Just as there were numerous instances of Christians rescuing Jews during World War II—sometimes at great risk to their own lives—there were also instances of Muslims doing the same. Robert Satloff recounts the story of a Tunisian bathhouse-proprietor who rescued his Jewish friend Joseph Naccache when the Nazis occupied their country:
Hamza Abdul Jalil knew that it was a dangerous moment for the Jews of his neighborhood. When the roundup of Jews began, Hamza told Joseph [Naccache] that if he ever needed a place to hide, he should come to the hammam (Turkish-style bathhouse). When Joseph began to fear that the German dragnet was closing in, he took Hamza up on his offer. For two weeks, Hamza protected him deep inside the labyrinth of the hammam, providing refuge and food, so that Joseph could evade his pursuers. Hamza neither requested nor accepted any payment.
After he left the hammam for another hiding place, Joseph was eventually captured by the Germans and sent to labor camps in the Tunisian hinterland. A lifetime later, he still remembered the kindness of the proprietor of the local hammam.
More about: History & Ideas, Holocaust, Mizrahi Jewry, Muslim-Jewish relations, Righteous Among the Nations, Tunisia