A powerful French force swept down on the Jewish quarter of Oran, in Algeria, early this morning, cordoned off the entire area and enforced a rigid curfew, as security units began a house-to-house search and an identity check of every inhabitant of the district.
The security action was believed to be a result of developments in the quarter last Friday night and Saturday morning, when the existence there of well-organized Jewish defense units and commando units of the French Secret Army Organization (OAS) was revealed as they repulsed an armed attack on the quarter by Arabs.
Several inhabitants of the Oran Jewish quarter have been arrested, and are believed held by the French authorities while their identities are being checked. A house curfew was imposed on the Jewish district, and residents were barred from leaving their homes. All shops in the district were closed. The curfew apparently was to remain in force until the house-to-house search was completed.
At least two Jews were among the score of Europeans known to have disappeared from their homes in Algiers, principal metropolis of the beleaguered country, during the last few days, it was learned here. It is still not known whether the missing men were kidnaped by the National Liberation Front (FLN), the Moslem independence movement, or were seized by the French secret police who have been operating in Algeria under direct instructions from Paris.
The two missing Jews have been identified as Pierre Levy, 47, a police inspector, who was born in Saigon; and Gerrard Levy, 27, a university assistant. The latter disappeared en route to the university laboratory from his home.
In Paris, OAS bombers blew up the shop of an Algerian Jewish refugee whom the OAS had accused of having “deserted” from Algeria “without permission,” and with having refused to contribute to the OAS war chest. The bomb attack was carried out on Jacques Ramoli’s shop, on the Left Bank, despite a police guard on it. Ramoli had been the target of two previous bomb attacks in Paris, one of them having demolished his home and store.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
