The Tunisia Campaign, 1942 to 1943

From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

From November 1942 to May 1943, German and Italian forces occupied Tunisia. This entry from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum describes the military campaign that ended the occupation, and with it the persecution of Tunisia's Jews under German rule.

The campaign

Fighting across Tunisia

Allied forces pushed into Tunisia in early 1943, with the British Eighth Army arriving from Libya in February. German forces under Erwin Rommel won a major victory over American troops at the Kasserine Pass in February, but they were heavily outnumbered and were gradually driven into a pocket along Tunisia's northern coast.

Liberation

May 1943

On May 7, 1943, British forces entered Tunis and American forces took Bizerte. Six days later, the Axis armies in North Africa surrendered, and about 267,000 German and Italian soldiers became prisoners of war. For Tunisia's Jews, who had been subjected to forced labor, heavy fines, and seizures of property during the six month occupation, the Allied victory brought an end to German rule.

Why it matters

Turning the war

The victory in Tunisia ended the war in North Africa and opened the way for the Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy in the summer of 1943.

Read the full entry at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum →

This summary was written by JIMENA and is based on “Tunisia Campaign” from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia, with additional historical background. The original entry belongs to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.