On February 28, we arrived at our destination. The city of Tlemcen is located about 100 miles southwest of Oran in the Atlas Mountains.  The population at that time was about half French and half Arab. Tlemcen was a summer retreat for the well-to-do French, and when Germany invaded France  many of those people fled their homeland and settled in Tlemcen. Our hospital unit arrived as the first and only American unit in the area.  Some of the local residents were friendly, but many looked on us as intruders, and we could not blame them.  Before we left this town, five of our men married French girls, among them, I believe, Major Isadore Wessel, our X-ray specialist.

The city captured my interest immediately, although I now realized that Africa was not at all what I had imagined it would be. The buildings in Tlemcen looked unbelievably old. They were fantastically colored with walls of pink, cream and burnt orange, and decorated with elaborate Moorish designs.

There were several large and beautiful mosques in the city. They were intricately tiled with multi-colored mosaics that glowed in the light of the sun. The designs were abstract, because the Muslim religion forbids the depiction of the human figure.  Late in the day a golden haze hung over the precincts of the mosques. I shall never forget the haunting voices of the muezzins as they called from the minarets, announcing the

Left: Ornate Minaret of the Mosque of Mansourah: 13th century. Closely related to the Giralda of Seville. There is evidence of the north African influence throughout Spain as a result of the Moorish conquest.

Right: Elaborate handmade tiles surround a well within a mosque. The skills and craftsmanship of Algeria are know world-wide.

Back To Index | Home