Turban and Swastika

Most readers of this blog are familiar with Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and the role he played during World War Two as an active and enthusiastic contributor to the cause of the Third Reich. The Mufti lived in Berlin during the war and met regularly with Hitler, Himmler, and other high-ranking Nazis. He also organized the Handschar Division of the SS, whose soldiers were recruited from among Bosnian Muslims and fought against Tito’s partisans in Yugoslavia.

None of this is unfamiliar to you or me, but the average Westerner has never heard of Haj Amin al-Husseini, nor has he any idea that a major Islamic religious figure collaborated eagerly with Hitler for the purpose of accomplishing the Final Solution — and all in the name of Allah.

A documentary about the life of Amin al-Husseini was recently broadcast in Germany. Thanks to a two-month effort by a dedicated team of volunteers, we can now present “Turban and Swastika” subtitled in English:


[Note: to see a larger version of the documentary, double-click on the video above]

For technical reasons, it was not possible to include credits with the video showing the names of the people who put this subtitled version together. To make up for this lack I have credited them below. If I forgot somebody, please let me know, and I’ll add them.
- - - - - - - - -
The project was spearheaded by Vlad Tepes and Henrik Ræder Clausen. Vlad was the one recommended the video for subtitling and pushed to get the job done. He also created the first set of subtitles. These were edited and corrected by Henrik, who built the final version and uploaded it to Vimeo. Kitman did the initial capture of the film, and provided his technical expertise and assistance.

The original time-stamped German transcript was made by our German correspondent maggieTh. This was an enormous task, for which maggieTh deserves our gratitude.

JLH did the bulk translation into English, with later editing and revision done by Henrik in consultation with our Austrian correspondent Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff.

If I recall correctly, additional people were also involved in the later stages of revision, helping to fine-tune the translation and correcting the time-stamps, but I don’t remember exactly who participated. I will be glad to make corrections and append additional names to the people listed here.

Many thanks to all of you for a job well done.

Update: Some of the above text has been modified to make it more accurate. I may make more changes as other people from the project check in with me.