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Among the First Wave Leaving Tunisia
By Annie Liberman, as told to Daniel Heimpel

“My husband loves history,” she says. “When we arrived at the hotel we gave the concierge our passports. When he looked at mine he asked if I was the daughter of a doctor with the same name. I told him that I was his niece. He told us to sit and brought champagne and Tunisian salad. ‘It is because of your uncle that I am alive,' he said.”

In the great uprooting of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East there are differences in the severity of their treatment. In Iraq the famous farhouds brought terror to a huge Jewish Community and in Egypt many were incarcerated for years with no knowledge of when and if they would be released. While none can say the confiscation of property and the tearing of a community with many generations from the land of their birth is not traumatic, Liberman's experience shows another facet of the exodus of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa .

Lieberman was born in 1943 and was 15 when Tunisia gained its independence from France . She grew up in Tunis and recalls a city with half a million Jews.

“Life was simple,” she says. “Everybody got along quite nicely. When there was a Jewish celebration the Muslims and Christians would get involved and visa versa. We were celebrating the differences.”

Since its invasion of Algiers in 1830, France wanted a pretext for colonizing Tunisia . But it was not until 1881 that France found that pretext. Khurmir tribesmen of north-eastern Tunisia carried out a raid into Algerian territory. Instead of going to the redoubts of the Khurmir tribesmen they headed straight for Tunis and on May 12 th signed the treaty of Barto establishing French rule in Tunisia .

One of their first acts was to open up the Jewish Ghetto of Lahara in Tunis and give Jews French citizenship. Liberman is French and explains that when Tunisia gained its independence on March 20 of 1956 it was natural for Tunisian Jews to move to France . They moved to France even though Annie's grandmother's name was Castro. The name is traced back to the Spanish Inquisition when many Spanish Jews settled in Tunisia .

“My father saw that the country was becoming Arab,” she says. “We sensed a schism and felt that we weren't regarded as citizens anymore. When we thought about the future we saw that we wouldn't have jobs. We were not angry. We just though that it was their country so let's get out.”

Her family left their home behind, their jobs and their entire life. Because her father worked for the French government he was able to secure a post in Paris . Her Uncle, the doctor of the Bey (King) and the obstetrician who had delivered the thankful concierge in Carthage , left as well.

For other members of her family the move was more traumatic.

“The Jews who left in 1967 had it very hard. Jews were attacked in the streets and my cousins had to leave their businesses behind.”

Liberman left what she remembers as tiny Tunis for the huge throbbing metropolis that is Paris . She lived there for eight years before moving to the United States but retained many of her Tunisian customs.

“We lived in Los Angeles ,” she says. “It was very hot and I wanted to take a nap but no one in America takes naps. In Tunisia there is no one in the streets from one to four o'clock. Then the cafes open and you can sit on the terrace and smell the Jasmine and talk until midnight.”

Liberman currently lives with her husband of over thirty years in Palo Alto . They have three daughters who all live in San Francisco .

While Liberman's life is firmly established in the United States she looks forward to visiting Tunisia again. One of her cousins has even moved back to Tunisia