SFAX
The Wehrmacht established a labor camp for male Jews in Sfax. However, the Jewish community itself arranged the recruitment for labor and paid the Jews who reported voluntarily. They received 100 francs daily, a much higher sum than was paid by the Committee for Recruitment. Thus, almost exclusively, poor Jews performed forced labor. It is uncertain whether the inmates could leave the camp in the evening or whether they were interned the whole time. The forced laborers had to load and unload Wehrmacht trucks, work in the harbor, and build dugouts. Altogether, the Germans demanded 100 Jews as forced laborers. However, those 100 never worked together at the same time.
The commander of the forced labor service in Sfax, and with it the labor camp, was SS-Sturmbannführer Best, who, later, also took over this role in Sousse. His deputy was SS-Sturmbannführer Jensen. German soldiers guarded the forced laborers, but they did not seriously mistreat the Jews. So far as is known, none of the forced laborers in Sfax was murdered. The city was liberated by the British Eighth Army on April 10, 1943.
