Boston Evening Transcript of Monday, 22 April 1912
Paris, April 23-The massacre at Fez in which a large number of French officers, soldiers, and citizens were killed and wounded has given rise to considerable criticism of the Government authorities for not foreseeing and preventing the occurrence. The newspapers say that the French troops occupied the Moroccan capital more than a year ago. Premier Poincare telegraphed today to Eugene Regnault, the French minister, to make a rapid and complete investigation of the outbreak. The special correspondents of the French newspapers at Fez indicate that the plot of the rebels included the massacre of the whole of the French mission headed by M. Regnault, which recently arrived at the capital to establish the protectorate. This plan failed owing to the impatience of the Arabian women to begin the carnage. These women are described by the correspondents as creatures of terrifying appearance, who passed their time in rushing about the streets and torturing the wounded and sometimes aiding the Moorish rebels in the final mutilation and desecration of the victims.
Scenes of awful horror occurred in the Jewish quarter of the city, where the mob murdered. pillaged and burned all the Jews they could find, throwing their bodies from the roofs. Many young girls were carried off and thus suffered indescribable outrages. The Jewish quarter was set on fire and three-fourths of it entirely destroyed, making more than a thousand people homeless.
Grey River Argus (New Zealand), 24 April 1912
Those murdered at Fez include Le Matin's correspondant and his wife.
The newspapers publish terrible narratives of the savagery and unbridled license existing for three days, the Jews being particularly singled out, many being thrown from the housetops.
The girls were violated.
Four thousand Jews took refuge in the palace.
The French killed eight hundred rioters.
The French lost nineteen killed and 110 wounded.
Thirteen French civilians were killed.
The Fez Pogrom of 1912, Isracast, 1 April 2012
The anger of the Arabs was aroused by the agreement between the French authorities and Sultan Malai Hafiz making Morocco a French protectorate. They saw this agreement as a betrayal and turned their anger against the Jews, the traditional scapegoat for their wrath. [...] As a result 12,000 inhabitants of the Mellah fled, remaining homeless in dreadful need for weeks.
When the Jews sheltered with the sultanfs lions, Lyn Julius, Times of Israel, 16 April 2012
Two weeks after Morocco became a French Protectorate on 30 March 1912, Muslim army recruits, outraged at the takeover of the infidel, mutinied against their French officers. Egged on by women standing on the rooftops, the soldiers are said to have played football with the officersf decapitated heads and decorated their chests with their victimsf intestines. In no time at all, the cry went up, gTo the mellah!h
The French having previously confiscated all weapons, the Jews had no means to defend themselves. [...]
On 19 April, in order to force the rioters away, French soldiers fired rockets and bombs, laying waste to much of the mellah. Jews abandoned the mellah, which was pillaged the next day.
During the three days of violence, 45 Jews were killed, although some estimates are higher. Over 70 were injured. French troops suffered an equal number of casualties, while almost 1,000 Muslims were killed or wounded. A third of the mellah was destroyed, and 12,000 Jews found themselves homeless.
[...]
Over 200,000 Moroccan Jews have come to Israel since 1948.