In these territories too, Jews were murdered, forced into labor camps, suffered inhumane conditions, and were pushed out of public life. According to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem, some 415,000 Jews lived in the Maghreb before the war. He tells DW that even though the Holocaust took place in Europe, North Africa and its Jewish communities were affected — to different degrees — by the war. Jews who were non-Libyan nationals were sent to Nazi camps in Europe: "In Benghazi, there were British Jews. Michman believes the Nazi aspiration to exterminate Jews would have reached Jewish communities in North Africa on a much larger scale.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 27, 2026 11:22 UTC