During World War II, Morocco is a true haven for refugees of all origins, fleeing a Europe subjected to the yoke of Nazism and fascism. It becomes a place of steps for those who want to flee to America, in neutral countries or continue the fight by winning England. For these people, life in Morocco looks softer than in occupied Europe. Despite the shortage and rationing, the food is better than in France, which is facing a real organized looting by Germany. In addition, there is no curfew or police terror imposed by the Nazis. The German presence in Morocco, in addition to two consulates in Tangiers and Ceuta, limited to German-Italian military commissions responsible for verifying compliance with the terms of the armistice of June 1940.
This task is first provided by the only Italian Armistice Commission, assisted by the inspection of the German control for Africa (KIA), until spring 1941. Epoque from which Germany decides to impose its exclusive military control over Morocco. General Schulteiss is the head of the inspection of the German control, which is divided into two committees: one for the Navy and Air Force, based in Casablanca, one for the Army, serving in Fedala (Mohammedia ). In Casablanca, the German soldiers, discreet enough, live in the area of Anfa. Also added some elements of the Gestapo (German secret police) and members of the Nazi secret service. During the first years of the war, Casablanca turns, moreover, in real nest of spies of the belligerent countries!
THE ANTISEMITIC MEASURES
Although spared by the German occupation, Morocco must align with the authoritarian and anti-Semitic policies of the Vichy regime, from July 1940 to November 1942. Thus, The protectorate established discriminatory laws made by the French State in 1940 and 1941, which exclude Jews from teaching, public service and away from the major sectors of the economy. In Casablanca, for example, 26 out of 30 Jewish lawyers are disbarred and 13 doctors over 16 are removed from the order. Meanwhile, 10,000 Algerian Jews living in Morocco, are deprived of their French nationality and relegated to the status of "indigenous".
In August 1941, the newly installed Israelites in the "European quarters" of Moroccan cities since 1939, are forced, in theory, to leave. In Casablanca, a decision of the Pasha, in 1937, forbade them the new medina, they have no choice but to squeeze into the Mellah (Jewish quarter of the Old Medina) or leave the city.
These discriminatory measures also hit the Israelite children. Abraham Serfaty, while the benches Lycée Lyautey of Casablanca, later recalled: "if there were no arrests, however, we eûmes right to prohibited and exclusions. So my sister had she leave the School, the numerus clausus which struck me as having spared revenge. "At night, some teachers defy these unjust actions and ensure ongoing illegal to these young victims of anti-Semitism! It was not until 1943 that all Jewish students find schools of their class and their classmates.
Finally, a few hundred French and foreign Jews, mainly from Central Europe, were interned in "guarded residence camps" real labor camps, divided on Moroccan territory, as in El Jadida, Leuh Ain Beni Mellal, Bou Arfa, Tadla, Mrirt, Tazmamert, Agdz and Ghbila. They stand alongside other French and Moroccan prisoners, Socialists, Communists and Freemasons. However, these do not concern internments Moroccan Jews and do not have a systematic and massive character for others. No Jew in the Kingdom of Morocco is deported to concentration camps and Nazi death in Europe, thus escaping the worst genocide in history, known as the Holocaust, resulting in the death of more than 5 million Jews. If the Israelites from Morocco were able to avoid the tragic fate of their coreligionists in Europe, they owe largely to the protection of the Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef and accommodation of the anti-Semitic policy, that had to concede the authorities Protectorate loyal to Vichy. Vichy, whose authority gradually fades in Morocco after the landing of the Americans, in November 1942, and with it all discriminatory measures against Jews. Nearly 250,000 Moroccan Jews therefore globally through the years 1940 to 1942 "free of persecution, most of them ignoring the existence of forced labor camps that were set up in Morocco by the Plan Vichy. (...) The Moroccan Jews had suffered a number of measures such as the inventory of the property, but they were never concerned with the saving protection late King Mohammed V, while French and foreign Jews had been secretly imprisoned by the authorities of the Protectorate. "(Serge Berdugo, Secretary General of the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco, on the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust, 30 January 2005).
THE DETENTION OF SPANISH AND ITALIAN
Another category of population suffers under Vichy, discriminatory measures: the hundreds of Spanish Republican refugees in Morocco since 1939, after the victory of Franco and fascism in Spain, after a terrible civil war. Many of these refugees are settled in Casablanca (eg they represent 15% of the population of the district of Mâarif). This community, whose political ideals of the left or the extreme left are hated by Vichy, is under the supervision of the authorities of the Protectorate. Spaniards are even arrested and interned in camps like those of Azemmour or Oued Zem. Freemasons and the few resistant Gaullists, engaged the first time are also tracked by the French authorities, sometimes with the assistance of the Gestapo and the German secret service. After the American landing in Morocco, in November 1942, the Protectorate, which happened in the Allied camp, releases the Spanish Republicans, the Freemasons and the French Resistance.
It is the turn of the Italian population being suspected ... Fascist Italy of Mussolini being an ally of Nazi Germany. In Casablanca, for example, Italians are enclosed in a camp in Maarif: wooden barracks son with barbed wire, for those men who are sometimes treated fascist ... By their own neighbors!
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