It is commonly assumed that the Second World War and the Holocaust marked the European collective memory as well as the continental history in different manners than it did outside of Europe, for instance in the Middle East, and in North Africa in particular. The proposed panel intends to review this assumption by asking: Can and should a perception of the ultimate catastrophe be truly global after all? In other words, can and should the "epistemological gap" between the North African's historicism of the local historical experiences related to colonialism, on the one hand, and the continental traditions of universalizing WWII and the Holocaust, on the other hand, be bridgedr The aim of the panel is to explore how continental events that have occurred during WWII, and in particular the genocide of the European Jews on the European soil, were historically comprehended and morally judged in local terms in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya before and after 1945.

For the purpose of the panel, by "historical comprehension" we mean the ways North Africans (Muslims and Jews alike) perceived the war and the Holocaust in intellectual and scholastic terms. What was the nature of the "official discourse" on these two intertwined eventsr Whereas, by "moral judgements" we are referring to the "popular discourse"; namely, how did North Africans (Muslims and Jews) remember or evoke these events both in the public sphere (e.g. coffee shops) and in the private sphere (e.g. families)s.

Questions that may be addressed in the workshop include the following:

- To what extent were the "historical comprehensions" and "moral judgements" made of WWII and the Holocaust by North Africans, synchronized or desynchronized with the perceptions and judgements of these very events by European citizens in Europe. 

- Within North Africa itself, what were the differences and similarities between the norms and forms through which North African Muslims and Jews (with the possibility to include the Algerian Pieds-Noirs) comprehended and judged WWII and the Holocaust. 

- Reversely, on the European side: Could and should the continental historicism and memory evoke a situation in which WWII as well as the Holocaust are seen through the prism of European colonialism (French, Spanish, Italian, and German) and through the atrocities that it generated in North Africa.

• Towards a Multidirectional History and Memory of WWII in North Africa by Ben-Layashi, Samir
• Between Gratitude and Exactitude: The Moroccan Monarchy and its jews during the Holocaust by Bouasria, Abdelilah
• The Polemics of Muslim-Jewish Relations in the Wake of Vichy by Schreier, Joshua
• Looking Towards the Future: Morocco’s Arab-language press, the Holocaust, and Post-European Memory after 1945 by Stenner, David

MEMBERS:

Susan Gilson Miller

(University of California, Davis)

Samir Ben-Layashi

(Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

David Stenner

(Christopher Newport University)