The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., signed a cooperation agreement with the Archives of Morocco in Rabat on May 7 to share materials on the Jews of North Africa during the World War II held by each institution. The agreement will expand the museum’s archival holdings on this understudied aspect of history and enable scholars from North Africa, Europe and around the globe to conduct research both in Morocco and at the museum.
The agreement follows a meeting in Morocco in October 2017 between Prince Moulay Rachid and a museum delegation that included director Sara J. Bloomfield. Participants discussed the importance of Holocaust education as a way to memorialize the victims and help educate people about the dangers of extremism and hatred.
“The signing of this agreement with Morocco is an important step in the Holocaust museum’s work in collecting archival documentation from North African countries and making them available for research,” said Tad Stahnke, the museum’s director of international outreach. “The museum signed an archival sharing agreement with the Moroccan National Library in 2008, and Morocco remains the only Arab nation with which we have an archival agreement.”
In addition to Stahnke, those who spoke at the signing event included Jamaa Baida, director of the Archives of Morocco; Stephanie Miley, charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Morocco; the Hon. AndréAzoulay, senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco; and David Toledano, head of the Jewish community in Rabat.