Lot 377

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Description:

EGYPTIAN NATIONALIST REQUESTS A MEETING WITH HITLER
An excellent grouping of eight documents and letters, a correspondence between the Reich Chancellery and the leader of an Egyptian fascist, Nazi-aligned group called the 'Young Egypt Party', Ahmed Hussein, who is requesting an audience with Adolf Hitler. A retained copy of a Reich Chancellery memo dated July 22, 1938, first mentions a letter being received from 'Ahmed Hussein, Leader of the Young Egypt Party and the Green shirts' requesting an audience with the Fuhrer. On July 29, 1938, German diplomat ALEXANDER VON DORNBERG (1901-1983) sends a T.L.S. to State Secretary Otto Meissner warning in part: '...The Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot recommend that the Further...should grant an audience to Ahmed Hussein. We would however suggest that his request should be declined in a particularly friendly fashion so that any ill will may be avoided...' An official letter with retained copy from Dr. Hinrichs, the Senior Counsellor for the Reich Ministry of State, dated August 9, 1938, sent to Ahmed Hussein reads in part: '...the Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor has instructed me to thank you warmly for the kind attention which you have shown him...He regrets that it will not be possible for him personally to receive you...' Next, a document from the German embassy in Cairo sent to the Reich Chancellery, dated October 1, 1938, contains the text of a telegram sent to Hitler by Hussein that reads in full: 'My congratulations on the peaceful solution of the problem', undoubtedly referring to the Munich Peace Agreement which took place one day prior. Below an embassy official notes 'The telegram from Ahmed Hussein complained about by our embassy is attached...it was neither presented to the Fuhrer nor answered.' Another embassy document dated October 3. 1938, notes 'Ahmed Hussein is said to have wired to the Fuhrer. Please refrain from answering as he wrote insulting articles against leaders during the crisis.' Finally, a T.L.S. sent from the Reich Foreign Office by ALBERT FORSTER (1902-1952) to State Secretary Otto Meissner returns a letter to him that was sent to Ahmed Hussein, on account of his address being unknown. Accompanied by a partial meeting card bearing Hitler's printed letterhead, with an untranslated German inscription on the verso. Conditions vary but mostly good. Nine items, some with accompanying translations. The 'Young Egypt Party' was founded as a radical nationalist group by Ahmed Hussein in 1933 and would eventually count among its members future Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat. Its aim was to make Egypt an empire along with nearby Sudan that would ally itself with other Arab countries and serve as the leader of Islam. It organized its young members into paramilitary groups referred to as 'Green Shirts' and had violent confrontations with political enemies through the 1930s. From its inception the group openly admired the achievements of Nazi Germany, the enemy of Egypt's conqueror the British. The Nazis however generally regarded Arabs with contempt, and Hitler himself reportedly referred to them as 'half apes' in 1937, despite their similar situation of being victims of post-World War I settlements. The Nazis would eventually ally with an Arab, the Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini who met with Hitler in 1941. However, the likely reason for refusal to meet with Ahmed Hussein at this time was to not elevate Anglo-German tensions. Hussein would never be granted an audience with Hitler or any other contemporary nationalist regime that could have helped further his dream of an Egyptian empire, and the Young Egypt Party was abolished along with all other political groups following the 1952 coup d'état in Egypt.

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December 7, 2021 10:00 AM EST
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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