Hitler’s Haggadah
Hitler’s Haggadah was a Judeo-Arabic pamphlet, written in Rabat, Morocco, shortly after Allied forces liberated the region in November 1942. This military action, called Operation Torch, effectively ended the influence of the Vichy regime in North Africa, which had imposed anti-Jewish laws and established labor camps for Jews in Tunisia and Libya. The work is a parody of the Magid section of the traditional Passover Haggadah where the story of the Exodus from Egypt is told; Ben Shimon uses this familiar liturgical structure to narrate contemporary events, creating modern versions of the Plagues, the Four Sons, and the Exodus. In ben Shimon’s retelling, the Allied liberation is likened to a modern-day redemption from Egypt.
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