Lecture (12) Conference Paris Nov 2019: The Allies came just in time, November 8, 1942

The implementation of the Nazi decision to stop the emigration of Jews from Morocco lasted several months, until the autumn of 1942. On the 8th of November 1942 the Allies landed in Morocco and Algeria, called Operation Torch, to free these countries from the Vichy government and from the German and Italian Nazis. After fighting for some days the Vichy authorities surrended, some officials were replaced and some not, the German Nazis were kicked out of Morocco over time, and the US and Britain entered the stage. After November the 8th, Vichy and the US broke their diplomatic relations, all exit visas were cancelled, and the frontiers closed. A whole new situation arose. For the internees a hopeful situation to become liberated. The United States and Britain founded a Commission for Political Prisoners and Refugees to assess who would be released and when this would happen. Members of this commission were representatives of the French government in Morocco, the Lehman agency and the Red Cross. But also members of the Quaker organization ‘American Friends Service Committee’ took part in this organization. This commission formulated the policy and left the implementation to the French authorities to screen the individual cases because they were still in charge of the internment camps. On the 17th of November 1942 president Roosevelt stated: “I asked for the liberation, in North Africa, of all those persons who were imprisoned because they were opposed to the effort of the Nazis to rule the world (….)”. But, despite these fine words, the Allied Forces were only concerned with planning their strategy and practicing the cooperation between the British and Americans in Morocco after Operation Torch, with the purpose to fight the Nazis in Europe. The Allies were preoccupied to win the war in Europe and showed no concern at all for the (Jewish) refugees and legionnaires/EVDG’s in the harsh labor camps in Morocco. According to Richard Breitman in his article in the Journal of Contemporary History (1985), the US were not interested in Jews but only in conquering. Anyway, due to this military reason the Allies left the French authorities to plan the liberation of the camps after November 8, 1942. Robert Satloff formulated in his book Among the righteous this military reason more specifically by stating that an agreement between the Americans and the defeated Vichy officers in North Africa arranged free passage for the Anglo-American forces in exchange for recognition of the Vichy sovereignty.