L'exclusion des avocats juifs en Tunisie pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale

Résumé 0

The exclusion of the Jewish lawyers in Tunisia during the second World War The status of the Jews of October 1940 and June 1941 were enforced quite legitimately in Algeria, but, granted a few differences, they were also added to the laws governing Morocco and Tunisia. Thanks to a few files belonging to the National Archives of Tunisia, this article traces back the various steps and sheds light on what was at work behind the exclusion of Jewish lawyers from the bars of Tunis and Sousse. The Jewish lawyers, because they were numerous and were the majority in the Council of Lawyers’ Association, were exposed to the condemnation of the first General Commissioner for Jewish matters, Xavier Vallat. He himself opened a unit of the Commission in Tunis in August 1941, which endeavoured incessantly to obtain the exclusion of all the lawyers from the Council. But this was effective only in August 1942 with a numerus clausus of 5 % (2 % in France) thanks to the decision of the General Resident. Documentation is available which informs about the process of selection of the lawyers maintained in activity and about the few attempts at changing the decision. These measures were abrogated in June 1943, so that they were enforced for a short lapse of time. Nevertheless they are significant of this “everyday anti-Semitism” in this profession.