The International Institute for Holocaust Research

North Africa and Its Jews During the Second World War:  New Research

On 20 January 1942, senior German officials gathered at a villa in Wannsee, Berlin to clarify the organizational aspects of the plan to systematically eradicate the Jews. According to the protocol drafted by Adolf Eichmann, it was made clear—several times—that the discussion concerned “the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem in Europe.” Thus arises the question: to what extent did the Nazi regime plan on murdering Jews outside of Europe? Was the fate of the Jews who found themselves under German rule, or that of Axis powers beyond Europe’s borders, the same as those within?

On April 28-30, scholars from Israel, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United States discussed this fundamental question at an international conference held by Yad Vashem and the Ben Zvi Institute for the study of cultures of Jews of Moslem lands, Africa and Asia. While the two institutions have already published preliminary books and studies on the topic, there has been a resurgence of scholarly and public interest in the subject during recent years, and a current fresh and in-depth discussion, one that will incorporate research on the Jews of North Africa as part of general Holocaust research, has long been overdue.

The interdisciplinary conference was aimed at promoting a discussion of the fate of the Jews who lived in, and fled to, North African countries—Morocco, Tangiers, Algeria and Libya.  It covered ground-breaking research in a range of areas, including: The Third Reich’s Propaganda in North Africa During World War II; The Question of Expansion of the Final Solution to Include the Jews of North Africa; The North African Jewish Boycott After the Rise of the Nazis to Power; Espionage in Tangier During the War; and Jewish Refugees in North Africa.  The discussions after each session were extremely fruitful and brought to the forefront very difficult aspects of this important issue of Jews in North African countries during the war. 

Participants included:  Prof. Michel Abitbol, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Dr. Irit Abramski-Bligh, Yad Vashem; Prof. Yom-Tov Assis, Ben-Zvi Institute; Mr. Jean-Michel Casa, Ambassador of France to Israel; Dr. Eli Bar-Chen, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, München; Mr. Norbert Bel Ange, Independent Historian, Grenoble; Dr. Michal Ben Ya`akov, Efrata College, Jerusalem; Dr. Denis Charbit, The Open University of Israel; Prof. Joseph Chetrit, Haifa University; Dr. Martin Cuppers, University of Stuttgart; Mr. Emmanuel Debono, Paris Institute of Political Studies; Prof. Guy Dugas, University of Montpellier and the University of Paris-La Sorbonne; Mr. Nathan Eitan, Yad Vashem; Dr. Harald Kindermann, Ambassador of Germany; Mr. Daniel Haik, World Sephardi Federation; Prof. Michael Laskier, Bar-Ilan University; Prof. Eli Lederhendler, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Mr. Reuven Merhav, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany; Dr. Chantal Metzger, University of Nancy 2; Prof. Dan Michman, Yad Vashem and Bar-Ilan University; Mr. Claude Nataf, Président of the Historical Society of Jews from Tunisia; Mr. Tobie Nathan, Embassy of France; Dr. Iael Nidam-Orvieto, Yad Vashem and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Mr. Filippo Petrucci, University of Cagliari, Sardinia; Dr. Isabelle Rohr, New York University; Ms. Michal Ronen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Dr. Haim Saadoun, The Open University of Israel and Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Ben-Zvi Institute; Dr. Mitchell Serels, Berkeley College, New York; Dr. Rachel Simon, Princeton University; Prof. Hannah Yablonka, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Dr. Zvi Zameret, Ben-Zvi Institute; and Dr. Daniel Zisenwine, Tel Aviv University.

Pioneering Research on North Africa
The Dynamics of Antisemitism in the Maghreb on the Eve of World War II

As part of this important conference on North Africa and Its Jews During the Second World War, Emmanuel Debono, a PhD candidate at the Institut d’Etudes politiques in Paris, presented his innovative research on The Dynamics of Antisemitism in the Maghreb on the Eve of World War II.   (The following is an abridged version of his lecture that was presented at the conference.)    

Recent declassification of files in a number of French colonial administration archives¹ has brought new light to the major antisemitic currents at work in prewar Maghreb - Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. These countries were not spared the effects of the flare-up of antisemitism characteristic of the 1930s, albeit each of their histories and geographies and individual status led to varying degrees of intensity and expression. This topic raises numerous questions relating to the antisemitic tendencies at work and their specific expressions, as well as to their specific scope among the native population and the French state’s attitude toward what was a particularly corrosive phenomenon for the cohesiveness of even a colonial society.

The present short study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the breeding ground of the antisemitic persecution pursued by the Vichy Government after 1940. This non-chronological presentation of the overall situation focuses on four key points: diversity of forms of antisemitism; explosive potential of Jewish-Muslim relationships; targeting Muslims with antisemitic propaganda; and lastly, minimal reaction by the French authorities to the divisive activities undertaken in the colonies.

Diversity of Forms of Antisemitism

Antisemitism was not monolithic in metropolitan France nor in the Maghreb. It was fed by a variety of sources, such as Muslim populations, which were traditionally suspicious of if not hostile toward Jews; Algerian settlers for whom the Crémieux Decree (giving French citizenship to Algerian Jews in 1870) was inconceivable; agents from Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy at work to weaken and break down North African colonial societies; French nationalist organizations; the presence of or visits by antisemitic activists from metropolitan France (such as Henry Coston or Jacques Doriot); hostile attitudes of Arab nationalists toward Jews; and schemes by various local rulers. The causes then of antisemitism in this part of the world can be defined as historical-cultural, ideological, and opportunistic. These same causes were also the result of a social situation, which markedly deteriorated in the 1930s, disappointed political aspirations for, in particular, the promotion and failure of the Blum-Violette plan²; and lastly these causes must be seen in a particularly tense international setting, where Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were pursuing an aggressive policy and the Palestinian question was becoming a burning issue.

The many forms and expressions of antisemitism from abuse to riots (such as Sfax, 1932; Constantine, 1934; Gafsa, 1936; Meknès, 1937; and Meknès, 1939), to billposting activities and propaganda meetings, make this a difficult phenomenon to follow, whether for contemporaries (police services, Jewish circles, politicians, and so on) or/and, to be honest, for researchers. However, what becomes more clear is the entanglement of these different antisemitic currents: those who shouted “Long live Hitler” or daubed swastikas on walls might have been pro-Nazi or nationalist militants, but they could equally have been citizens with all sorts of motiveations who appropriated Nazi symbols and references with varying degrees of genuine commitment.

Different currents of antisemitism had their own tempos and time frames.  Some were permanent movements, while others were responses to acute crises or reactions. German propaganda, a constant throughout the decade, was widespread quite early, emerging from Spanish Morocco through the destabilizing work of Nazi agents such as Adolf Langenheim, one of the local Nazi Party leaders. Antisemitism also spread from the Algerian ports where from anchored German ships, as at Bougie in September 1934, crewmembers distributed Nazi badges to the local population. One example among many regarding this spread of antisemitism can be seen when issues of the Nazi Weltdienst periodical, put out by the Erfurt World Service³, were produced and exhibited at the General Council in Oran on 28 October 1936.

The ambitions of Mussolini’s Italy focused on Morocco and Tunisia. The first of the Fascist regime’s antisemitic regulations in 1938, along with the dismissal of Jews from various Tunisian Italian institutions, lent a certain intensity to this propaganda, which was expressed by the press and through Radio Bari broadcasts. Another current was Muslim antisemitism that peaked in the 1934 pogroms in Constantine, creating an atmosphere of high tension between Jews and Muslims in the three countries. The resulting turmoil was encouraged by non-Jewish citizens who continually added fuel to the fire by threatening to do more of what had happened in Constantine.  Two examples of such incitement occurred on 3 September 1934, during a dance in Affreville, Algeria, when a Jew heard a Muslim say during the course of the evening, “What a shame we’re not in Constantine, we could let off steam,” and on 8 September 1934, in a Franco-Arab restaurant in Tunis, when an Algerian exclaimed, “In Constantine, the Arabs did their duty courageously - they were right to do what they did.”

Another form of this antisemitic trend had roots in domestic French politics.  During the months leading up to and following the new political rule of the Front populaire⁴, there was an increase in antisemitism of the groups on the nationalist Right.  Here, the main organization was the Croix-de-Feu, which later evolved into the French Social Party (P.S.F.) after the former was disbanded by the Blum government. Although these groups’ were not preoccupied by antisemitism, it was quite noticeable during public meetings and confrontations when in Algerian towns and cities, public cries of “Down with Blum,” “Down with the Jews,” and “France for the French” were commonly heard in public. The early version of the Blum-Violette plan crystallized the existing pressures against the leaders of government, whom certain senior party figures wanted to see “sent back to Mount Sinai.” In Morocco and Tunisia, the political work of the P.S.F. was more discreet, mainly because of local legislation restricted political activities, yet in spite of this they still took place.

The Explosive Potential of Jewish-Muslim Relationships

Despite the socio-cultural closeness of the two communities, latent animosity existed and broke out from time to time as feelings of distrust came to a head.  The fact is that many of the incidents recorded by the police came from everyday relations between people who live together as neighbors - inevitable frictions, pettiness, insults and reconciliations occurred between the two groups. Nevertheless, antisemitic verbal and physical attacks sometimes flowed out of a contemptuous mindset.  This attitude was unabashedly expressed by a group of locals at a passing Jewish funeral procession on 27 December 1938, in Gafsa, Tunisia.  One of the locals is recorded to have said: “Yet another Jewish bastard who’ll go to Hell.” There is no shortage of these types of examples, yet more importantly recorded are the common themes, which seem to emerge from the police reports of the period: 

• Inter-Communal Friction

  This was a two-way phenomenon, even though undoubtedly the Jewish population suffered such attacks more frequently than their Muslim counterparts. On 4 September 1937, two women, one a Muslim and the other Jewish, had an argument in the streets of Tunis for what the police called a trivial reason. Insults were exchanged, and the Jewish woman suddenly shouted, “Curse the Muslim religion!” On 30 September of the same year, in a Constantine street, two local youngsters were playing with a Jewish child of the same age. The children started squabbling and the Jewish child began to yell. A Jewish woman, probably the mother, swore from her balcony at the young Muslims, cursing their Prophet. On 25 November 1938, in Rabat, a group of Jewish youth threw stones at the funeral procession of a prominent Muslim native.  Clearly, underneath the relations between the two groups was a strong level of unresolved tension.  It is possible to go beyond the level of anecdotes, since these were recurring characteristics, with frequent police reports about teenagers, sometimes children, as well as the inebriated.

• The Reaction in Muslim Crowds

  When an incident occurred, local Moslem crowds gathered with amazing speed.  Sometimes hundreds of people including some fanatics encircled the arguing parties and spurred the crowd on, whipping them up into an uncontrollable emotional state. Many seemingly insignificant incidents turned into chases by groups of Muslim locals who wanted to punish the person who had offended their own.  This behavior reflected high levels of communal tension between Jews and Muslims.

• The Salutary Role of Police Forces

  Once these aforementioned groups had been whipped up into frenzy, self-control was very difficult. The police played a critical role in stopping incidents by dispersing crowds, calling for reinforcements, and making arrests in order to neutralize these potentially explosive   gatherings. The presence of law enforcement was beneficial because the August 1934 events in Constantine were numerous, where the police force was conspicuously absent.

• The Role of Rumor

  Rumor was a major contributor in both communities, before and after incidents. False reports and rumors were plentiful and widespread. The police were only too aware of the pernicious effect that these were likely to have on the masses, Muslim and Jewish alike. To stop rumors was, as a consequence, a top priority for law enforcement officials.

Muslim Inhabitants: A Favored Target Group by Antisemites to Assist the Spread of Anti-Jewish Propaganda

During the 1930s, all the political trends and movements tried to use the Muslim population in their strategies:

• Dictatorships

  The colonies offered a favorable breeding ground for propaganda that sought to weaken French power by helping to challenge its authority. Working from Berlin, Goebbels’ services made a point of spreading anti-Jewish hatred within the Arab populous. These efforts with the people could be done directly, especially through consular agents, but more often they occurred through propaganda in the shape of tracts, fliers, and so on.  The media cited anti-Jewish passages in the Koran, in order to convey their message of hatred.

• French Activists

  The largest number of examples of these circles, which used tracts and fliers to spread their message, is found in Algeria.  Other works include such titles as Tam-Tam, Le Petit Oranais, Branlebas, Halte-là, Le Dissous and Henry Lautier’s L’Eclair. Extremists used anything and everything – the smearing of Jews, false flattery of Muslims, calls for insurrection, and more. An example of the work of French activists is a statement in the Branlebas issue of 28 November 1938, which read, “There are men, then there are camels, then there are dogs, then there are Jews.” Such local antisemitic expressions were supplemented by brochures, which came directly from metropolitan France.

• French Nationalists

  Here the spotlight must be focused on the strategy and rhetoric of European national groups such as the P.S.F., which tended to appeal to the Muslims. Following the Constantine events, the P.S.F. movement expanded its recruitment drive to include Muslims. The subversive potential of spontaneous antisemitism became clear in light of the regular presence of scores of local citizens, at meetings exuding antisemitic venom, with attacks on “Jewry” and the crowd shouting derogatory language. One has only to imagine the effects that the May 1938 tour made by Jacques Doriot, head of the French People’s Party in Algeria had on the population.  During the tour, demands were made at all the meetings to repeal the Crémieux Decree, a highly sensitive topic for local Muslims.

• Arab Nationalists

  The Muslim citizenry was also incited by Arab propaganda, which became increasingly aggressive throughout the 30s. In Tunis, in June 1936 the head of the Sûreté, the Criminal Investigation Department, noted increasing turmoil among the Muslim population in light of the events taking place in Palestine⁵. Slogans were circulated for the boycott of Jewish businesses. For example, on 26 June, after Muslim prayers, two dockworkers spoke with fellow Muslim dockworkers about what was happening in Palestine, referring to “the awful things that the Arabs have undergone by the Jews.” The head of Sûreté noted, “The crowd, which comprised at least 500 people, appeared to be fairly agitated.” To spare the reader further examples, we instead take note of the circulation of propaganda material that originated in the Arab regions of the Near and Middle East. The commander of Morocco’s Taza region in May 1935 reported that antisemitic tracts had been brought back to the area from Mecca by Moroccan pilgrims. In Tunisia, July 1939, the police made references to the Palestinian question appearing in the local Arab press. In addition, publications from the East combined references to the Jews and the English. Such propaganda was, of course, influenced by the current Zionist activities taking place in the Maghreb. 

Lastly, local political life was filled with scheming local leaders (such as the Abbé Lambert in Oran or Emile Morinaud in Constantine) who had no scruples about mobilizing the Muslim natives against the Jews, making particular use of economical boycotts.

The Weak Official French Response

In order to comment on this issue, the case of the Maghreb must be placed in a national perspective. In the prewar period, anti-racism was not considered a real issue that was capable of significantly influencing or initiating an official governmental response. Not until 21 April 1939 did the French government deal seriously with the racists and foreign machinations. However, it was only on 29 August 1939 that a decree was issued forbidding the circulation of the above-mentioned publication Weltdienst. The government authorities were openly motivated by the issuance of public order and national cohesion. In practice, the executive law barring racial defamation was almost not applied before being repealed by the Vichy government.

There is no doubt that antisemitism in the Maghreb did confront the French authorities with a problem, especially following the Constantine riots. Considerable correspondence about the riots, which were closely monitored, was generated.  In a report dated 30 July 1938, the head of the Sûreté in Constantine noted that the former antisemitic mayor, Morinaud, had not managed to revive in the Muslims those feelings of hatred identified amongst them on 5 August  [the date of the 1934 Constantine pogroms]. However, this manner of language should not be interpreted to mean an absence of hatred and animosity. It actually introduced a notable level of threats, with the French administration apparently fearing the point at which action followed words. As a result the most serious flare-ups remained limited, but they did not exclude other occurrences, which were considered harmless, but not tolerable, by the Administration. This reaction point created the impression that the government had set its “tolerance threshold” at a point just short of collective murderous violence. Although there was no repeat of the 1934 pogrom, this should in no way minimize the pernicious effect that harmful propaganda, whether local or foreign in origin, which people constantly feared might lead to confrontations, had on individual mindsets and on national unity.  This was a precarious balance and is reflected as such in police records.

What historian Michael Abitbol has pointed out about Algeria applies equally to the protectorates - the public authorities opted for an attitude of abstention in order to avoid giving the impression of Jewish influence over the authorities⁶. Clearly, the latter would appear to have taken on the thought that combating antisemitism would trigger antisemitism. The sporadic interventions by the authorities were not enough to conceal their long-term unwillingness, whose goal was to rescue both social and “racial” peace in the North African territories.

Finally, the worst thing was the “green light” of support that resulted from the state’s weakness to intervene and was viewed as support for those nationals or foreigners, who were creating an antisemitic discourse.  The end result was that Jewish communities came to be haunted by obsessive fears and unvoiced terror, causing them to withdraw into themselves, suffering a sense of having been abandoned. The study of various official reports attests to this fear.

Conclusion

The antisemitic currents and dynamics, which existed throughout the Maghreb in the 1930s, may have had a variety of origins and forms, yet they can be seen to share points of interaction and intensification. The background factors – whether developments on the international scene, French colonial policy, the obsessive fears which engulfed the Jewish and Arab communities as a result of events elsewhere (persecution of the Jews in Germany, the Palestinian question), or the political radicalization experienced by France during these prewar years – were hardly likely to reassure people. The resurgence of nationalist sentiments was the outcome of increasing tensions on both sides, and the police reports referred to the presence of fanatics, whose numbers were undoubtedly underestimated, but who were able to influence crowds and encourage confrontations.

While Algeria occupied a dominant position when it came to expression of the phenomenon, the same dynamics were undoubtedly at work in the two other territories. The authorities were either unable or unwillingly to thwart the confrontations. They did, nevertheless, have available at their disposal worrisome information contained in reports about major collective tensions. Researchers should consider the fertility of the Muslim antisemitic breeding ground, which was nourished by the numerous, often conflictual, contacts with the Jewish society, while at the same time taking into account the numerous interactions, which linked it to the other elements of colonial society. Lastly, the actions and influences exerted from abroad, notably Germany and Italy, but also the Orient constituted a major determinant in the period.

Emmanuel Debono is in the last year of his PhD studies at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.  His research is on the International League Against Antisemitism from 1927-1940.  Debono is utilizing unpublished sources, notably those from French archives that were stolen by the Nazis and were kept in Moscow for 60 years.  His research aims to better understand the reality of antisemitism and its dynamics in France prior to the war, as well as to deepen the question on how a democratic society dealt with this phenomenon. 

His publications include: “Les origines de la Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme” in Histoire@politique, n. 2, septembre-octobre (2007); “Les dynamiques de l’antisémitisme en France dans les années 1930” in Archives juives, n. 40/2, 2ème semestre (2007); “Antisémites européens et musulmans en Algérie après le pogrome de Constantine (1934-1939)” in Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah, n. 187, juillet/décembre (2007); and “Le Front populaire et le militantisme antiraciste: l’exemple de la Ligue internationale contre l’antisémitisme,” in Gilles Morin et Gilles Richard (sous la direction de), Les deux France du Front populaire, (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2008).  In 2004, Emmanuel Debono took part in the design content for the future memorial of the Camp d’Aix-Les Milles.  The memorial is scheduled to open in 2009.

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¹ The Centres des Archives d’Outre-Mer for Algeria in Aix-en-Provence (France) and the Centre des archives diplomatiques de Nantes (France) for Morocco and Tunisia.

² 1936, The so-called Blum-Violette Plan proposed the extension of French civic rights to the Algerian population.

³ The “World Service” was the German center for anti-Jewish propaganda, based in Erfurt, Germany and operating worldwide.

⁴ The term Front Populaire first came into being in July 1935 to designate the electoral pact between the French Socialist Party (SFIO), the French Communist Party (PCF) and the le Parti Radical in preparation for the legislative elections of 1936.

⁵ There were riots in Palestine between 1936-1939 by Arabs against the British and the Jewish settlers.

⁶ See Michael Abitbol, The Jews of North Africa During the Second World War (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989.