Merkel's Response to Netanyahu: Germany is Responsible for the Holocaust

Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, responded on Wednesday to Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that Hitler only intended to expel Jews, but that Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, told him to burn the Jews, stating: "We are responsible for the Holocaust." Merkel, who participated in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin, answered a journalist's question about the controversial remarks of the Israeli Prime Minister by saying: "Germans know that the Nazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust, and Germany will not change its view on this historical event." This week, Netanyahu stated in a speech to members of the Zionist Congress that stabbings and other terrorist attacks by Palestinians against Israeli civilians and soldiers are not new but stem from the actions and statements of the 'father of the Palestinian nation.' Netanyahu said: "Hitler did not want to kill the Jews himself; when he first came to power, he only wanted to expel and exile the Jews from Germany and other territories under Nazi rule; but it was Haj Amin al-Husseini, the then Muslim mufti, who went to him and said that if you expel the Jews from Europe, they will all come to this land (the disputed land of Palestinians and Jews)." Israeli historians and politicians have also strongly criticized Netanyahu's remarks. Shortly after Netanyahu's statements, many historians and experts on the Hitler era, including a historian from the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum, appeared in Israeli media stating that while al-Husseini was indeed anti-Semitic and wanted the Jews to be burned, Hitler did not need anyone's encouragement to implement his plan known as the 'Final Solution' regarding the Jews. Moshe Zimmerman, a historian from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also stated that during the 1941 meeting between Haj Amin al-Husseini and Hitler, their mutual hatred for the Jews was undoubtedly discussed, and the Palestinian mufti welcomed Hitler's measures against the Jews; however, the protocol detailing this meeting was never prepared, and in a document summarizing this meeting, written by Hitler's aides, it is stated that the mufti was very upset about the possibility of Jews from Europe flooding into 'Palestine' and said that Muslims support Hitler and are willing to serve in the ranks of Nazi Germany.