August 1934 Constantine Pogrom: over 100 dead, bodies burned, girls breasts cut..

Submitted by Mona (United States), Dec 29, 2021 at 01:50

From the JTA archives, August 8, 1934:::

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Algeria Riots Checked

[http://pdfs.jta.org/1934/1934-08-08_2918.pdf]

Military in Control of Constantine;
Witness Gives Slaughter Details

Girls Mutilated, Many Burned, Report Shows
List of Dead And Injured Runs Into Hundreds, Correspondent Says.

CONSTANTINE Algeria, Aug. 7. --

A scene of utter desolation and horror, of Jewish girls with their breasts cut off, of little children with numerous knife wounds and of whole families locked in their homes and burned to death, was described by a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent, who succeeded in reaching this city today.

"It will take days before the world will obtain a true picture of all the atrocities committed by the Arabs during the pogrom on the Jewish quarter," the correspondent wired.

"The only comparison I can think of is the Palestine riots of 1929. I found Jewish girls with their breasts cut off, greybearded Jews stabbed to death, little Jewish children dead of numerous knife wounds and whole families locked in their homes and burned to death by the rioters.

"Just as in Palestine in 1929, the lists of the dead and injured run into the hundreds with no official estimates available. The hospitals are filled with Jewish victims and the doors of the hospitals are besieged with half-crazed wives and mothers seeking to ascertain whether their loved ones are among the dead or injured, or whether they succeeded in escaping the pogrom bands...

"The Jewish printer Attali, whose children were all murdered by Arabs, and was severely injured, as was his wife, told me of the bestialities, practiced by the Arabs during the pogrom...

"I myself saw two Jewish girls on the verge of death, owing to the fact that pogromists cut off their breasts...

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From:

The Sentinel⁩⁩, 23 August 1934:::

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'The Constantine Pogroms .'
by Julius Mayer
[https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/cgs/1934/08/23/01/article/8]

The scene of Jewish suffering and trial has momentarily been transported from Nazi ridden Germany to the dark, narrow streets of Constantine, Algeria. The cobblestones in the Jewish quarter are stained with blood of men, women and children, butchered and tortured to death, I horrible Oriental fashion.

... We would have blamed it in Moslem fanaticism and let it go at that. But today, in the years of the swastika, bitter economic rivalry,... There is no denying that the Moslems are a fanatical people...

Analyzing the causes of the recent pogroms, some observers have leaned strongly toward the the theory that Nazi propaganda was instrumental in precipitating the disorders.

It is a favorite manoeuvre of a hostile power to undermine its rival's colonial possessions, provoke disturbances and thus distract the attention from the European scene.
With the Nazi Internationale superseding the Red Internationale, there is no doubt that Nazi agitators got the ear of the Arab and Berber nationalist leaders and aroused them to strike at the French government through the Jewish community.
The machinations of Hitlerite propagandists added to an aggravated economic situation... and Jewish blood stained the streets of Constantine, and Jewish women and children's bodies lay cut to pieces in the sun, and the Jews of the world forgot about Hitler and wondered what would descend upon them next.

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