TY - JOUR
AU - Nicosia, Francis, R
AB - This collection of fifteen essays and commentaries by noted scholars constitutes an invaluable contribution to the growing body of literature on the Holocaust, North Africa, and the Middle East. There was a significant Jewish population of about half a million in North Africa at the outbreak of World War II. These communities were directly affected by the Shoah. Geographical proximity to Europe, the presence of German troops from February 1941 to May 1943, and control over much of the region by the governments of Vichy France and Fascist Italy mean this volume helps fill a gap in Holocaust historiography. As much or more than other recent works, The Holocaust and North Africa expands our knowledge and understanding of the direct and indirect impact of Nazi persecution and mass murder in Europe on the Jews of North Africa. As the editors and several contributors make clear, this book joins other work in breaking what they term the “Eurocentric” character of Holocaust studies, with its tendency to view “victimhood” as applicable only to Ashkenazy communities. While the Sephardim of North Africa did not face systematic mass murder under a German occupation or nearby presence, they did face persecution that originated largely in Europe and was applied directly by French and Italian authorities in a harsh, if uneven, manner. The title of this collection provides a context for the questions it addresses: definitions of the Holocaust, its geography, and particularly the varying persecution of its victims. That the editors have used “and North Africa” instead of “in North Africa” points to both parallels with Europe and differences from it. The latter here includes the three French-controlled territories of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and Italian-controlled Libya. These constituted parts of European colonial empires, with Tunisia briefly experiencing some degree of formal German occupation between November 1942 and May 1943. As several contributors emphasize, the reality of antisemitism overlapped with issues of French and Italian colonialism and (mainly) Muslim anti-colonialism in the Jewish experience in North Africa before, during, and after the war. Several essays illustrate how persecution of the Jews in these four territories was usually not the result of direct German “orders,” but rather more about the policies of Vichy France beginning in late 1940, or those of Fascist Italy following application of anti-Jewish laws of 1938 in Libya. Nowhere do the contributors relieve Germany of responsibility; some point to postwar German reparations to Jewish survivors from North Africa. Moreover, within the context of a variety of French and Italian colonial structures, interests, and policies—combined with the antisemitism of some local colonial administrators and some among the colonial-settler populations, as well as the geographical separation of North Africa from Europe—the nature of the persecution was quite varied. That there was nothing comparable in North Africa to the systematic “Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe” is quite clear. Significant evidence indicates that there would have been a comparable Final Solution in North Africa had the Axis powers won the war. This assumes that the Germans could have persuaded the French and Italian governments to permit the mass murder of the Jews in North Africa, given that the Nazis generally did not intend to challenge French and Italian sovereignty there. Nevertheless, this collection demonstrates the direct impact of the Final Solution in Europe on the Jews of North Africa. That impact often depended upon the particular political status of each of the four territories within existing French and Italian colonial structures. It also depended upon the status of individual Jews. For instance, most Algerian Jews had been French citizens since the Crémieux Decree of 1870; in October 1940, however, Vichy France determined that Jews in France and Algeria were to be defined by “race,” and therefore were no longer “French”; Moroccan and Tunisian Jews on the other hand, like their Muslim neighbors, were still classified as colonial subjects. In any case, North African Jews experienced the Holocaust largely through the policies of the regimes in Vichy and Rome. The essays describe the various forms of persecution that North African Jews faced before, during, and after the war. These examples reflect important parallels with Europe. Many Jews were stripped of their livelihoods and possessions under French and Italian anti-Jewish laws. Many—along with some categories of non-Jews—were interned in concentration and forced-labor camps. Some learned of the deportations and mass murder of Jews in Europe only upon meeting European Jews who had escaped to North Africa. Under the prevailing veil of secrecy, they were forced to live in fear that a similar fate awaited them. Some were deported to other places in North Africa, some to France or Italy. As in Europe, the relationship with non-Jewish neighbors was a significant factor. The general consensus in this collection is that relations between Jews in North Africa and their mostly Muslim neighbors were relatively quiet. Nevertheless, French colonial officials were often inclined to incite Muslim hostility toward Jews in order to divert Arab nationalism and growing pressure for independence. Much as in Europe, in North Africa many Jewish survivors had to make painfully difficult decisions about where to start their lives anew. Could they return to their prewar homes? Should they remain in North Africa, or try to emigrate elsewhere? In Europe, borders were re-drawn and the Cold War got underway; in North Africa, Arab nationalism and anti-colonialism influenced the political environment in which Jewish survivors had to make decisions about the future. Not all Muslims assumed that their Jewish neighbors could be part of the anticipated sovereign national communities. This was particularly so as the Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine grew more turbulent and the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948; a large migration of North African and Middle Eastern Jews soon began joining survivors from Europe there. In the Introduction Boum and Abrevaya Stein write, “it is a striking quality of the diverse field of Holocaust studies that, even as our information becomes ever more detailed … entire geographic realms of Holocaust history remain opaque. Our aim with this volume is to shed light on one such murky zone, North Africa” (p. 8). They and the other contributors have thus rendered a valuable service to Holocaust studies and related fields. The wealth of new sources both primary and secondary that they have uncovered bodes well for the expansion of our knowledge and understanding of the Shoah in its connections with North Africa. © 2019 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - The Holocaust and North Africa Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein
JF - Holocaust and Genocide Studies
DO - 10.1093/hgs/dcz056
DA - 2019-12-12
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/the-holocaust-and-north-africa-aomar-boum-and-sarah-abrevaya-stein-ftRqWsWTk4
SP - 449
VL - 33
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -