(Jewish Group) When the Holocaust reached Africa

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

After years of dodging the subject, the suffering of North African Jewry is finally out in the open; state institutions have started acknowledging the Maghreb survivors, sparking local curiosity —and some interesting initiatives.

It’s been 76 years since Nazi Germany started its hunt for Tunisian Jews—and only a short while since the tragedy of this community, and other North African communities, has begun to be acknowledged alongside the Holocaust that took place in Europe.

In recent years, both Jewish and Muslim researchers have begun digging for information about the history of North African Jews. “No one talked about it, neither there nor here in Israel,” said Prof. Haim Saadon, of the Yad Ben-Zvi Institute and the Open University, who researches the heritage of these communities. “People said that, ‘there was less food and camps and anti-Semitic laws—but it can’t be compared to Auschwitz’. And they’re right.”

“However,” Saadon said, “this doesn’t mean we should forget what happened in communities where there wasn’t an annihilation. It’s a piece of the puzzle that’s missing, and the story of the Jewish people wouldn’t be complete without it. And the more we reveal about Jewish communities under Islam—there more we discover the importance of this piece of the puzzle.”


Developments in this research field have also revealed shared Muslim-Jewish memories and histories, that have triggered North African filmmakers to address Maghreb Jewish heritage in a number of recent films.


“Some people have important historical documents in their homes, and they aren’t even aware of it,” Saadon said, and encouraged people to share such documents. “Today people want to talk about the war in North Africa, and state institutions are legitimizing this talk and acknowledging some people as Holocaust survivors.”

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