"Each is unique and distinct – yet together they form an arresting whole"
Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Editors
WARTIME NORTH AFRICA, A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY, 1934-1950
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022. ISBN: 978-1503631991
Reviewed by Michal Ben Ya'akov1
In the last several years a number of excellent studies have been published on the Jews in North Africa during the period of the Holocaust and World War II, elucidating local and regional events, racist legislation and politics, military actions, and international aid and assistance, most of which had been largely absent from both personal memory and collective histories of the period. Wartime North Africa, A Documentary History, 1934-1950 is a valuable addition to this growing body of research and public discourse. However, it is not the usual history of a region in a time of conflict, but as the able editors, Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein, clearly state, "… seen not from the vantage of state policy or military engagements, but from the viewpoint of the diverse peoples who lived it." (p. 2). Between the covers of this one volume, a myriad of voices come to life, via essays, letters, diaries, literature, memoirs, and oral history, giving us a glimpse into their thoughts, feelings, and daily lives. It brings the voices of individual men, women, and adolescents in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, the unknown and the notable, the humble and once prosperous, local Jews and Muslims, and European refugees, "actively caught up in history…" (p. 5). "All told, they shed light on how war, occupation, race laws, internment, and Vichy French, Italian fascist, and German Nazi rule were experienced day by day, across North Africa (and beyond)" (p. 17). "Each is unique and distinct – yet together they form an arresting whole" (p. 3).
The time period covered, 1934-1950, includes not only the years of actual military conflict, but those prior to the war as well as in its immediate aftermath, just as the Holocaust did not begin with the Nazi anti-Semitic legislation in the mid-1930s nor the war with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, nor did they end with the armistice and the liberation of concentration camps in 1945. This book does not claim that the Holocaust, per se, transpired in North Africa, but that the Holocaust and the war together had infinite, far-reaching social, legal, political, military, and economic implications for the Jews living there, refugees escaping to its lands, as for the Muslim and Amazigh (Berber) populations.
The volume includes a short introduction, eighty primary sources, each prefaced by a brief explanation, nineteen images (eighteen photos and one drawing), and two maps.
The Introduction does not present an overview of the military or political history of the time, but the context of the period and place, without simplifying or overly generalizing. It emphasizes the complexities of life in North Africa, noting the varying social, political, and economic circumstances, legal and class status of the diverse religious, cultural, and communal groups in the region, their public and private lives in urban centers and rural villages. Adding to the local diversity were new populations in transit: the huge influx of European refugees, primarily Jewish, but also Christian Republican supporters and fighters escaping Franco's Spain, those opposing Benito Mussolini's fascist regime, and former soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, both Jewish and Christian, all of whom faced additional adversities, including internment in transient and detention facilities, forced labor camps and in some cases, imprisonment. Nazi ideology and power impacted on the area, directly and indirectly, together with direct Vichy rule, Spanish control and Italian fascist regime, all of which initiated racist and anti-Semitic laws, economic exploitation, and disenfranchisement, with or without the collaboration of local authorities.
In a carefully selected collection of primary sources, this book is divided chronologically into three parts: I – The Rise of Fascism and Nazism as seen from North Africa, 1934-1940; II – Race laws, Internment, and Spoliation, 1940-1943; and III – The Late-and Postwar Era, 1943-1947. This rich assortment of original documents, longer ones often excerpted to a few pages, has been meticulously gleaned from a wide variety of published works, unpublished memoirs, and archives, public and private collections, written by men, women, and children. While including the voices of diverse individuals and attempting to be widely inclusive, in fact, the majority are written by Jews, both North African and European, or about Jews in relation to local authorities or neighboring Muslims. Most are published here for the first time, making accessible primary texts gathered from many countries and written in different forms. A few have been transcribed from the original English, but most were translated into a very readable English from a wide range of languages and dialects: French, Arabic, North African Judeo-Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, Moroccan Darija, Tamazight (Berber), Italian, and Yiddish, a major accomplishment in itself. Each document is prefaced by a very brief introduction and followed by a full reference regarding the author, type of document, source, and translator.
These varied human experiences of wartime North Africa open a window not only onto the individual lives of those whose voices we now hear, but also address the broader histories of the Jews in general and the Jews in colonial and occupied Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco in particular, the Holocaust and its impact beyond Europe, World War II, and North Africa, in general. As such, this is a welcome addition to Norman Stillman's path-breaking documentary histories, particularly The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, which contains an overview of "World War II and its Impact" and nineteen primary sources from North Africa, mainly official reports and decrees,2 and to the growing body of research on the Jews in North Africa during the late 1930s and 1940s.3
The body of the book encompasses a multitude of voices, places and events, and as such, precludes a simple summary; a few examples can only tempt the reader to delve into the wealth of experiences revealed. The first document, written in Meknes in central Morocco in March 1934, is strikingly profound as we read today Prosper Cohen's prescient declaration that Hitler is a Haman to be cursed and wiped out. Other documents are surprising in light of historical hindsight, as an Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) report of the hero's welcome given to Mussolini on March 17, 1937, by Tripoli's Jewish community, including portions of the Chief Rabbi's address, expressing gratitude and loyalty. All this, of course, was prior to Mussolini's 1938 anti-Semitic racial legislation. In 1939, a teenaged Marie Abravanel in Tripoli ponders her Jewish identity, finding "hope in justice, rooted within us for millennia…" (p. 39).
The main section deals with life under the anti-Semitic laws and exploitation, suffering privation and uncertainties. Here we learn of deportation and the plight of European refugees and French Foreign Legionnaires, internment, and the all-important philanthropic work, most of it orchestrated by one dedicated Jewish woman, an advocate in Casablanca, Hélène Cazes Benatar. Appeals for food and clothing, for medical care and legal assistance reflect the daily trauma of mothers and fathers, of civilians and soldiers, of local Jews and those foreign-born, and in most cases, stateless. Sections of Paul Ghez's personal diary, published in French in Tunis in 1943, are now accessible to the English-language reader. He describes life under direct German rule: "Escapees from Bizerte arrived at sun up and spread word of a violent bombing that took place overnight … [at the Community] We are immediately surrounded by a crowd of several hundred women who … demand to know the names of the dead and injured" (p. 137).
The third and final section on the late and postwar era, ends with the tragic and painful account of Gabriel Bénichou, a young man from Tlemcen, who had fled Vichy anti-Semitism in his native Algeria to Marseilles, only to be deported to Drancy and ultimately to Auschwitz. His return home was no less traumatic than his internment, with no support or understanding, isolated from other survivors: "On the surface, I led a normal life … But … every night I went back to Auschwitz" (p. 346).
Until recently, this critical period in the lives of Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, and Libyan Jews has been overlooked or marginalized in the history of North Africa, as well as in studies of the Holocaust and its implications beyond Europe. As such, the volume provides fascinating and much-needed primary sources for students, scholars, and the general public concerning the North African experience during wartime, both Jewish and non-Jewish. A detailed table of contents and comprehensive index allow the reader to examine particular topics or places, according to specific interests. Although some of the information in the introduction to each document is repetitious, it facilitates reading different sections at random. This book can be read alone, as well as a companion volume to The Holocaust and North Africa, a collection of articles edited by the same scholars, as well as other published memoirs and academic studies.
I would have liked to see more explanatory notes of the documents, embedded as annotated footnotes, as well as additional maps, beyond the two included, for greater recognition of the importance of place, as well as greater use of the nineteen images as documents themselves, not only as illustrations. A comprehensive bibliography would greatly enhance the volume, beyond those noted in the footnotes of the introduction. This would allow the interested reader and student to expand upon the individual experiences presented, and better understand the broader context. The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) and its schools, for example, are noted in many documents, but no comprehensive studies are referenced.
These comments notwithstanding, I highly recommend this volume to all interested in the human side of wartime and the impact of war on the individual, not only in North Africa and in World War II, but in other contexts and periods as well. Although seemingly a fragmented history, it all comes together and forms a composite picture of wartime North Africa in all its diversity.
Note: I recommend a podcast of an interview with editor Sarah Abrevaya Stein on the NewBooks network, (December 6, 2022) and her discussion of the book on the Museum of Jewish Heritage's YouTube page, (September 7, 2022).
1 Dr. Michal Ben Ya'akov was an Associate Professor at the Efrata College for Education, Jerusalem, until her retirement, and is currently a Speigel Fellow at The Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research of Bar-Ilan University. Her principle areas of research deal with North African Jews in nineteenth and twentieth century Palestine and the Jews in North Africa during World War II. She has lectured widely, edited four volumes, and published over fifty articles.
2 Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1991), pp. 113-139, 405-459, continuing chronologically his earlier documentary history, The Jews of Arab Lands (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979). Another excellent collection of published primary sources on the Jews of North Africa has recently been translated into English, however it does not deal with the Holocaust period: Paul B. Fenton and David G. Littman, Exile in the Maghreb: Jews under Islam, sources and documents, 997-1912 (Lanham, MD: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016).
3 To note a few of the more recent edited collections and books: Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein (eds.), The Holocaust and North Africa (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019), a collection of fifteen articles; Dan Michman and Haim Saadoun (eds.), Les juifs d'Afrique du Nord face à l'Allemagne nazie (Paris: Perrin, 2018), a collection of fourteen articles; Meredith Hindley, Destination Casablanca, Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II (New York: Public Affairs, 2017) Reeva Spector Simon, The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, The Impact of World War II (London and New York, Routledge, 2020); Susan Gilson Miller, Years of Glory: Nelly Benatar and the Pursuit of Justice in Wartime North Africa (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021). Scores of individual articles have recently been published in various journals and edited volumes.