The Shoah (1939–1945)
Labor camp of Bou Arfa
1941-1942·Bou Arfa
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
Foreign Jews interned in Morocco are assigned to the Trans-Saharan railway project; the camp operates under military discipline in a stone desert, on measured bread and water.
The construction site of the trans-Saharan railway, relaunched by Vichy, provides employment for internees whom no one knows where to put. Bou Arfa, in eastern Morocco, becomes one of the main camps along the line: foreign Jews who had taken refuge from Central Europe are sent there, arrested after the defeat or handed over by the Spanish authorities. The camp operates under military discipline, rations are strictly counted, and water must be carried. The men break stone and lay ballast in a desert where summer exceeds what an undernourished body can endure. Punishments are corporal, and the prison at Bou Arfa receives those whom neighboring camps send back.
- Period :
- The Shoah (1939–1945)
- Type :
- Shoah
- Region :
- Egypt and Maghreb
- Country :
- Maroc
Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris ; Yad Vashem, base des communautés.