Figure 1.--

Algeria in 1940 was an integral part of France with departments 91-93. There was a majority Arab population, a substantial number of French settlers, and a very small Jewish population. After the fall of France, a French Goverment was established in an unoccupied zone with a capital at Vichy. This Government while not totally controlled by the Germans, collaborated with them in many ways. One of these was the Holcaust. A Vichy law provided that "foreign nationals of the Jewish race" would be detained in "special concentration camps" (October 4. 1940). [Laskier, North Africa, p. 65-66.] Vichy authorities proceeded to persecute Jews and deny civic rights. It is not entirely clear to what extent these actions were the result of German pressure or French anti-semitism. Presumably a combination of the two. It is clear that not all Vichy actions were forced on them. Committees for Aryanization were established. Jews lost the French citizenship they had enjoyed since the 1870s. [Ward] Accounts vary some what, but about 16 camps were set up in Algeria for roughly 2,000 Jews. We know of no deportations to the European death camps. The Allied landings as part of Operation Torch prevented any further actions against Algerian Jews (November 1942). Anti-Jewish regulations, however, were not immediately rescended.

French Colonial Algeria

Algeria in 1940 was an integral part of France with departments 91-93. French policy was to Francacize Algeria. There was a majority Arab population, a substantial number of French settlers, and a very small Jewish population.

Algerian Jews

Jews as in other Mediterranean countries reached Algeria during the Roman era. This presumably occurred after the Romans defeated the Jewish revolt and the resulting Dispora. Arab chroniclers suggest that some Berber tribes had been converted to Judaism before the arrival of the conquering Arabs fired by Islam. One source mentions Queen Kahina. Jews were present at the Rustamid capital Tahert as well as other cities. Not a great deal is know about these early communities. Some centuries later after Algeria had been throughly Islmacized, there are accounts of Algerian Jewish families [Geniza Letters] The Jewish community in Algeria seems to have been fairly small throughout the Medieval era. This changed with the final success of the Reconquista in Spain. Spain and Portugal had been the only place in Western Europe where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived together in relative harmony. Ferdinand and Isabella after the fall of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom, expelled the Jews and Muslims who refused to convert (1492). Perhaps 200,000 Jews were forced to flee Spain. Many found refuge in the Islamic controlled ports of North Africa. The Spanish Inquisition closely monitored the conversos and thus the original wave was followed by more Moriscos and ????. A substantial Jewish community developed in Oran and Algiers. Jews in Oran maintaned their Ladino language (a dialect of Spanish) into the early 19th century. Jewish merchants were noted during the Ottoman era. The French seized Algeria after the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. The French having lost their empire as a result of wars with England, wanted to recreate one and nearby North Africa was seen as the logical place to begin. The French began their intervention in Algeria when the Dey's demanded that the French government pay a substantial wheat debt to two Jewish merchants (Bacri and Busnach). The French occupied Algeria (1830). French colonial authorities transformed the Ottoman millet system. The French authorities set up different regimes for French and Algerians. French citizens could vote, were governed by the French legal system, and had military obligations. France at the time was moving toward the emancipation of Jews. And by the 1840s Jewish courts (beth din) were closed and judicial hearings involving Jews were being held in the French courts. I am not sure why this occurred. French authorities appointed Jews from metropolitan France to serve as chief rabbis for the various regions of Algeria (1845). The new chief rabbis were given the task of incorporating indigenous Algerian Jews into French society. The French Goverrment set up a liberal system through which Jews and Muslims could become full French citizens (1865). Few took advantage of this because it required renouncing some traditional values and thus was considered by many as apostasy. The French Government with the d�crets Cr�mieux granted voting rights to Algerian Jews (1870). From this point they are generally treated as one element of the Pied-Noirs (French settlers). The Algerian Jews, however, were not French settlers and most did not even speak French. French Jews looked on them as backward and wanted them to give up their Arab traditions and become French. This in fact occurred and by the turn of the 20th century, Algerian Jews mostly spoke French rather than Arabic or Ladino. The Algerian Jews also widely adopted French culture. At the time of World War II, there were about 120,000 Jews in Algeria. This represented about 2 percent of the Algerian population. The Jewish population was largely concentrated in Algeria's principal cities (Algiers, Constantine, and Oran). The population of these cities was about 7 percent Jewish. This also tended to be the situation in many smaller cities like Ghardaia and Setif. One small town (Messad) had a Jewish majority.

Fall of France

The Germans launched the long awaited Western offensive (May 1940). The Germans proceeded to conquer virtually all of Western Europe. After a few months of the "Phony War", France's turn came. The Germans struck on a wide front against the neutral Netherlands, Belgiym, and Luxemburg. The terror bombing of Rotterdam convinced the already hard-pressed Dutch Army to surrender. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) rushed north to aid the Dutch. The Germans then struck in the Belgian Ardenes which allowed them to avoid the formidable Maginot Line. The French and Belgians considered the Ardenes impassable to tanks. The Germans managed to easily penetrate the rough terraine, crossed two substantial rivers, and the XIX Panzer Corps rapidly reached the English Channel--cutting the BEF off from the French and rendering the Maginot Line uselss. The French entrenched behind the Maginot Line simply could not cope with the exposive highly mobil style of Blitzkrieg warfare. The Panzers surrounded the Belgian Army which King Leopold III surrendered. The BEF was within Hitler's grasp. Paris soon fell and the French signed a NAZI imposed armistace. The collapse of France after only a few weeks was a disaster of emense proportions. It was the French Army that had provided the bulk of the allied War Western Front in World War I. The German victory was not accomplished with massivelyu superior numbers or weaponry. In fact they had fewer men and tanks. What they had was a superior tactical doctrine. The Germans were amazed to find, for example, that French tanks were not even equipped with radios, and a more disciplined fighting force. NAZI propaganda began to describe Hitler as " Der gr�sste Feldherr Allerzeiten " (the greatest field commander of all time). Much of the country was occupied and the French Army was intered in German POW camps.

Vichy

The P�tain Government after signing the armistace with the NAZIs on June 22 set up a governmnt in Vichy for the sector of southern France that was not occupied by the Germans. The Vichy regime in many ways cooperated with the NAZIs. The most shameful single act was Vichy assistance in rounding up over 80,000 foreign and French Jews as part of the Holocaust so they could be shipped to the death camps in Poland. vichy even ran camps in France with apauling death rates. After the War some Vichy officials were executed and the Gaullists nurtured a myth that the great majority of the French people bravely resisted the Germans. Gaullist claimed that the French people never accepted the Vichy regime as a legitimate French Government. Gradually it has become increasingly clear that the bulk of the French people, shocked by the collapse of the French army and thinking that the War was lost, sought accompdation with the NAZI occcupiers and looked upon Marshal Philippe P�tain with reverence. [Curtis] After the fall of France, a French Goverment was established in an unoccupied zone with a capital at Vichy. This Government while not totally controlled by the Germans, collaborated with them in many ways. One of these was the Holcaust. For years, any questioning of that myth was highly controversial. The film by Marcel Ophuls "Le chagrin et la piti�" (1969) was commissioned by French Government-controlled television, but the documentary on French life during the occupation proved so embarassing that officials were afraid to broadcast it.

Vichy Anti-Semetic Policies

A Vichy law provided that "foreign nationals of the Jewish race" would be detained in "special concentration camps" (October 4. 1940). [Laskier, North Africa, p. 65-66.] Vichy authorities proceeded to persecute Jews and deny civic rights. It is not entirely clear to what extent these actions were the result of German pressure or French anti-semitism. Presumably a combination of the two. It is clear that not all Vichy actions were forced on them. Committees for Aryanization were established. Jews lost the French citizenship they had enjoyed since the 1870s. [Ward]

Algerians in France

More than 0.5 million Muslims from French Africa fought in The French Army during World War I. About 0.1 million perished in the War. The French people after the War in the 1920s built a beautiful Paris mosque a a symbol of graditude for that sacrifice. People from Algeria's mountainous Kabylia region played an important role in a mosque-based resistance network . The Kabyls are a group which preserved their Berber language and culture. At the time tey constituted a major part of Algerian immigrants to France. The resisrance network communicated in their Tamazight (their Berber dialect) making it very difficult for non-Kabyls to penetrate the network. The mosque's rector, Si Kaddour Benghabrit, preached an Islam that was tolerant and inclusive. Holocaust scholars believe that more than 1,700 people found short-term shelter in apartments on or near the grounds of the mosque. Benghabrit organized an alert system with escape routes to the Paris sweers and nearby canal in case of a raid . Jews were even allowed into the the prayer room's women's section. The mosque was especually important to the survival of many Jewish children. He forged many false birth certificates identifying Jewish children as Muslims. This saved many Jewish children which because of their appearance would have been difficult to hide. [Herskovits, "The Jews"]

Vichy Actions in Algeria

Laws enacted by the Vichy Government applied to the French colonies under Vichy contriol. Algerian Jews lost their French citizenship with the enactment of the Vichy laws, in effect becoming stateless. Committees for Aryanization were established to seize Jewish business. Vichy officials looked for conservators of confiscated Jewish property. Mosque preachers in Algiers preached Friday sermons wich disuaded believers from accepting what would have been a lucrative offer. [Satloff] There were restictions on work which made it difficult for Jews to make a living. Lawyers abd dictors, for example, were not permitted to persue their professions. Accounts vary some what, but about 16 camps were set up in Algeria for roughly 2,000 Jews. [Abitol] We have so far been unable to find much informtion about these camps. I think they were run as work camps and were for men only, but our informatin is still incomplee. They were not death camps, but conditions at the camps were harsh and the internees were mistreated. We know of no deportations to the European death camps. Of course, part of the reasons for this was tht the deportations in Europe onlt began in mid-1942 and the Allies liberated Algeria only a few months later.

Algerian Arabs

Algerian Arabs durung the War were to a substantial extent were not politically active during the War. They were not yet virulently anti-Semetic as they had lived with small Jewish communities for centuries. The Algerian Jews had, however, had accepted French culture where most Algerians had resisted it. Many Algerians who were politically active favired the Germans, primrily becvause they were obsensibly anti-colonial and opposed the British and French who were the primary world colonial powers. NAZI racism was not an important issue with the Algerian Arans and vitually unknown was the fact that Arabs were one of the many groups considered unter-mench. One observer writes, "The Arabs in these lands were not too different from Europeans: With war waging around them, most stood by and did nothing; many participated fully and willingly in the persecution of Jews; and a brave few even helped save Jews. Arab collaborators were everywhere. These included Arab officials conniving against Jews at royal courts, Arab overseers of Jewish work gangs, sadistic Arab guards at Jewish labor camps and Arab interpreters who went house to house with SS officers pointing out where Jews lived. Without the help of local Arabs, the persecution of Jews would have been virtually impossible." [Satloff, "Arabs" ] It is difficult to asses the complicity of Algerian Arabs in the actions taken against the Jews. The Governing authorities were the French, but Arabs played a range of roles in the actions taken against the Jews in Algeria. Harry Alexander, a Jew from Leipzig, Germany, who found his way to Algeria only to be interned at a harsh French labor camp at Djelfa, told an interviewer, "No, no, no! "Nobody told them to beat us all the time. Nobody told them to chain us together. Nobody told them to tie us naked to a post and beat us and to hang us by our arms and hose us down, to bury us in the sand so our heads should look up and bash our brains in and urinate on our heads .... No, they took this into their own hands and they enjoyed what they did." [Satloff, "The Holocaust's" ]

Operation Torch

American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided that the Allies needed to open a Second Front to take pressure off the hard-pressed Red Army reeling under the German summer offensive driving toward Stalingrad and the oil-rich Caucauses (July 1942). Joseph Stalin demanded an invasion of Europe. Wisely Roosevelt and Churchill targetted French North Africa. American General George Marshall, in many ways the architect of the American victory, was opposed to Totch, considering it a diversion. Roosevelt insisted. While Montgomery's victory at El Alemain often receives more attentiin, it was the Torch landings that were the decisive action. The Amercan and British landings in North Africa sealed the fate of the Axis desert campaign. Even if Rommel had broken through to Suez, he would have been forced to turn west to deal with the Allied landings in French North Africa. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed Allied commander to oversee the Torch Landings. The Allies driving east from their Moroccan and Algerian beachheads linked up with the Brish advancing west (November 1942). Although Hitler rushed reinforcements to Tunisia, the end result was the first major defeat of a German Army by the Western Allies.

Military Situation

Hitler ordered the German military to opose the Totch landings. At the time the Afrika Koros was in full retreat from El Alemain and in no position to do so. So German reserves were rushed to Tunisia by air and sea. The Vichy authorities in Tunisia did not resist the Germans. As a result the Germans were able to insert a sufficient irce to prevent the Allies moving east from Algeria from seizing the Tunisia ports at Tunis and Bizerte. The Germans were unabble to drive into Algeria, but they did occupy Tuniia for a few months.

Rescending Anti-Semetic Measures

The Allied landings as part of Operation Torch prevented any further actions against Algerian Jews (November 1942). Anti-Jewish regulations, however, were not immediately rescended.

Sources

Abitbol, Michel. History of the Jews of Arab Lands (In Hebrew, Merkaz Shazar).

Geniza Letters

Herskovits, Annette. "The Mosque That Sheltered Jews," Street Spirit website, Published by American Friends Service Committee, accessed October 16, 2006.

Laskier, Michael. The Jews of the Maghreb in the shadow of Vichy and the Swastika (Hebrew, Univ. of Tel Aviv, 1992).

Satloff, Robert. "Arabs and the Holocaust," Baltimore Sun (January 24, 2005).

Satloff, Robert. "The Holocaust's Arab Heroes," Washington Post (October 14, 2006).

Ward, Seth. "The Holocaust in North Africa," May 10, 1999.

Created: March 21, 2004
Last updated: 2:29 PM 12/2/2016