Raoul Wallenberg becomes Australia's first honorary citizen

What happened
to the Jewish
communities of
North Africa during
the Second World
War?
Ziva Fain
Holocaust survivors returning to Libya from Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp. The inscription on the wagon states ‘Back to Tripoli’.
During the Second World War, Vichy France
controlled the North African colonies of Morocco,
Algeria and Tunis, and Italy controlled Libya.
Australians first fought the Italian army and then
twice fought Rommel’s German Desert Corps. In Australia
we celebrate the heroic battles of Tobruk in Libya and El
Alamein in Egypt, and we know that Italy and Vichy France
were part of the Axis powers, but our knowledge of what
happened in North Africa usually stops there. What, for
instance, happened to the Jewish communities in those
countries during the Second World War?
The Nazi racial laws adopted by Vichy France and Italy were
implemented in the colonies of North Africa to the letter,
with the help of European settlers who saw the Jews as
competing with their commercial and social interests. As in
Europe, Jews were forbidden to work in government jobs
and their children to attend government schools; medical
practitioners and lawyers were not allowed to attend
to non-Jews; and Jewish businesses were confiscated
and given to non-Jews. Jews were forced to leave their
properties and moved to the old ghetto areas in the cities.
These were the worst areas, without sewage and water
supplies, and with overcrowded and dilapidated buildings.
Jews were forced to join the labour work force and finance
their tools and food. They were subjected to pogroms,
monetary and physical punishment and kidnapping. No
law protected them. Work and punishment camps were
established and here too the communities were made
responsible for supplying tools and food. Treatment in
the punishment camps was cruel and prisoners had little
chance of surviving.
The Muslim population was not united in its treatment
of Jews. In Jerusalem, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
Haj Amin El Husseini and his collaborators broadcast
antisemitic German propaganda by short wave radio. At
the same time, Arab nationalism was on the rise, and the
majority of Muslims cooperated with the authorities in the
persecution of the Jews. They served as soldiers in the
African Corps and as auxillary workers, like guards, in the
camps and willingly participated in pogroms. However, a
small group of Muslims helped the Jews, in accordance
with the Islamic dhimma laws. Those laws required non-
Muslims to accept second-rate status and pay a poll tax for
their protection.
The arrival of the Germans in North Africa made life even
harder for the Jewish communities. Food was scarce
and raids on Jewish houses became a daily occurrence.
The worst conditions were in Tunis and Libya, where the
Germans had direct control. In Libya the country changed
hands three times, from Italian to British and then to
German control. The Germans considered the Libyan
Jews to be supporters of the British and therefore traitors.
Punishment was severe. During air raids Jewish young
men were sent to clear minefields and rubble with their
bare hands. All the Libyan Jewish communities of the main
towns were evacuated inland to a desert concentration
camp. During the long trip there was no protection from the
weather nor water supplied. Conditions in the camp were
atrocious: there was not enough shelter, food or water, no
sewage or medical help.
In Algeria, the Vichy government implemented harsh
racial laws with the complete cooperation of the French
settler and Muslim populations. Jews were first stripped
of their French citizenship and legal protection, and
then of their property and fundamental human rights. In
Morocco the situation of the Jews was a little better, as
King Mohammed V refused to comply with all the Vichy
government’s antisemitic decrees.
In 1941 the Nazis had plans for the genocide of the Jews
of North Africa, including a plan to build gas chambers on
the border of Tunis and Algeria. Einsatzgruppen stood by
in southern Italy ready to move into North Africa and the
Middle East, and plans for transporting Libyan Jews to
Poland were in their last stages.
Two events saved the Jews: Operation Torch and a typhus
epidemic. On 8 November 1942 the Americans landed in
Algeria as part of Operation Torch, and the German army
was forced to fight on two fronts, reducing their capacity to
act on eliminating the Jewish population. In Libya, a typhus
epidemic in the concentration camp cost 500 Jewish lives,
but saved the rest of the community, as the Germans were
afraid to enter the camp and postponed the transportation
of prisoners to Poland. By the time the typhus epidemic
had receded, the English army had conquered Libya again
and the Germans were defeated.
Egyptian and Middle Eastern Jewry were not spared from
persecution. The Arab population in Egypt discriminated
against Jews, who were subject to attack, and not always
protected by the British colonial government. In Syria, Iraq
and Iran, pogroms instigated by Nazi supporters caused
large loss of life and financial damage. Their instigator was
Haj Amin el Husseini, whose actions earned him the title
‘the Arab Hitler’.
Ziva Fain’s research was funded by a Jewish Holocaust
Centre Maly Kohn Professional Development Scholarship.
She is grateful to Miriam Weiss and family for the
establishment of the scholarship which enabled her to
make contact with North African Jewish associations in
Israel and the USA, and to the Libyan Jewish Association in
Israel for their generous help.
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JHC Centre News