The Holocaust and North Africa, editors Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein

The Holocaust and North Africa, editors Aomar Boum and Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Review:

North Africa ceased to exist as a political entity" - A. Chouraqui

The historian André Chouraqui correctly wrote that, “with French occupation of Algeria in 1830 –an event which marked the beginning of profound French influence…- and the subsequent establishment of French protectorates in Tunisia and Morocco in 1881 and 1912 respectively, North Africa could no longer be regarded as an historical and political unit.”

The Holocaust in Europe was a political "state-sponsored" process as stated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and described as such by all Holocaust scholars. Unfortunately, the authors of the book inaccurately titled "The Holocaust and North Africa,” adopted a “geographically” continental approach to European Holocaust history rather than a political approach that place the Holocaust in Europe in its “proper contemporaneous context” of an imperial Europe, a “Europe inclusive of the North African colonies" as correctly defined by the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI). Hitler himself defined Europe as "the European nations and their overseas territories."

Holocaust historians Yehuda Bauer, academic advisor at Yad Vashem, Leni Yahil, Peter Longerich, Martin Gilbert and others correctly narrate history of the European Holocaust as not taking place in geographically continental Europe, but as taking place in the political proper context of political Europe, inclusive of Europe's overseas North African possessions, Vichy-Tunisia, Vichy Morocco, Vichy Algeria, and Italian Libya. That’s why they narrate the persecution, deportations, and murder of the Jews in Vichy-French Tunisia, Vichy Fr. Morocco, Vichy Fr. Algeria, and Italian Libya as an integral part of the Shoah in France (“an empire nation;” "Frankreich" German for French Empire) and Italy respectively. Those historians simply use “Historians habits of the mind” and the true historical methodology of “proper context” and “precision of language” promoted by the National Council for History Education, and historians at Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (ushmm), and EHRI.

“In history, background and context matter.” It is imperative to “perceive past events and issues as they might have been experienced by the people of the time, with historical empathy rather than present-mindedness.” (History’s habits of mind, The National Council for History Education – NCHE). How a Holocaust scholar approaches the evolution of political events, assembles historical evidence, and properly contextualizes them by using a precise terminology, are very important decisions within historiography, because they determine the quality and the accuracy of the historical account.

Edith Shaked 
Advisory Board Member H-Holocaust, an international academic consortium/H-Net's Network for scholars of the Holocaust 
Shaked attended the relevant contHolocaust and North Africa at UCLA