Description

January to December 1942 – Notes from the Town Halls of many Algerian Communes to the Prefect of Constantine (Jewish Affairs and Secret Societies Service) concerning the declarations of Jewish individuals for the issuance of ration cards for the census, or of people having partial Jewish ancestry and asking to be exempted from the census or even to obtain a certificate of non-belonging of the Jewish race. It is sometimes mentioned that “the person concerned made his racial statement”. The profusion of these notes, by which Jews who had yet to report were flagged, indicates the special character that the Administration attached to the thoroughness of the census. Investigations are carried out and sanctions required against latecomers or refractors. Sometimes an individual whose name can be confusing turns out to be a native Muslim. Special cases are examined in following summaries.

March 28, 1942 – Letter from the Governor General of Algeria (pp. 126-127) to the Prefect of Constantine telling him that he noted that in some municipalities the number of ration cards issued to Israelites is clearly higher than that of statements made during the census – in fact 106 for the commune of Constantine and 1.199 for those of Bone, the highest. He notes a few cases of individuals who have not made a declaration, mentions that “it would be advisable to ask for the list of names of the twelve Jews who received a ration card in Oued-Seguin, six of them did not make a declaration”. He asks the Prefect “to kindly conduct an investigation into this situation in order to communicate the results to me and send me the declarations that you have made subscribe to the persons referred to above, and accompanied, if necessary, by proposals for sanction to be taken against latecomers”.