Bénichou was among hundreds of North African Jews and roughly 77,000 foreign-born Jews living in France during World War II to be deported to the Nazi death camps. Our work has led us to Jews of North African origin, like Bénichou, who were residing in Europe and who fell within the Nazi dragnet; and to millions of local North African Jews and Muslims, as well as thousands of refugee Christians and Jews from Europe who ended up in North Africa during the war. North African Jews in war-torn Europe were resisters, deportees, subjects of forced labor, victims of the death chambers, and survivors. Thirty Jewish Olympians were annihilated in the course of the Holocaust, including one North African Jew: Tunisian-born Victor “Young” Perez, a French boxing star and the youngest flyweight champion in boxing history. Today, North African Jews’ stories must be told as essential components of World War II, and of Holocaust history.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 27, 2022 15:49 UTC