The lecture offers participants an in-depth look at the experiences of Jews in Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria during World War II—a historical reality that has been pushed out of the mainstream discourse surrounding Holocaust remembrance in Israel. The lecture reviews the Vichy regime and the German occupation of North Africa, the policy of discrimination and persecution of Jews, labor camps, deportations to Europe, and the influence of Nazi propaganda on hostility toward Jews on the part of Muslim neighbors. In this context, participants are also exposed to stories of Jewish resistance, in particular the extraordinary actions of the Jewish underground in Algiers, which actually helped the Allies land.

During the lecture, we will examine the cultural and social ethos of these communities on the eve of the war, the effects of European colonialism, the process of modernization and secularization, and the status of these communities in the society in which they lived. We will also discuss the absorption of North African immigrants in post-Holocaust Israel – transit camps, development towns, and the fraught encounter with the Sabra Israeli identity. The lecture combines personal testimonies, original documents, and archival photographs, and seeks to integrate the story of the North African communities into the national memory—not as an extension, but as a necessary recognition. It is an invitation to broaden the concept of "the Holocaust of the Jewish people" to include the voices, suffering, resilience, and contribution of the Jews of the Maghreb.

*A suitable mobile exhibition can be ordered to be displayed at the station for an additional fee.