On this day in 1945, anti-Jewish riots broke out in Tripoli, Libya. Over three days, more than 140 Jews were killed. Before the introduction of anti-Jewish laws, the Jewish community thrived in Libya. By 1939, there were over 30,000 Jews in Libya, most of whom lived in Tripoli, constituting nearly one-quarter of the city's population. In 1911, Libya became an Italian colony. Under Italy’s fascist regime, anti-Jewish “Race Protection Laws” were introduced in Libya in 1938, and were implemented in 1940. Jews who worked in the civil service lost their jobs, Jewish children were no longer able to attend Italian schools, and marriages between Jews and non-Jews were outlawed as Jews were made to carry identification papers that indicated their ‘Jewish race’.Between 1940 and 1943, the British fought the Italians and Germans over Libya; in 1942, German troops took over the Jewish quarter of Benghazi, Libya. Depending on their citizenship and where in Libya they lived, Jews were sent to hard labor camps and concentration camps, mainly in the Libyan desert, though some were sent to Bergen-Belsen in Germany.Several reports from the Jewish community recall that on November 5, 1945, violence broke out throughout the city of Tripoli; there is also evidence to suggest that the British instigated the violence for their political gain. Just days before the riot broke out, Jewish defense groups in Tripoli had their weapons confiscated. When the riots broke out on November 5, Jewish leaders went to the Brits asking for intervention, but their request was ignored. The only help from the British was the imposition of a curfew.Over 140 Jews were murdered during the pogrom and hundreds more were injured by the end of the riot. Nine synagogues were burned to the ground and 35 Torah scrolls were destroyed. Jews were ethnically cleansed from Libya shortly thereafter and faced several other pogroms in 1948 and 1967. In 2003, the last known Jew in Libya, Rina Debach, left. No Jew has lived in Libya since.