Six Months of War in Tunisia - by Jean Pupier, published by La rapide, Tunis 1943 - first edition - testimony of a French soldier on taking Tunisian Jews for forced labor. Dedicated copy by author.
Writings of a French soldier from the 1942 Tunisian campaign. Things he wrote in his diary during 1942 which were printed during the war in 1943. The diary is written by dates, with him describing in great detail each time he writes the developments on the battlefield - conquests, losses, advances of the French army, German conquests and retreats, aerial attacks by the Allies, and more. Within it he describes dilemmas he had during the war - when we would win the war, when Germany would realize it has no chance of fulfilling its intentions of world domination and the absurdity of Nazi ideology, how the French response could have been better planned, etc. He also describes the warm welcome the French soldiers receive from the local Tunisians, and refers to news constantly broadcast on radio and in the press.
Among other things, he describes the German attempt to take over Jewish settlements and isolate the Jews for forced labor.
The diary has several appendices in which Jean quotes important documents. One quotes an order from the German Axis commander in Tunisia regarding holding and using public facilities in Tunisia for the benefit of German soldiers, which contains an explicit instruction to seize all adult male civilians in the war zone, and take the Jews for earthworks. It also includes an article published in Tunis Journal on January 14, 1943 about Hitler order to release soldiers in the French army captured in North Africa to free the German soldiers from guarding them for combat.
Rare. Only four entries in WorldCat global library catalog.
128 p. Good condition.
