Algerian war: former conscripts recount their revolt against the violence committed
Audio 01:26
French paratroopers on patrol in the Aurès massif, stopped a caravan and questioned Algerian peasants, on November 12, 1954, ten days after the series of attacks which marked the beginning of the Algerian war of independence.
© AFP/Pierre Bonnin
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
This weekend, for their 60th anniversary, the Évian agreements were commemorated.
The latter put an end to the Algerian conflict and paved the way for the independence of Algeria.
On both sides of the Mediterranean, the memories of this conflict are still vivid and not always appeased.
In France, former conscripts, forced to participate in the war, testify within the Association of former conscripts in Algeria against the war (4ACG).
They seek to transmit what they saw of this war which revolted them.
Advertising
Read more
“
Even when we got on the boat, we didn't know where we were going.
It was total disinformation
, ”recalls Stanislas Hutin, 92, whose memory has remained solid.
Coming from a family of journalists, he knows that torture is practiced in Algeria, but the confrontation with it will hurt him.
“
As we were in the middle of town and it was absolutely necessary, according to the officers, to obtain information, so we entered the cycle of torture.
I tell the story of this 15-year-old kid that I heard screaming for part of the night because he was on electricity
, remembers the former caller.
For me, it was really the beginning of my revolt.
»
Say the absurdity of war
Mostly from rural areas, the young conscripts of the contingent, like Roger Winterhalter, discovered the other side of what France then called “pacification”.
“
I saw that, ourselves, we were very quickly carried away by this violence, by this contempt for people.
In demonstrations, more than 50 people were killed and they were unarmed.
It was the pinnacle where I saw that we couldn't live like that anymore.
»
Time passes, the actors go out, but there is still time to testify, believes Rémi Serres, co-founder of 4ACG: "
What we can do, as long as we are alive, is to continue to go schools, to say what we have experienced.
Because after us, there will be historians, but no more witnesses.
Let's take advantage of the few years that remain to express the absurdity of war.
»
These veterans despite themselves hope that in France as in Algeria, young people will be able to overcome the quarrels of memory.
►To listen also: Report Africa - The Association of former conscripts in Algeria try to transmit the memory
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Algeria
Algerian War
France
Story
Defense