Community and Individual Resistance

Chapter 13 Community and Individual Resistance

13.1 The Story of the Jewish Resistance in Algeria

Community and individual resistance and heroism are common terms used in discussing the European Holocaust. The Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel is formally known as Holocaust Heroes and Martyrs’ Remembrance Day, emphasizing the heroism and martyrdom of those who fought, perished or survived the Holocaust, the sanctity of life and the uprisings and partisans in camps and in the woods.1 However, the Jews of North Africa and other colo- nialist and pro-Nazi countries also resisted their oppressors, although perhaps not along the lines of European partisans and resistance. Postwar testimonies reveal that during this period and up to 1948, a Jewish resistance movement operated in Tunisia. Led by the Zionist youth movement in Sfax, its actions included, among many others, illegal immigration to Israel. The detention and forced labor camps also experienced silent, life-sanctifying resistance. In November 1945 in postwar Libya, the community came together during a Muslim uprising that resulted in losses of lives and property. The Jewish battle for survival in Iraq and Egypt persisted well after the war had ended, fueled by the conflict surrounding the formation of the Jewish state. From the mid-’40s, two illegal resistance movements rose up in Iraq, mostly made up of Jewish youths and students: Zionism and Communism. The Zionist movement was smaller, whereas the Communist had more significance to the Iraqi population. The Iraqi government brutally suppressed both. After the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948, many Jews were imprisoned for affiliation with Communism or the Zionist movement, or both.2 In response, many inmates set out on a hunger strike, as depicted in the film Braids. At the onset of the war, many Algerian Jews joined the French military. Recruits were sent to the European frontlines where some were injured or killed.3 After the implementation of the anti-Semitic Vichy legislation, the

1 Yossi Kasner and Yisrael Ronen, “The Jewish Underground in Algeria, 1940–1942: The History and Politics of Memory,” Teoria VeBikoret 24 (2004): 161. 2 Mordechai Bibi, “The Pioneer Resistance in Iraq,” Peamim 8 (1981): 92–106. 3 Gitta Amipaz-Silber, The Role of the Jewish Underground in the American Landing in Algiers, 1940–1942 (Jerusalem: Gefen Publication House, 1992); Gitta Amipaz-Silber, Sephardi Jews in Occupied France: Under the Tyrant’s Heel, 1940–1944. Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1995.

Jews were discharged and banned from joining the military or the Foreign Legion (although matters differed in each country). Prior to the German occupation, Tunisian Jews with French citizenship fought in the French army, and many were killed. In display of their loyalty to the Republic and their appre- ciation for their citizenship, many had instead joined the French resistance against the Vichy regime. Upon arriving in Israel, however, they were stripped of their heroism and resistance through political and ideological debates and limiting criteria for deciding who may and may not be included in collective Israeli consciousness. This was overshadowed by the question of what the definition of Jewish resistance is, and what amounts to Jewish motive in the Holocaust.4 Esteemed Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg defined resistance as armed uprising,5 a definition that has since changed to include passive resistance. Nevertheless, many Holocaust scholars and researchers still consider armed organized resistance as the pinnacle of resistance to the Nazis. From the end of WWII onward, many instances of armed Jewish resistance to the Nazi oppressors were documented, although they all ended in defeat,6 except the story of the Algerian underground resistance movement; in this case, Jewish Algerian youths organized a defense group under the guise of a sports club. They played a key role in assisting the Allies, primarily by commandeering important posts in cities. Prof. Israel Gutman defines resistance as an act of survival. He consid- ered the acts of Jewish fighters to be driven by Jewish motives.7 It was their unique status under oppression, an existential need to rescue their brethren, unlike people of other nations who could choose whether or not to join the resistance.8 Such assumptions are commonly accepted when it comes to European Jewry, who founded or joined underground resistance movements in defiance of the Nazi occupation. These include the Jews of France who joined the resistance and “experienced a tragedy that was both French and Jewish” in order to “reclaim their birthright.”9 The Jewish motives of French Jews in the resistance were recognized as Jewish, as were the motives of European Jewry, even if some had chosen to join the partisans rather than the Jewish resistance. Conversely,

4 Kasner and Ronen, Jewish Underground in Algeria. 5 Raul Hilberg, “Definition by Decree,” Teoria VeBikoret 21 (2002): 35–46. 6 Israel Guttman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, s.v. “Jewish Resistance to Nazis,” (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Yad Vashem and Sifriat Poalim, 1990). 7 Israel Gutman, In Darkness and in Struggle: Chapters for Study of the Holocaust and the Jewish Resistance, (Tel Aviv: Moreshet, 1985). 8 Leon Poliakov, “Jewish Resistance in the West,” in Meir Grubsztein (ed.), Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Conference on Manifestations of Jewish Resistance, Jerusalem, April 7–11, 1968, (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1971). 9 Renée Poznansky, “Reflections” Reflections on Jewish Resistance, and Jewish Resistance in France,” Jewish Social Studies, 2(1) (1995): 124–158.