Buq Buq labor camp: Difference between revisions

| coordinates = {{coordWikidatacoord|31.510806Q45534972|25.53425display=inline,title}}

| location = [[Buq Buq]], [[Matrouh Governorate]], [[Egypt]]

| in operation = Late August–November 6, 1942
}}

The 350 [[Sidi Azaz labor camp|Sidi Azaz]] laborers at Buq Buq were selected by Moshe Hadad, a Jewish engineer from [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] who acted as the senior overseeing prisoner ({{Lang|it|capo}}). Hadad had also overseen the transfer of Jews to Sidi Azaz and ensured that no heads of families were deported to labor.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Simon |first=Rachel |date=1986 |script-title=he:יהודי לוב על סף שואה |language=he |trans-title=Libyan Jews on the brink of Holocaust |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23424001 |journal=Pe'amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry / פעמים: רבעון לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח |issue=28 |pages=44–77 |jstor=23424001 |issn=0334-4088 }}</ref> The selection process was conducted entirely by Jews, without Italian involvement, which Rachel Simon writes made the ordeal easier for the Jews.<ref name=":1" /> The camp opened at the end of August 1942, and the prisoners were sent to Buq Buq to build and repair roads to transport supplies for [[Axis powers|Axis]] forces between [[Cyrenaica]] and Egypt.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Roumani |first=Maurice M. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv3029jsr |title=Jews of Libya: Coexistence, Persecution, Resettlement |date=2021 |publisher=[[Liverpool University Press]] |isbn=978-1-84519-137-5 |pages=33–34 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv3029jsr |jstor=j.ctv3029jsr |access-date=2024-06-27 |archive-date=2024-06-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620024825/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv3029jsr |url-status=live }}</ref>

The camp was operated under the command of the commandant of Sidi Azaz, and had no permanent guard force, with an Italian [[military doctor]] being the only permanent official at the camp. The prisoners were poorly supervised, with the commandant visiting the camp to inspect it only once every few weeks.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Abramski-Bligh |first=Irit |title=Encyclopedia of the holocaust. 3: L - R |date=1990 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan|Macmillan]] |isbn=978-0-02-897165-0 |editor-last=Gutman |editor-first=Israel |location=New York |publication-date=1990 |pages=868 |chapter=Libya: Forced Labor and Internment Camps: Bukbuk }}</ref> Although the camp had no fence, escape was impossible due to its location, with a road heavily trafficked by Axis troops on one side and the desert on the other.<ref name=":102" /><ref name=":021" />{{page needed|date=June 2024}}

The labor, primarily crushing boulders and transporting gravel for the road repairs, was ordered and used exclusively by the Italian military.<ref name=":02" /> Although the prisoners were meant to work from 7 AM{{nbsp}}am until after midnight, lax supervision at the camp allowed them to avoid the official schedule.<ref name=":1" /> Though the prisoners were nominally entitled to normal wages, this was not done in practice, and after two months the laborers received two days' wages.<ref name=":1" /> Prisoners resisted their internment with [[Slowdown|slowdowns]] and an attempt by one crew to sabotage Italian troops retreating from Egypt by closing the roads for repairs, compelling the Italians to drive off-road and sink into the mud.<ref name=":02" /><ref name=":0" />

The camp was frequently bombed by the British [[Royal Air Force]] in late October 1942, and Hadad ordered his men to dig trenches to protect themselves.<ref name=":02" /> Italian forces dissolved Buq Buq and evacuated its prisoners on November 6, 1942, following the British victory of the [[Second Battle of El Alamein]].<ref name=":22" /> Italy retreated to Libya, and the remaining Buq Buq prisoners were ordered back to Tripoli. With the exceptions of Hadad and a few other Jews who could fit in the doctor's military vehicle alongside all the remaining food, the freed prisoners had to trek through the [[Libyan Desert]], across [[Cyrenaica]], [[Sirtica|Syrtica]], and [[Tripolitania]] on their own, in order to reach the city.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":22" />

There have been no trials of Italian military personnel relating to Buq Buq labor camp.<ref name=":02" /> In 2002, [[Germany]] accepted responsibility for the imprisonment of Jews in Buq Buq.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kozlovsky-Golan |first=Yvonne |date=2014 |title=Site of Amnesia: The Absence of North African Jewry in Visual Depictions of the Experience of World War II |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/jewifilmnewmedi.2.2.0153 |journal=Jewish Film & New Media |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=153–180 |doi=10.13110/jewifilmnewmedi.2.2.0153 |jstor=10.13110/jewifilmnewmedi.2.2.0153 |issn=2169-0324 |access-date=2024-06-30 |archive-date=2024-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240630092409/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/jewifilmnewmedi.2.2.0153 |url-status=live }}</ref>