A law passed by the Vichy government in June 1941 ordered Jews to declare themselves as such by mid-July of that year. All of Vichy's laws were automatically applicable in France's colonies, as set out by the armistice with Germany that had awarded the French government control of the empire. Claude Nataf had raised awareness of the plight of Tunisian Jewry during the dark years. He was president of the Societe d'Histoire des Juifs de Tunisie (SHJT). Nataf secured Tunisian Jewry's entry into the maainstream Holocaust narrative.