Juliette Bessis

Juliette Bessis (; b. 1925 in Gabès, Tunisia - 2017 in Paris, France) was a contemporary Tunisian scholar and historian specializing in the Maghreb region of northern Africa.

Life Born Juliette Saada on 16 September 1925, she was part of a Tunisian Jewish upper middle-class family in the southern region of Tunisia, which at the time was under French colonial rule.

Early life At the age of 17, she became active in the Tunisian Communist Party, promoting anti-fascist struggles and resisting the German occupation of Tunisia from November 1942 to May 1943. During that time, she met Aldo Bessis (1918-1969) and they married on 3 February 1944, but she did not change her last name to Bessis until her first daughter Sophie Bessis was born.

Throughout her life, Bessis researched fascist politics in the Mediterranean and documented Mussolini's ambitions to reestablish, under his rule, the ancient Roman Empire. Her research formed the basis of her book titled La Méditerranée Fasciste (The Fascist Mediterranean) describing. Mussolini's Italy and its influence on Tunisia before and during the Second World War.

Selected publications Bessis, Juliette. "Le Mouvement ouvrier tunisien: de ses origines à l'indépendance." Le mouvement social (1974): 85-108. Bessis, Juliette. "Chekib Arslan et les mouvements nationalistes au Maghreb." Revue historique 259.Fasc. 2 (526 (1978): 467-489. Bessis, Juliette. La Méditerranée fasciste: l'Italie mussolinienne et la Tunisie. Vol. 15. Karthala Editions, 1981. Bessis, Juliette. "Sur Moncef Bey et le moncéfisme: La Tunisie de 1942 à 1948." Outre-Mers. Revue d'histoire 70.260 (1983): 97-131. Bessis, Juliette. Revue D'histoire Moderne Et Contemporaine (1954-), vol. 32, no. 4, 1985, pp. 697–699. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20529189. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021. Bessis, Juliette. "La politique américaine en Afrique du Nord pendant la seconde guerre mondiale." Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 36.1 (1983): 147-161. Bessis, Juliette. "Ebrei in un paese arabo: Gli ebrei nella Libia contemporanea tra colonialismo, nazionalismo arabo e sionismo (1935-1970)." (1985): 695-697. Bessis, Juliette. "L'Opposition France-etats-Unis au Maghreb de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale jusqu'a l'indépendance des protectorats 1941–1956." Les Chemins de la Décolonisation de l'Empire coloniale français (1986): 341-56.