24 January 2007
Khaled Abdelwahhab, a late Tunisian landowner who saved the lives of two dozen Jews during the Holocaust, might become the first Arab to be honored as a Righteous Gentile Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial institution, according to a report by the British newspaper "The Times". The award is granted to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust in which six million died. More than 21,000 people have been granted the title of Righteous Among the Nations since it was established in 1963. But no candidate has emerged from the Arab world. The story of Khaled Abdelwahhab was uncovered by an American Jewish expert on Arab and Islamic politics who was researching for a book. A survivor told Robert Satloff that Abdelwahhab had rescued 23 Jews, including her family, as they sheltered in an olive oil factory after being thrown out of their homes by German soldiers. He feared that the women were going to be put to work in a brothel and gave them sanctuary for the remaining six months of the German occupation.
Abdelwahhab was 32 when the Germans arrived in Tunisia. His father was a former minister to the court of the Tunisian sovereign. Abdelwahhab studied art and architecture in New York and lived for a time in Paris. He married a Venezuelan opera singer in Spain and she became the mother of one of his two daughters. He died in 1997 at the age of 86. Yad Vashem spokeswoman Estee Yaari told "The Times" that a file on Abdelwahhab had been opened and would be considered by a commission of experts. “It looks as if there is enough material to move this forward and he would be the first Arab to become a Righteous Among the Nations,” she said.
