Biographical essay by Sidney Barouch, 2014

Virtual Book Sidney Elie Barouch I was born in Tunis, Tunisia on July 7, 1941. I was given the American name Sidney in the hope that the Americans would save us during the fighting in World War II. Many children born in Tunisia during the war were given American names. Tunisia was a French colony and I was born under the Vichy government rule. There were Arabs, Italian Catholics, Italian Jews, French Jews and Tunisian Jews. In other words, there were three different Jewish communities and my family was Tunisian. My father, Jacques, ran an aluminum factory with a Jewish partner who was from Hungary. They made light fixtures and were partners for about 40 years. My mother, Georgette, was a housewife. I am the oldest of four children. My father Jacques with his mother, Rachel, and his sister Nanette in 1936 My father, Jacques, approximately in 1925 My mother is in the front row, second girl from the left. The French and Italians were allied with the German Axis. The Jews from Tunisia had everyone against them: the French, Italians and the Arabs. The Italians defended Italian Jews and the French government tried to defend French Jews but the Tunisian Jews had no support. Our ruler, the Bey (king) of Tunis , sometimes tried to help us but he did not have much power. During World War II the Nazis had their Afrika Korps serving under Erwin Rommel in their attempt to capture the Suez for the oil reserves there. Rommel with his aides in North Africa After the Germans were defeated by the British, they returned to Tunisia in order to cross back into Europe. The Nazis were forced into Tunis because the Allies attacked them from both the south and the west. It was during the six months that the Germans were stuck in Tunis that life was hardest for the Jews. The Germans were more focused on defending themselves from the Allies and saving their own lives than destroying the Jews. They made many anti-Jewish laws but they needed Jewish money and slave labor. They took money from the Jews to give to the Arabs to placate them. My grandfather?s home was next to the Jewish school, the Alliance Israelite Universelle. The Jews were collected at the school and then transported to camps. There were always Germans near his house. It was hard for us, especially the women, to avoid the Germans. My mother is just right of center, between two boys. Photo from the Purim play at the Jewish school around 1935 It was hard for my family when the Germans came back from Libya because they took our factory and put my father in a labor camp. He was in this camp for a couple of months but he was not healthy or strong. My maternal grandfather had a mattress factory. He was sent to a labor camp. The Germans also took two of my maternal uncles. One of them, Emil Zeitoun, was in the north in a labor camp with a friend. His friend was not very strong so Emil tried to help him. The German guard said no, no help, and separated the friends. When Emil looked back he saw the German had killed his friend. Emil was beaten many times and he never recovered psychologically from his experiences at this camp. From 1942 until his death in 2014 he was institutionalized. The Germans wanted to rape Jewish women so my mother dressed up as an Arab. Some Jews passed as Arabs. Jews often wore the same style clothes as the Arabs but in different colors. The Germans asked the Arabs to point out the Jewish women. Father asked mother to go to the southern part of Tunisia where there were no Germans. So many Jews wanted to go south and there was only one bus. She was pushed into the bus but I fell to the ground and was trampled. The bus left. A young man took me and ran after the bus. He passed me through a window into the bus and back to my mother. I think the elite Jews in Tunis and the big cities had some knowledge of what was going on in Europe but most of the population had no idea. In the cities Hitler was well known and people knew what he was about. Many Jews died in the labor camps in Tunisia. Some Jews were also sent to Europe where they were killed. There were two leaders of the Jewish community, Victor Cohen Hadria (lawyer) and Benjamin Levy (doctor) who tried to negotiate on behalf of the Jewish people. They were both transported to France and then to Germany or Poland. They were killed there. The Germans surrendered May 12, 1943. After they left there were British soldiers in the area. There were two Jews among those troops who came to us for Sabbath dinner on Friday nights. Sometimes they brought other Jews from among the British and American troops. Two Jewish soldiers from England: Samuel Friedman and William Israelite. In November 1947 my family came together to listen to the voting on the United Nations Partition of Palestine on the radio. When my father told me ?we won? I thought he was talking about a soccer game. I did not understand what had happened. My father told me I could be happy about the establishment of Israel in our own home but never outside since we lived in an Arab country. After the war my maternal grandmother moved to Israel with her family. At first they lived in a tent village. My grandmother in the tent village in Israel with my uncle, Claude, who was my age. My father got his factory back after the Germans left. The Bey cancelled all the anti-Jewish laws the Germans instituted. There were still restrictions on Jewish children attending school (numerus clausus) so I was sent to boarding school in Vence, France after the war. I was 9 years old and went to this boarding school for five years. (This is the place where Matisse painted.) My father got the factory back after the Germans were gone. From left to right: my mother Georgette, my sister Yolande, my father Jacques, my brother Hubert, my father?s partner?s wife, myself and my sister Andrea. The invitation to my Bar Mitzvah 1954 My Bar Mitzvah day with the rabbi from the island from Djerba off the coast of Tunisia After the Six-Day War (1967) between Israel and her Arab neighbors, the Jews all left Tunisia. Most went to Israel. My father went to France. Just before that my mother had gone to visit her family in Israel and, because she had an Israeli stamp in her passport, she was afraid to come back to Tunisia. She met my father in France. My parents lost everything?as did most of the Tunisian Jews. We were allowed to leave with the equivalent of about $100. I had a mail order linen business in France and then moved to Israel for about ten years. I moved my family to the US and came to Las Vegas in 2010. My children live in California and I did not want to be too far away from them. We never think of ourselves as Holocaust survivors because what we went through does not compare to what the Jews in Europe went through.