The Imam of the Grand Mosque in Paris (1926-1954) Si Kaddour Benghabrit who saved over 500 Jews during the Nazi occupation of France by hiding them in the mosque and providing forged papers.
The Imam of the Grand Mosque in Paris (1926-1954) Si Kaddour Benghabrit who saved over 500 Jews during the Nazi occupation of France by hiding them in the mosque and providing forged papers.
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[Context](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_Kaddour_Benghabrit)
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During World War II, Si Kaddour Benghabrit saved the lives of at least five hundred Jews, including that of the Algerian singer Salim Halali, making the administrative staff grant them certificates of Muslim identity, which allowed them to avoid arrest and deportation.
In a documentary entitled Mosque of Paris, the forgotten, produced for the show Racines de France 3 in 1991, Derri Berkani reports that it was the Algerian partisans, mainly composed of workers, who had led the Jews to the Paris Mosque for protection. The mission of these Algerian partisans was to rescue and protect the British SOE agents and find them shelter. The Partisans subsequently provided assistance to Jewish families, from the families they knew, or at the request of friends, by accommodating them in the mosque, waiting for papers to be provided to get them to the Zone libre or cross the Mediterranean to the Maghreb.
The figures for the number of Jews saved by staying in the Mosque of Paris during this period differ according to the authors. Annie-Paule Derczansky, president of the Association des Bâtisseuses de paix, states that according to Albert Assouline, as stated in the Berkani film, 1600 people were saved. On the other hand, Alain Boyer, former head of religious affairs in the French Ministry of Interior, has stated that the number was closer to 500 people.
The Bâtisseuses de Paix, an association of Jewish and Muslim women working for inter-community harmony, submitted a petition in 2005 to Yad Vashem’s Council to recognize that the Mosque of Paris saved many Jews between 1942 and 1944, and that Yad Vashem should thus recognize Si Kaddour Benghabrit as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. This request remains unfulfilled, as no survivors have been found; apparently the mosque had worked with false passports.
Si Kaddour Benghabrit’s efforts to save Salim Halali and other Jews are depicted in the film Free Men, directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi and released in 2011. He is played by Michael Lonsdale.
Si Kaddour Benghabrit also inspired Mohamed Fekrane in his short film Together, released in 2010. The role of the imam is played by actor Habib Kadi.
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What an outstanding individual!
It’s nice to see that he received a légion d’honneur
The medal he is wearing (the five armed cross) is the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the highest civil and military award France awards in its highest variant.
Meanwhile in todays France:
“The Prophet Muhammad told us about the final and decisive battle: ‘Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him – except for the Gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews’.” – M. Tatai (Imam of the Grand Mosque in Toulouse)
Not sure muslims in Paris would hide Jews these days…
There aren’t any Jewish kids in Parisian public schools anymore because they get beat up and harassed by Muslims. edit: downvote all you want. It’s the truth and you know it.
For good people religion is no obstacle to be good, for bad is no obstacle to be bad.
Great man.
He was born in my hometown and I’ve never heard about him, what a hero
Ohh hey, a muslim Lenin :O
Waiting for the “bUt fRaNcE iS rAcIsT” comments.
This is what we need, not those militant imams who wanna destroy our country and turn it into a hell hole