To the contrary of common perceptions, the Holocaust was not a strictly European tragedy; the Jews living under colonial rule in North Africa were also victims of the Nazis. When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Vichy rule was consolidated in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, thus posing an existential threat to the well-being of the Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews who were part of those ancient Jewish communities dating back to antiquity. In addition, Fascist Italian control of Libya posed a danger to the Jews who lived there. Though some areas of North Africa were worse than others, depending on the level of Nazi control. According to historian Robert Satloff:
“Virtually no Jew in North Africa was left untouched [by the Axis powers]“
Nevertheless, despite some local opposition from figures such as the King of Morocco, Satloff claims that between 4,000 and 5,000 North African Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, while an additional 1,200 North African Jews trapped in France were sent eastwards to Nazi death camps, where they would share the same fate as European Jewry. Satloff continues..........
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