Robert Satloff has an interesting essay in today’s Washington Post on “The Holocaust’s Arab Heroes.” It’s starts with the usual litany of Holocaust denial from some Arab leaders, but goes on to tell a story less known, by celebrating those brave Arabs who risked their own lives to defend Jews from their persecutors. The stories remind me of the Calvinist peasants in France who took in Jewish children during the National Socialist occupation of Europe. When asked why, they seemed bewildered by the question and merely replied, “It’s what you’re supposed to do.” Arabs behaved no differently from Europeans. Among them were vicious persecutors, but also heroic rescuers.
(The rescued children were sheltered in and around Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a beautiful little village where French libertarians used to hold educational seminars I attended.)