The situation of the Jews in French North Africa, especially in Tunisia which was under Nazi occupation, was described here today by Kurt Peiser, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Charities in Philadelphia who has just returned from Algiers by plane after spending four months in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia in behalf of the Joint Distribution Committee.
Mr. Peiser, who is one of the first relief workers to return from that area, emphasized that in addition to the efficient job being done in North Africa by the Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, there is great need for private relief agencies. The chief problem facing Jewish relief groups now, he said, was to provide housing for the thousands of refugees from bomb devastated cities and to improve sanitary and health conditions. The food shortage has been alleviated to a great extent, he added.
When the JDC representative arrived in Tunis, they found the city filled with Jewish refugees from other sections of Tunisia, whose homes had been destroyed either by the Germans or during Allied bombings, and who had been stripped of all their possessions by the Nazis. During their occupation of Tunisia, Mr. Peiser disclosed, the Germans extorted 58,000,000 francs in fines from the Jewish communities and conscripted 8,000 Jews for forced labor on pain of executing the communities’ leaders if the laborers were not forthcoming. Temporary housing has been secured for most of the native refugee Jews, he said, but with the advent of the rainy season shortly more permanent structures will have to be found for them.
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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.
