The Jews of the Middle East in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Presented by The Documentation Center for North Africa Jewry durign World War II, the Ben Zvi Institute, International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem

From the time they assumed power – and even beforehand – the Nazi regime's policy towards the Jews drew responses from both the Jewish and the non-Jewish world. Many aspects of the Nazi influence outside the areas over which they ruled have been addressed by scholars, but very little attention has been given to aspects related to the Middle East (aside from the Jewish settlement in the land of Israel and the Mufti of Jerusalem). The aim of this conference is to address various aspects of this neglected issue. 

Jacqueline Semha Gmach, born in Tunisia during WWII, is a Holocaust educator and is serving as the Project Director of USC Shoah Foundation's Testimonies from North Africa and the Middle East collection.  At the conference, she will give a lecture on "Four Iraqi Jews' Testimonies - Their Life Stories Prior, During and After World War II."

TESTIMONIES FROM NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST is a project documenting testimonies from survivors and eye-witnesses who lived through the events of over 70 years ago in North Africa and the Middle East, and the destruction created there by Nazi occupiers or governments that were Nazi sympathizers. These experiences are crucial for understanding the global impact and scale of Nazi ideology and its' policies. After the war, many of these individuals experienced continued anti-Semitic persecution in their home countries and were forced to flee.