Les camps de Vichy au Maghreb de 1940 à 1944

Abstract

June 1940, the defeat, Vichy and the anti-Jewish laws. In 1940, after France’s defeat, the Jews of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia endured several exclusion laws ranging from the numerus clausus in the civil service, army, universities and schools to arrests, internments, the confiscation of goods and even deportations.The dozens of camps that opened in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia allowed for the removal and subjugation of all of the undesirables deported from metropolitan France, including foreign Jews forced out of the French army, Communist members of Parliament and senators, union activists and members of the International Brigades and Spanish Republican refugees.Internees were placed under the responsibility of French officers and were guarded by brutal and, in some cases sadistic, legionnaires. When they were being not tortured in disregard of all the rules of international law, the internees were generally subjected to a severe regime of forced labor. This took place under particularly inhumane housing, food and medical conditions.