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The Unknown Story of Moroccan Holocaust Survivors

(Times of Israel) Julie Masis - Although Morocco was a French protectorate and France's Vichy regime was complicit in the murder of French Jews, not a single Jew living in Morocco was sent to a concentration camp during World War II. Nor did Morocco's Jews wear the yellow star, their property was not seized (unlike Jewish property in neighboring Algeria), and they were not stripped of their citizenship. At the same time, Moroccan Jews were forced to live in mellahs, or historic Jewish quarters, where food was scarce and typhus and cholera were common. Those who were already living there were not allowed to move out, and some who were living outside of the Jewish districts had to move into them - a policy that may have been put in place as the first step to extermination. Between 1940 and November 1942 when the Americans landed in Morocco, Jewish children were expelled from schools, Jews were fired from government jobs, and there were quotas on how many Jews could attend universities or work as doctors, lawyers and pharmacists, said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2020-12-17 00:00:00
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