for a Muslim to kill a Jew ensures him an immediate entry into heaven and into the august presence of Almighty God.
'And so, my message to the Fuhrer is this. Jews are not just the most fierce enemies of Muslims, they are also an ever-corrupting element in the world. Recognizing this has been the Fuhrer's greatest revelation to the world. Acting upon this revelation will, I believe, be his greatest legacy to the world. Acting decisively. For it is no solution to the Jewish problem in Germany and Europe to keep exporting them to Palestine. Another solution must be found, gentlemen. A solution to end all solutions. This is the message you must give your superiors. That the best way to deal with the Jewish problem is to dry up the source in Europe. And I make the Fuhrer this solemn pledge. I will help him to destroy the British empire if he promises to liquidate the entire Jewish population of Palestine. All Jews, everywhere, must be killed.'
Even Eichmann seemed a little shocked at the Grand Mufti's words. Hagen, who took notes, was left openmouthed with astonishment at the cold simplicity of what the Mufti proposed. Reichert, too, was taken aback. Nevertheless, they managed to gather themselves sufficiently to promise the Mufti that they would convey his exact thoughts to their superiors in Berlin. Formal letters were exchanged. After which Eichmann concluded the meeting with an assurance for Haj Amin that now that they had met, they would surely meet again. Nothing of any real import had been agreed upon, and yet I had the sense that the Mufti's words had made a real impression on the two SD men.
When the meeting was concluded and the Grand Mufti and his entourage had left Eichmann's suite at the National--his Arab translator making a joke about how the British believed they still had Haj Amin cooped up somewhere within the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem (which, of course, they did not dare violate by entering to search for him)--the four of us looked at one another, lit cigarettes, and shook our heads in yet more wonder.
'I never heard such madness,' I said, hiking over to the window and watching the street below as Haj Amin and his men climbed into an anonymous-looking van with hard panel sides. 'Utter madness. The fellow is a complete spinner.'
'Yes,' agreed Hagen. 'And yet there was a certain cold logic to his madness, wouldn't you say?'
'Logic?' I repeated, slightly incredulous. 'How do you mean 'logic'?'
'I agree with Gunther,' said Reichert. 'It all sounded like complete madness to me. Like something from the First Crusade. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm no Jew lover, but, really, you can't just liquidate a whole race of people.'
'Stalin liquidated a whole class of people in Russia,' said Hagen. 'Two or three if you stop to think about it. He might just as easily have fixed on the Jews as on peasants, kulaks, and the bourgeoisie. And liquidated them instead. He's spent the last five years starving the Ukrainians to death. There's nothing to say you couldn't starve the Jews to death in just the same way. Of course, that kind of thing presents enormous practical problems. And essentially my opinion remains unchanged. We should try to send them to Palestine. What happens when they get here is hardly our concern.'
Hagen came over to the window and lit a cigarette.
'Although I do think that the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Palestine must be resisted at all costs. That's something I've realized since we got here. Such a state might actually be capable of diplomatic lobbying against the German government. Of suborning the United States into a war against Germany. That possibility ought to be resisted.'
'But surely you haven't changed your opinion about de facto Zionism,' said Eichmann. 'I mean, clearly, we're going to have to send the bastards somewhere. Madagascar makes no sense. They'd never go there. No, it's here, or the other--what Haj Amin was talking about. And I can't see anyone in the SD agreeing with that solution. It's too far-fetched. Like something out of Fritz Lang.'
Reichert picked up the Mufti's letter. There were two words on the envelope: Adolf Hitler. 'Do you suppose he's said any of that in his letter?' he asked.
'I don't think there's any doubt of it,' I said. 'The question is, what are you going to do with it?'
'There can be no question of not handing this letter to our superiors.' Hagen sounded shocked at the very idea of not delivering the Mufti's letter--more shocked at my implied suggestion than anything the Grand Mufti had said. 'That wouldn't do at all. This is diplomatic correspondence.'
'It didn't sound all that diplomatic to me,' I said.
'Perhaps not. Nevertheless the letter still has to go back to Berlin. This is part of what we came for, Gunther. We have to have something to show for our mission here. Especially now that we know we're being watched by the Gestapo. Fiddling expenses is one thing. Coming down here on a wild-goose chase is something else. That would make us look ridiculous in the eyes of General Heydrich. Our careers in the SD can't afford that.'
'No, I hadn't thought of that,' said Eichmann, whose sense of career was as developed as Hagen's.
'Heydrich may be a bastard,' I said. 'But he's a clever bastard. Too clever to read that letter and not know the Mufti is a complete spinner.'
'Maybe,' said Eichmann. 'Maybe, yes. Fortunately the letter isn't addressed to Heydrich, is it? Fortunately the letter's addressed to the Fuhrer. He'll know best how to respond to what--'
'From one madman to another,' I said. 'Is that what you're suggesting, Eichmann?'
Eichmann almost choked with horror. 'Not for one moment,' he spluttered. 'I wouldn't dream--' Blushing to the roots of his hair, he glanced uncomfortably at Hagen and Reichert. 'Gentlemen, please believe me. That's not what I meant at all. I have the greatest admiration for the Fuhrer.'
'Of course you do, Eichmann,' I said.
Finally, Eichmann looked at me. 'You won't tell Flesch about this, will you, Gunther? Please say you won't tell the Gestapo.'
'I wouldn't dream of it. Look, forget about that. What are you going to do about Fievel Polkes? And Haganah?'
Eliahu Golomb joined Polkes in Cairo for the meeting with Eichmann and Hagen. He only just made it before the British closed the border after a number of bomb attacks in Palestine by Arabs and Jews. Before the meeting, I met with Golomb and Polkes at their hotel and told them everything that had been said at the meeting with Haj Amin. For a while Golomb called down plagues from heaven on the Mufti's head. Then he asked for my advice on how to handle Eichmann and Hagen.
'I think you should make them believe that in any civil war with the Arabs, it's Haganah that will win,' I said. 'Germans admire strength. And they like winners. It's only the British who like the underdog.'
'We will win,' insisted Golomb.
'They don't know that,' I said. 'I think it would be a mistake to ask them for military aid. It would look like a sign of weakness. You must convince them that, if anything, you're actually much better armed than you are. Tell them you have artillery. Tell them you have tanks. Tell them you have planes. They've no way of finding out if that's true or not.'
'How does that help us?'
'If they think you will win,' I said, 'then they'll believe that their continued support of Zionism is the right policy. If they think you'll lose, then frankly there's no telling where they might send Germany's Jews. I've heard Madagascar mentioned.'
'Madagascar?' said Golomb. 'Ridiculous.'
'Look, all that matters is that you convince them that a Jewish state can exist and that it would be no threat to Germany. You don't want them going back to Germany thinking the Grand Mufti is right, do you? That all the Jews in Palestine should be massacred?'
When it eventually took place, the meeting went well enough. To my ears, Golomb and Polkes
