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How the Jewish Resistance Movement in Algeria Saved American Lives in World War II

(Mosaic) Robert Satloff - On November 8, 1942, 110,000 American and British troops invaded North Africa. That same day, 377 young men, led by resistance leader Jose Aboulker, 20, a medical student, fanned out across Algeria's capital city of Algiers. Armed only with knives, pistols, and antiquated 19th-century rifles, they aimed to take over the city, arrest the local Vichy French generals, cut communications with the outside world, and immobilize thousands of French soldiers in their barracks. Astonishingly, by 2:00 a.m. on the morning of the invasion, Algeria's capital was theirs, making it easy for Allied troops to enter, in stark contrast to the relatively stiff defense put up by the Vichyites elsewhere along the North African front. Aboulker himself and 315 of those resistance fighters were Jews. The risks taken by those Jews saved the lives of American soldiers and sailors. French historian Leon Poliakov wrote, "The role of the small Aboulker group was decisive in the world war at a crucial moment." However, Algerian Jews remained for months in concentration and forced-labor camps set up by the Vichy government. Many resistance leaders were rounded up and sent to a remote desert site by the French rulers still in place after the invasion, where last-minute intervention by agents of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), America's overseas clandestine intelligence operation, saved their lives. The writer is executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2017-10-20 00:00:00
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