David Galula, born on January 10, 1919 in Sfax (Tunisia), grew up in Casablanca (Morocco), at a time when both Tunisia and Morocco were French protectorates. David Galula’s family were naturalized as French citizens in 1924.

Unlike most of the Jews living in Morocco, David Galula did not attend a Jewish school but rather a French public school, which fostered his French identity. After high school, he decided to enlist in the French army, and was accepted into the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1939, a few months prior to the Nazi …