The antidote to Holocaust denial in the Arab world

Just this week, about 60 'scholars' from around the world gathered for a conference on Arab soil to debate the veracity of the Holocaust, and to call for more "proof" on the subject. Had Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, been invited, he might have told them to simply look outside, Rachel Silverman writes. (With thanks:Lily)

According to Satloff's new book, Among the Righteous, not only did the Holocaust play out in Arab countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, but Arabs themselves were involved -- both as rescuers and perpetrators.

Speaking Monday night at the Jewish Community Services Building in Philadelphia, Satloff framed his 11-country, four-year search into this story as a potential antidote to the trend of Holocaust denial and trivialization in the Arab world.

What's more, Satloff's lecture -- jointly sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia's Center for Israel and Overseas, the Middle East Forum, the Gershman Y and the National Museum of American Jewish History -- even attempted to put a positive spin on Arab involvement in the Holocaust.

As the scholar writes: "If I could tell the story of a single Arab who saved a single Jew during the Holocaust, then perhaps I could make Arabs see the Holocaust as a source of pride, worthy of remembering, not just something to avoid or deny."

To begin this undertaking, Satloff said that he had to dispel the notion that the Holocaust was strictly a European phenomenon.

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See more on Satloff and his book here and here

Jerusalem Post article here