The Ben-Zvi Institute of Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi The International Institute The Documentation Center of for Holocaust Research North African Jewry during WWII

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

The End of 1942 A Turning Point in World War II and in the Comprehension of the Final Solution? Monday–Thursday, 17-20 December 2012 Yad Vashem Auditorium, Har Hazikaron, The conference will be held in Hebrew and English with simultaneous translation

Monday, 17 December 2012

09:30-10:00 Gathering

10:00-11:30 Opening Session 1942End of Chair: Bella Gutterman, Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Opening Remarks: Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Jerusalem Yom Tov Assis, Chairman of the Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem Dan Michman, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan

Keynote Address: Antony James Beevor, Visiting Professor at University of London; University of Kent The Eastern Front and the Military Context, 1941-1942

11:30-12:00 Coffee Break

12:00-12:45 Session 1 - The Road Towards the 1942 Declarations 1942End of Chair: Tuvia Friling, Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of and Zionism, Be’er Sheva

Yehuda Bauer, Yad Vashem; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem What Did They Know – Reconsidered: The Riegner Telegram

12:45-14:00 Lunch Break

14:00-15:15 Session 2 - The Allies’ Declaration and its Impact 1942End of Chair: Colette Avital, Chair, Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel

Florent Brayard, Historical Research Center (EHESS), Paris Those Who Didn’t Believe: On the Reception of the Inter-Allied Declaration of December 1942 Jan Láníček, University of New South Wales, Sydney Czechoslovakia and the Allied Declaration of 17 December 1942

Discussion

15:15-15:45 Coffee Break

15:45-17:00 Session 3 - The Declarations and Statements: What Message Did They Convey? 1942End of Chair: Iael Nidam-Orvieto, Yad Vashem; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dina Porat, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Tel Aviv University The Jewish Agency’s Announcement of November 23, 1942 and its Significance – A Reinterpretation Paul O’Shea, Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Rosebank College, Sydney Pius XII, the Vatican and the Moral Imperative to do Good - Christmas 1942

Discussion

Tuesday, 18 December 2012 9:00-10:45 Session 4 - Comprehension and Reality 1942End of Chair: David Silberklang, Yad Vashem; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Joel Zisenwine, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem The Intelligence Community and the Holocaust: Was December 1942 a Turning Point? Gerald Steinacher, University of Nebraska-Lincoln The Red Cross and the Holocaust: The Years 1942 and 1944 as Turning Points in Humanitarian Intervention Laszlo Karsai, University of Szeged The Holocaust as Conveyed in the Hungarian Press of 1942 Discussion

10:45-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-13:00 Session 5 - The Problem of Real-Time Comprehension 1942End of Chair: Dalia Ofer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Shlomo Aronson, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Allied Theaters of War Worldwide at the End of 1942, and the Fate of the Jews Jürgen Matthäus, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. The Haziness of Hindsight: Early Jewish Perceptions of Organized Mass Murder and the Post-War Comprehension of the “Final Solution” Aomar Boum, University of Arizona, Tucson Between History and Rumor: The Holocaust in Moroccan National Narratives

Discussion

13:00-14:15 Lunch Break

14:15-15:30 Session 6 - Italians and Germans in the North African Theatre 1942End of Chair: Yaacov Yaniv, Director of Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem

Patrick Bernhard, FRIAS, Freiburg University In the Shadow of El Alamein: Italian War Crimes and Persecution of the Jews in North Africa in the Context of the Final Solution in Europe Yossi Brill, The Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem Last Moments: The Last Days of German Officers in Tunisia in World War II Discussion

15:30-16:00 Coffee Break

16:00-17:15 Session 7 - The North African Theatre: Operation Torch and its Impact 1942End of Chair: Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, The Open University, Ra’anana

Meir Zamir, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva The Moroccan Sultan’s Secret Ties with Germany after Operation Torch and the Involvement of the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini Michal Ben Ya’akov, Efrata College, Jerusalem When Was the Turning Point? Official Declarations of the American Jewish Congress After Operation Torch Discussion Wednesday, 19 December 2012 9:00-10:45 Session 8 - North African Jewry in the Immediate Aftermath of Operation Torch 1942End of Chair: Thomas H. Goldberger, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the United States of America

Filippo Petrucci, University of Cagliari Lasting Impact of Vichy, New Horrors of Nazism: The Existential Challenges of North African Jews at the End of 1942 Emmanuel Debono, Center of the 20th Century Social History, Paris The Difficult Recovery of the Crémieux Decree (8 November 1942 - 20 October 1943) Haim Saadoun, Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem; The Open University, Ra’anana Jewish Leaders in North Africa During and After Operation Torch: What Did They Understand, What Did They Do?

Discussion

10:45-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-13:00 Session 9 - The Impact of the Turning Tide in North Africa on France 1942End of Chair: Haggai Erlich, Tel Aviv University; The Open University, Ra’anana

Simon Epstein, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Forty Days of Admiral Darlan: The Impact of the Algier Cataclysm on the Vichy Regime (November – December 1942) Alain Michel, “Elkana” Publishing House, Jerusalem November 1942: Was the German Army’s Invasion of Southern France a Turning Point in the Fate of the Vichy France Jews or Not? Ludivine Broch, University of London The End of the Line? Allied Landings, Jewish Deportations and French Railways in 1942

Discussion

13:00-14:15 Lunch Break

14:15-15:30 Session 10 - The Eastern Front 1942End of Chair: Konrad Kwiet, The University of Sydney

Kiril Feferman, Russian Holocaust Center, Moscow Keeping Stalingrad in Mind? Fluctuations of German Judenpolitik in the Northern Caucasus, November 22, 1942 – December 31, 1942 Viktoriya Sukovata, Kharkiv National Karazin University The Holocaust in the Kharkiv Region and the Attitude of the Locals and Soviet Authorities to the Final Solution

Discussion

15:30-16:00 Coffee Break

16:00-17:15 Session 11- Film: Apocalypse: The Second World War - Part 5: 1942-1943 1942End of (TV-Documentary, France 2009; Dir. Isabelle Clarke, Jean-Louis Guillaud, Henri de Turenne, Daniel Costelle; 52 min.; English Version)

Introduction: Tobias Ebbrecht, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Thursday, 20 December 2012 9:00-10:45 Session 12 - Changing Tides of War and the Declarations: Reflections in Jewish Writings Under Nazi Rule 1942End of Chair: Havi Dreifuss, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Tel Aviv University

Witold Medykowski, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem Reflection of the News of the German Defeats and Official Declarations about the Mass Murder Campaign Against the Jews at the End of 1942 in Writings of Polish Jews Under the German Occupation Isaac Hershkovitz, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan Educational and Rabbinic Responses to Rumors and Developments During World War II in general on the End of 1942 in particular

Discussion

10:45-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-13:00 Session 13 - Knowledge, Comprehension and Their Impact: Other Aspects 1942End of Chair: Robert Rozett, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Zohar Segev, University of Haifa What did the World Jewish Congress Know About the Fate of European Jewry at the End of 1942? Sources and Interpretation Piotr Setkiewicz, State Museum Auschwitz, Oświęcim The Destruction of Jews in Auschwitz in Reports of the Polish Resistance Movement Jonathan Goldstein, University of West Georgia, Carrollton (Georgia) Manila Jewry in 1942: From Survivors to Victims Discussion

13:00-14:15 Lunch Break

14:15-15:45 Conclusion 1942End of Chair: Dina Porat, Yad Vashem; Tel Aviv University

Keynote Address: Gerhard Weinberg, Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill From Allied Defeat to Allied Victory; From World-Wide Holocaust to a Limited Holocaust

Concluding Remarks: Dina Porat, Chief Historian of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Kantor Center, Tel Aviv University Haim Saadoun, Director of the Documentation Center of North African Jewry During WWII, The Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem; The Open University, Ra’anana

Newspaper cutting about the mass murder of Polish Jews in the “Palestine Post” 25 November 1942

With the generous support of The Gertner Center for International Holocaust Conferences The Gutwirth Family Fund The Ben-Zvi Institute, The Documentation Center of North African Jewry During WWII (Supported by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany)

אלג’יריה, חיילים אמריקנים נוחתים על החוף. נובמבר Algeria, American soldiers landing on the beach. November 1942 | 1942