, January 13, 2019 6:55 PM
Muslims should be proud for helping Holocaust victims
I don't understand why Muslims are so eager to dissociate themselves from the humanitarian actions of fellow Muslims in helping Holocaust victims
anonymous, January 13, 2019 10:06 PM
Enemies
The Muslim community wanted to show solidarity toward their brethren in Israel, they liken their suffering
to a Holocaust and I have seen plenty of hatred spouted here about them as our enemies, too.
This was a tremendous gesture but with the situation in Israel, which is the reason for the outcry, I am not surprised. The man who started the protest against it said he appreciated the mosque having sensitivity toward the community by cancelling.
Gary K., January 14, 2019 4:47 AM
Extremists or typical?
The top of the article refers to the protesting Muslims as "extremists," but it sounds like they are the mainstream Muslims, at least in this mosque. If they were just a few extremists, the majority would've told them to stop their hatred. Instead, the majority apparently agreed with them and cowed the mosque into cancelling what would've been a nice gesture. Perhaps too many of them are drinking the Palestinians' Kool Aid.
(7) George Lattke, January 13, 2019 5:12 PM
Wonderful story
Shows that NOT everyone was evil and also gives a lesson to some Muslim followers that we all can have a good heart and try together to finally leave in peace. We ALL are children of the same G.D ( baruch hashem) why would it be so difficult. Our nation Israel and all other Jews in the rest of the world, NEVER looked to endanger Muslim or any one else. We deserve better and Mislims can help.
(6) Anonymous, January 13, 2019 4:42 PM
You would think Muslims would be proud of these individuals who stood against evil -and use their brains to realise that this would show them in a good light against the radical image Islam portrays - instead of being brainwashed into a hate culture ?!!!!!
(5) Anonymous, January 13, 2019 4:34 PM
Aside Arifova
A Local Tartar girl in the Crimea who saved 87 Jewish orphans in the time of the Nazi Occupation of Crimea 1944.
She taught them basic Moslem Prayers to use if their were under suspicion.
There is a great film about her called 87 Children recently released .
(4) Anonymous, January 13, 2019 4:16 PM
Jewish Ledger explains
http://www.jewishledger.com/2019/01/following-protests-london-mosque-cancels-holocaust-exhibit/ This article from the Jewish Ledger explains what happened: Muslims from the community felt there should be no cooperation with "Israeli oppressors" or those that support them. A Rabbi in the area said Muslims and Jews had gotten along previously and those ties should strengthened. It is a shame this event didn't take place, we need to foster mutual understanding and communication and as the Rabbi said, stand together against hatred.
Dvirah, January 13, 2019 5:31 PM
What Have We Become
Indeed it is very sad that those who would speak of good are so easily silenced. Where has all the courage gone?
Anonymous, January 13, 2019 10:15 PM
The cost is too great
There is tremendous backlash on both sides for individuals who want to feel for the other side, in seeing the suffering of both, finding a way to bring them together.
I am talking about Jews and Muslims and the state of Israel, not the Holocaust, that anyone G-d forbid should see anything good in what Hitler created.
(3) Larry Furman, January 13, 2019 3:57 PM
Dervish Korkut and Server Korkut saved Mira Solomonova and the Sarajevo Hagaddah from the Nazis
During the war Dervish Korkut, the curator of the Sarajevo Museum, and Servet Korkut, his wife sheltered a woman named Mira Solomonova and also the Sarajevo Hagaddah from the Nazis. http://popularlogistics.com/2007/12/jews-moslems-andhumanity/
Anonymous, January 13, 2019 4:18 PM
Thank you
for the link and information.
(2) Anonymous, January 13, 2019 2:53 PM
VERY IMPORTANT FOR JEWS BUT ESPECIALLY ISRAELIS,TO READ ABOUT THESE FINE INDIVIDUALS WHO RISKED EVERYTHING TO SAVE JEWS WHOM THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW PERSONALLY.THEY ARE INDEED RIGHTEOUS MUSLIMS AND ALL CREDIT TO THEM!
(1) Jewish Mom, January 13, 2019 9:31 AM
Inspiring! If only the message could be heard...
Very touching accounts. What is so sad is that young Muslims are denied the opportunity to hear about and identify with these and other heroes. Radical Islam succeeded in, if not totally silencing their stories, then greatly limiting their potential reach. A few brave Muslims have overcome obstacles in order to search and reveal the truth. Most others either believe the lies and propaganda that they've been fed along with their mothers' milk or, if they have doubts, are too fearful to try and find out. They truly have what to fear.
anonymous, January 13, 2019 2:17 PM
Beautiful article
This week I visited a Holocaust exhibit by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in my city and it was gut wrenching.
This is a beautiful article and I feel truly blessed to have read it today. It saddens and pains me that the Muslim Center received such outrage leading to the cancelling of the exhibit. I am glad their stories are told here.
Having over the last year delved into learning more, I do understand their point of view, even though I wish it were different and see it differently.
I Pray the issues with the state of Israel, i.e. occupation of Area C, 60% of West Bank, with such increased settlements that the 2 state solution will not be, are resolved one day.
The Hilltop youth some Israeli news media call Jewish terrorists, situation is also heartbreaking.
I hope Muslims and Jews will cone together again.
anonymous, January 14, 2019 1:08 PM
Re-Scheduled to be held in Redbridge
Perhaps even sooner than I hoped for, that Jews and Muslims will once again come together... a Redbridge Mosque will host the event instead on Jan. 20th.
The venue is not released, though, in hopes to avoid a
repeat.
The flyer says:
Whoever saves a life, saves all of mankind. Holy Koran.
If you save one life it is as if you have saved the world. Talmud.