The World - News from Dec. 29, 1988

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco allowed the secret exodus of 100,000 Jews from Morocco into Spain from 1957 to 1963, former Israeli intelligence chief Isser Harel said. In World War II, the Franco government had close ties to the anti-Semitic regimes of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Harel said that Franco “wanted to improve his image after his close cooperation with Hitler and Mussolini.” And, Harel added, “There was still the historic memory of the Jewish ouster from Spain (in 1492).” More than 200,000 Jews lived in Morocco in 1956 when the North African country closed its borders to Jewish emigres. Israeli agents then organized the movement of Jews to Spanish-controlled areas on Morocco’s coasts and from there to Spain, Harel said.