JEFNA (DJEFNA)
The Wehrmacht established a labor camp for Jewish men at Jefna, 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) west of Mateur, on December 13, 1942. They had to work 18 hours a day, transporting munitions to the front line. There were 120 Jewish forced laborers in the camp when it opened. The guards were German soldiers. The “termites” (regional representatives of the Committee for Recruitment) Maurice Taïeb and Moïse Chemla were able to negotiate three days’ rest for 70 forced laborers. Of those, 36 were finally able to return to Tunis because of illness, while the remaining 34 were sent to the Saf-Saf labor camp. With that, the number of inmates dramatically declined at the beginning of 1943.
The camp was dissolved in the middle of April 1943, after Taïeb was able to convince the responsible German officer that the Jews were of no value in the heavy fighting that was taking place on this section of the front, but they were probably of more use for forced labor in Mateur. As a result, the remaining forced laborers were sent to Mateur to do cleanup work and excavation. The Allies freed them in May 1943.
