(Ynet News) Eliezer Hayon - "The Night of Fools," screened last week on Israel's Channel 1 television, tells the story of "Operation Torch" - the code name for the American landing in French-ruled North Africa, and the central role in it played by the Algerian underground, which was almost entirely made up of Jews. Just before the Americans landed, the underground presented "orders" from a high-ranking colonel in the Vichy General Staff allowing hundreds of Jewish members of the underground to be deployed in the central institutions of the army - the post office, situation room, communications room. At midnight on Nov. 8, 1942, when he heard the first shots, Jacques Zermati, one of the commanders of the underground, turned to the base commander walking alongside him and delivered the news of the Allies' arrival. The collaborationist Vichy commanders - including Vichy France leader Philippe Petain's deputy General Alphonse Juin - were taken into captivity without incident.
2015-02-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive