Cemetery at Mecheria, Algeria

In 1942 there was a POW camp in Mecheria, Algeria. Vichy France imprisoned native Algerians, both Jewish and non-Jewish, while they were at war with the United States and British armies. Prior to World War II, Mecheria had a locomotive depot which attracted people to the area leading to an indigenous village and then a European village around 1914. In the early 1900s, Mecheria had 2,600 European and Muslim inhabitants. They were bold and enterprising traders who did not hesitate to face the climate and the desolation of the region. A few Jewish families from southern Morocco also settled in the area around 1912.