H eadlines
Holocaust History in North Africa Explored
L OCA L
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
AOMAR BOUM AND Sarah
Abrevaya Stein knew the wartime
experiences of North African
Jews are often overlooked in
Holocaust history, so they
decided to write a book about it.

“Opening up these stories
about North African experi-
ences of the second World
War and, in some cases, the
Holocaust, can not only teach
us about this region, but really
change what we know about
Holocaust history and Jewish
history as a whole, and that
is a really profound invest-
ment and yield for students,
for readers and for academic
research,” said Stein, chair of
Sephardic studies and director
of the Alan D. Leve Center for
Jewish Studies at UCLA.

The National Museum
of American Jewish History
hosted a webinar about the
book, “The Holocaust in
North Africa,” on April 9.

Josh Perelman, NMAJH’s chief
curator, interviewed the two
scholars about pre-war Jewish
life in North Africa, the impact
of colonialism and fascism on
the region and the research
they conducted for the project.

Boum, associate professor
of anthropology at UCLA, said
most North African countries
were under the colonial rule
of European powers on the eve
of WWII. France controlled
Algeria, Tunisia and northern
Morocco, Italy controlled Libya
and Spain controlled southern
Morocco. He
estimated between 480,000 and 500,000
Jews lived in these countries.

Stein said these Jews
were a diverse population
Clockwise from left: Aomar Boum, Sarah Abrevaya Stein and Josh Perelman
that migrated from different
regions, spoke different
languages, came
from different classes of society
Screenshot by Sophie Panzer
and participated in different others lived more traditionally.

political movements. Some
Since the North African
Jews in urban centers adopted countries had Muslim majority
European lifestyles, while populations, as well as settler
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H eadlines
colonialists from Europe, Jews
had varying relationships
with their neighbors. Some
lived among Muslims and
Christians, others stayed in
mostly Jewish communities.

Perelman asked the speakers
about North African Jews’ rights
and how European politics
impacted their standing. Stein
said their legal status was
determined by colonial ruling
countries. “North Africa is unique in
the context of second World
War Holocaust stories in that
it is...a place where fascism and
colonialism are not only inter-
secting, but reverberating off of
each other in interesting ways,”
Stein said.

applied because administra-
tors from the Vichy regime,
France’s fascist government,
realized that preventing Jews
from continuing their occupa-
tions as peddlers, merchants
and artisans would destroy
the region’s economy. As a
result, many Jews moved
from countries like Algeria to
Morocco, where they would
have more opportunities.

Stein said that North
African Jews were part of
the Nazi’s calculus of global
Jewry to exterminate, and
some were deported to Europe
and killed in concentration
camps. However, while many
North African Jews had their
rights stripped away like their
Ever since there’s been an IDF
protecting Israel, there’s been
an MDA ensuring their health.

North Africa is unique in the context of
second World War Holocaust stories.”
SARAH ABREVAYA STEIN
Since Tunisia and Morocco
were protectorates of France,
neither Muslims nor Jews were
offered citizenship. This was
also true for colonial subjects in
Libya. Since Algeria was consid-
ered a department of France,
Jews were offered citizenship,
but Muslims were not.

This meant that when fascist
governments began issuing
anti-Semitic laws stripping
Jews of their rights, Jews in
North Africa felt the impact
differently. In some countries,
Boum said, Jews were ordered
to move back to the tradition-
ally Jewish neighborhoods
where they previously were
forced to live, known as
mellah in Morocco and hara in
Tunisia. Some countries also
confiscated property owned
by Jews and restricted them
from employment in educa-
tional institutions and other
industries. In southern Morocco,
where Boum conducted many
of his interviews, he found
that several laws were not
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM European counterparts, there
was no centralized effort to
exterminate them.

Instead, the Vichy regime
sent them to labor camps,
along with Muslims deemed
enemies of the state for their
political affiliations, Spanish
Civil War soldiers who fought
against fascism, French Foreign
Legion soldiers and European
refugees. In Tunisia, Jewish
men and boys were interned
and forced to work on infra-
structure projects.

During his research, Boum
discovered he had a personal
connection to the camps:
When he visited the site of
a mining camp located near
his home village in Morocco,
he learned that his father and
other locals had worked there.

“I’ve always thought about it
as something that connects me
indirectly to the history of these
European refugees, Jewish or
non-Jewish,” he said. l
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