Noam (Norman) A. Stillman
North Africa Jewry During World War II: Subjugation, Heroism and a Near Encounter with the Holocaust
Summary
North Africa (the Maghreb) during the Second World War had the largest Jewish population in the Islamic world. Although there were no death factories in North Africa, no railway lines leading to Europe, and no mass murders, there were, in fact, more than one hundred labor and prison camps under the anti-Semitic Vichy regime. The entire region became an actual theater of war, and for a little over six months between November 1942 and May 1943, Tunisia came under direct Nazi control. The resistance underground that greatly facilitated the Allied landing and takeover in Algeria during Operation Torch on the night of November 7–8, 1942, was overwhelmingly comprised of Jews. Their war-time experience had a major impact upon Maghrebi Jewry who emerged with a renewed sense of themselves (un retour sur soi).
Noam (Norman) A. Stillman
Noam (Norman) A. Stillman is Schusterman/Josey Professor Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma and an internationally recognized authority on the history and culture of the Islamic world and on Sephardi and Oriental Jewry. His books include The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book and The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, among others. He is executive editor of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. He is chair of the Academic Council of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) and sits on numerous boards of academic organizations, think tanks, and journals. He came to Israel permanently in 2016 and teaches each spring semester at the Hebrew University.