eisenhower, years later wrote that the hours he spent in gibraltar waiting for the start of the invasion were his most excruciating ones during the entire war, worse than the day. algeria, morocco, to nietzsche, were not the only areas of concern in north africa. on the other side of the continents, on october 23rd, began the second battle at el alamein. if german forces won they would capture egypt, they had plans to move into palestine. if it is worth reminding ourselves that at the beginning of november 1942 the axis still seemed to be winning the war. france, the colonial power in northwest africa, had a predominantly muslim population, eight divisions of troops and a substantial navy. no one knew whether they would fight or how hard they would fight against operation torch. they also enacted discriminatory laws against 330,000 jews in morocco, algeria and tunisia. if germany prevailed, worse would follow, as it already had, or had started to, in metropolitan france. the police in cooperation with adolf eichmann's men had recently begun deportations of jews in france to the east. in