University of Washington

This lecture addresses the neglected story of the Jews of present-day Algeria, Morocco, and Libya during the Holocaust. The complex webs of relations created by the diversity of ethnic and religious communities, the history of colonialism, and the alliances among fascist powers created a climate in which anti-Semitism was mitigated for much of the 19th and 20th centuries in various North African communities. Whole communities were destroyed by the same forces that wreaked destruction on European Jews. This story of the intersecting histories of colonialism, nationalism, and the modern machinery of the Holocaust has been largely eclipsed by the history of Ashkenazim during the war, but is one which is entirely parallel in its traumatic effect.

university of washington,