In the context of its cooperation with the press site of the National Library of France, the French magazine Lenneauville Observator reviews every two weeks a historical topic through what French newspapers wrote about his time, and today we are returning to colonial history in Africa, especially the "Holocaust of the afternoon" in Algeria in the 1840s. .
The magazine was launched from the date of 1845, when the King of France sent an officer of his finest soldiers to put down the resistance led by Prince Abdel Qader Al-Jazaery 15 years ago in his country after it fell into the hands of the French.
For this general who was recruited into the Napoleonic army at the age of twenty and participated in the campaigns of Prussia and Poland, and the suppression of riots in Paris in 1834, "the competitor must be hunted, hunted and destroyed", and therefore he formed mobile teams destroying and confiscating lands and looting crops and livestock and burning those who sought refuge in the caves, In order to strangle the entire tribes, men and women, children and the elderly.
Although Colonel Eugene Kavinak opened this practice in June 1844 by burning hundreds of caves on the left bank of the Chlef Valley, it was Pogo who “endoscopy them” and circulated it with his famous declaration “If these miscreants withdrew to their caves, they set fire to them like Foxes. "
| " Kavinak Policy: "If these miscreants withdrew to their caves, they set fire to them like foxes." " |
When the resistance was organized around Sheikh Bou Mazza in the northwest, in the Rock of Dahra and the Valley of Chlef, colonels Imbel Plisier and Achille San Arno followed them with 4,000 men and used the concept of Pogo on June 18, 1845, and set fire to the entrance to the caves of Ghar al-Farish, where the Awlad tribe took refuge. The winds allied with Bu Mazza.
The next morning at dawn - as the newspaper says - 760 bodies of men and women of all ages were found, and Marshal Pogo commented, "It is a cruel end, but a terrible example is needed that terrorizes these fanatical mountaineers."
This news - which was initially published in a newspaper that is published only in Algeria - has provoked a discontent on the other side of the Mediterranean, as it was reported by the "Journal of Political and Literary Discussions" on July 2, 1844, saying that the French, after being blinded to accepting children The winds of surrender, set fire to the entrance to the cave in which their opponents stuck.
But the same magazine on July 11 of the same year was affected by the fate of the victims a little, and if it continued to justify the army’s decision, saying that "something that just happened at noon, I am deeply saddened by those who witnessed it ... They set fire and for a long time heard people screaming Those who were smothered by smoke, then no longer heard anything (...), 500 corpses scattered here and there in the caves. They were sent to save those who were still breathing. But only 150 of the living, part of them died while being transported for ambulance. ” .
Gradual anger in France
On the same day, the daily "Languedoc newspaper" issued in Toulouse spoke of other methods that could subdue the enemy's resistance, saying "they could starve to death or starve anyone who tried to escape, but the preferred method reminds us of the unfortunate fire around the chateau de Château de Not a pensioner. "
On the 17th of July 1845, the liberal-backed newspaper, Constitutionistionil, spoke of "the horror that this method of waging war" inspired, and published a message from an officer sent by the Spanish government to Algeria to study the operations of the French army in Africa, which had been published in the newspaper "Heraldo" in Madrid.
| " Spanish journalist: What caused the most horror in the Holocaust was the vision of children on the breasts of their mothers in a feeding position between the remains of sheep and bean bags. " |
"Nothing can give an idea of the terrible scene caused by the fire of this cave, all the bodies were naked, in a position indicating the convulsions that occurred before the death, and blood was flowing from their mouths. But what caused the most horror was seeing the children on the chest Their mothers are in a feeding position between the remains of sheep and bean bags, and despite all the efforts made by the officers, it is not possible to prevent the soldiers from taking all these things, searching for jewelry and taking blood-stained and burned prince. "
A cry in Europe
After a while, the French press almost unanimously condemned the Holocaust, and the novelist, Anire de Balzac, wrote in the daily Lucile about "a bad event that will not be erased from memory as long as our invasion continues," and Lecco Rochelle spoke of "shameful shame and cold cruelty."
Also on August 5, Le Commerce newspaper protested, "It is impossible for this disaffection raised by this unfortunate issue in France to have no impact in Algeria (...) It is time for people to feel about public morals (...) we think We must do everything to overcome what we reject in the name of humanity, civilization and national honor. "
The government seemed obliged to respond - as Lunneville Observator said - and a parliamentary commission of inquiry headed by Tocqueville concluded that the acts of violence and tyranny by Pogo would destroy Algeria's future, explaining that "we have bypassed the barbarism of the barbarians we wanted to attend."
This is what led the Minister of War, Marshal Jean de Dieu Salt, to justify what happened in front of the House of Representatives saying that "whenever an unexpected bad thing happens, even during the war, we must suffer for it (...) Colonel Plessier found one of the most officers The African army in honor - which I have always praised - itself in the most painful and embarrassing situation. He was forced to subdue the rebels who assassinated our soldiers a few days ago ... I admit that if I were in his place I would have done something very cruel (...) in many of the Sometimes, we French people are wrong to exaggerate the facts without taking into account the circumstances that bring them out of the ordinary. Its appalling, while in Algeria Vtjd interpretation, as will not prevent the officer from the aggressions likewise. "
A year later on this issue, on June 10, 1846, when Parliament was debating the extraordinary appropriations for Algeria, poet Alphonse de Lamartin once again condemned the "holocaust" afternoon, but some of them replied that "war is war", so the deputy, poet, and playwright said "Yes. Without a doubt there is war and war. There is a brutal war for brutal peoples, but it is not suitable for a civilized people. The war of wolves that is being waged for looting should provoke shame in a civilized country."
| " Colonel de San Arnault brags after another massacre in Algeria, saying: All the exits were tightly closed and a large cemetery was built. And the dead bodies of these fanatics will be covered forever " |
The atrocities continue
At a time when controversy was taking place in France, atrocities and "smoke" on the other side of the Mediterranean continued, with Colonel de San Arnault in August 1845 burning those who took refuge in another cave and bragged about his correspondence, saying, "It closed tightly." All the exits and made a vast cemetery. And the dead bodies of these fanatics will be covered by the earth forever ... ... Below there are 500 criminals who will not massacre any Frenchman anymore (...) My conscience does not punish me for anything. "
After that, many massacres occurred in Algeria. In November 1849, General Emile Herbellon massacred the revolutionaries in the Za`cha Oasis, and in January 1850, Colonel François de Cannopper set fire to a fire in the Aures region.
Despite the outrage in France, Plessie and Pogo who are responsible for the "holocaust" of the noon will end their lives with honor in France, where the first obtained a French Marshall baton and the title of Duke of Malakov, before he was appointed governor general of Algeria, where he died due to cerebral obstruction in 1864 The second one died in 1849, with cholera in his palace in Paris.