Exhibit in England to Honor Muslims Who Saved Jews During WWII

April 18, 2013 

Author:

Zach Pontz

Tags:

Fiyaz Mughal Jewish communities Jewish-Muslim relations Muslim communities Muslim righteous among the nations muslims Jews Rabbi Natan Levy Righteous among the Nations The Role of the Righteous Muslims yad vashem

The entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp. 

A new exhibition in England celebrating Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust is set to open at the Board of Deputies of British Jews in Bloomsbury, central London.

Photographs of 70 Muslims who sheltered Jews during World War II will be displayed alongside stories detailing their acts of heroism, according to the BBC.

The Muslims are recent honorees of Yad Vashem’s “righteous among the nations”–given to those people who risked their lives to protect the Jewish community during Nazi Germany’s reign of terror.
Some 70 Muslims have recently been added to the list and the exhibition is to honor them.

Fiyaz Mughal, director of the charity Faith Matters and co-author of the accompanying booklet The Role of the Righteous Muslims told the BBC: “These communities were dispersed in the aftermath of the Second World War, and as the older generation passes away these stories will be lost.”

He said: “One of the main drivers of the project is that there are some small sections in Jewish communities who are trying to rewrite history and say that Muslims overwhelmingly helped the Nazis.

“And on the other side, there is a small section of the Muslim community who do not want to talk about the Holocaust for the sake of not wanting to build up an empathy with Jewish communities.
“That is unacceptable, because factually it’s untrue.”

Rabbi Natan Levy, exhibition co-ordinator, told the BBC: “This program provides a unique bridge between the two communities, so that they can celebrate together, remember together, and not be driven further apart.

“There was a lovely moment when Fiyaz and I came together and quoted the same line from our respective scriptures: ‘whosoever saves a single life saves the entire universe’.”