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Jews of Algeria / Algerian Jews

© Dar El Maarifa (Algeria), 2004


The graves testify to the tragedy of the Jews of Algeria

by Robert Fisk

www.independent.co.uk

[translator's note: We deliver to our readers thought this story from Robert Fisk, translation which can not yet certify all theses the A. The depredations suffered as the Jewish cemeteries and European of Algeria after independence were not the prerogative of the GIA, anti-Semitism of the 1890s and 1940s was rife along the other side of the Mediterranean also, the Jews of Algeria Francophilia met expectations Citizens tangible.]

"You want to see the Jewish graves? "I asked a guard.

He pours a cold downpour came from the sea Above the Algerian French cemetery of St. Eugene, I read again these familiar words: "Today me, tomorrow you. " Since I crossed those same doors twenty years ago, I'm almost certain that the remains of the Jews of Algeria did not survive. During the 1990s civil war, the place had become a forbidden zone for the Algerian authorities, apart from the guards hired by the embassy of France. The great French cemeteries of Tlemcen and other cities were razed by the Islamists, the graves of former Algerian Jews, French Jews, the Blackfoot and colonizers 130 years returned.

Bandits of the GIA were making bombs under the eucalyptus St. Eugene among the graves, they say. Some policemen in search of explosives blew up the vaults of 19th century French traders. Finding only bones. The cemetery is still there. "Get on that wall," explains the keeper. Here it is, the tiny synagogue dedicated to "the Jewish community of Algiers to his children died in battle."

And here are the monuments still remaining in Hebrew and French, the Jews of Algeria who gave their lives for France during the Great War. "Jules David Soussan, 3rd Regiment of Zouaves mixed, death Etingen, 1918 "and" Amar Maurice Moses, soldier of 2nd Engineer Regiment, died at Newport, August 16, 1915, Croix de Guerre. " Probably the ultimate victim of Hitler's assault during the next conflict, William Levy "died for France, June 16, 1940, in Arpajon (Seine-et-Oise), at the age of 30 years, died before that he learns how his country has treated its people criminally.

already rampant anti-Semitism in the 1890s - not the Muslims in Algeria, but among the French colonists 'civilized', which in 1870, were outraged when the French Minister of Justice Isaac Cremieux, granted full French citizenship to 40,000 Jews in Algeria. Muslims do not see granting this privilege, but the French right, and not the majority Muslim population, which expressed his contempt for Jews. In a remarkable book, the Algerian journalist Aissa Chenouf published the fruits of his investigation exceptional within the former Jewish population of his country, revealing some terrible episodes of brutality in France against him.

In March 1897, by example, the daily Le Petit French colonial African urged voters to use their ballots against all those who supported the Jewish community in Algeria. The newspaper published a "list of anti-Jewish 'French-born applicants, including doctors, businessmen and retired officers the right, under the title:" All the French against the common enemy. The Jew is the enemy. "The pro-Jewish voters were presented as" sheep "acting under orders.

Incredibly, seventeen years later, the Jews of Algeria sent their son to fight in France. Aissa cites a letter from the rabbi of Constantine to his son about to leave for the Salonika front. "I advise you to be a good soldier, brave, obedient to your officers and friendly to your classmates," he writes. You're no longer a child, you're a man and you have the honor to go to war to defend our beloved country, France. The honor of your whole family is now in your hands. You must come back among us, after the victory, awarded the Military Medal and Croix de Guerre. "As unfortunate Amar Moses, I guess.

At least 2000 Algerian Jews perished during the Great War. They were badly rewarded. Under the Vichy regime in 1940, the decree was repealed Cremieux, Algerian Jews making their status as "natives." General Weygand Mauritius initialed this measure. Old Algerian French soldiers, calling itself the "French Legion of Veterans' high of 150 000 members, define their enemies as" democracy, traitors Gaullists and leprosy Jewish. " When the Algerians were allowed to seize assets of Jews, Muslims - as one man - refused. Ferhat Abbas, one of the great patriotic Muslims in Algeria, considered the anti-Jewish laws as "odious".

In his new history of Jews in Muslim lands, Martin Gilbert pays homage to the Algerian Muslims who risked their lives for Jews during the Vichy period, although his book is not free of inaccuracies. Yet the history of Jews in Muslim countries is fraught with paradoxes. Antisemitic violence does exist in Algerian history, especially in the 12th century. The final tragedy was the independence war of Algeria. The Jews tried to avoid taking part, although their training and their French history made many of them allies of the colonists Blackfoot up sympathizing with the armed opposition anti-Gaullist OAS . End of June 1962, 142,000 Jews had left Algeria, only 25,000 are left - including 6000 in Algiers. Gilbert said that France won the 125 000, only 25 681 Israel (where their new life - a story largely unknown - proved an amazing success story). At independence in 1962, the National Liberation Front asked the Jewish citizens of stay. Gilbert notes that legislation on nationality then threw doubt on that request. "An ancient Jewish community came to an end," he writes.

Not really. Jews still live in Algiers. I met one of them, a few weeks ago. They continue to visit the cemetery of St. Eugene. By crossing this wall in the rain, I almost fell on the graves of family Baich. According to Jewish tradition, stones, newly filed, strew the grave of an old lady. "A member of Baich came here four days ago, said the guardian. He came to pray at the grave of his mother. Then he slams his hands in a final gesture that I understand, but I do not like. "It's over," he said. But they are still there. "

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Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-tombs-that-bear-witness-to-algerias-jewish-tragedy -2191292.html
Article published on 01/22/2011.
Translation: © George Festa - 02.2011

site of Jewish cemetery St. Eugene Bologhine (Algiers) :
http://www.cimetiere-steugene.judaismealgerois.fr