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“France must recognize its crimes committed in Algeria”
Benjamin Stora’s conviction
The terrible years of the French occupation of Algeria (1830-1962) were marked by the dispossession of Algerians of their land, thefts and massacres of Algerians, which constituted crimes against humanity. Crimes that are not in “French school textbooks”. This was recalled by the French historian, Benjamin Stora who spoke, this Sunday evening, in an intervention on the Algerian channel Al24news, this episode in the history of French colonialism. He considers it necessary for France to officially recognize its colonial crimes committed in Algeria, a part of history that certain circles of the French political class are trying to call into question.
Taken to task by the French extreme right and those nostalgic for “French Algeria”, for his lucid writings and his positions against French colonization in the question of memory, he explained that it is necessary to patiently build new bridges between the two shores, through work on history, recalling the process launched by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune with the creation of the Algerian-French Joint Commission on History and Memory.
“France has passed over this tragic period in silence,” he added, explaining that “we must reconstruct this history so that it is accessible to the French.”
In this regard, he cited the question of archives which must be accessible to historians from both shores. Benjamin Stora also claimed to have suffered attacks from certain circles of the political class in France, in particular from the far right who want to call into question France’s colonial past and its crimes in Algeria. Those “who wanted to hear nothing about the massacres of Algerians and the nuclear explosions. Now we have to see what we can do to re-establish the facts and the truth about the French occupation of Algeria, he said.
In this context, Benjamin Stora expressed the hope that recognition work will resume quickly, because the “younger generations” have a pressing need for it. He wanted to clarify in this regard that the work of historians within the framework of the Algerian-French joint commission “was literally impacted by politics”.
And, he continued, “I hope that we will find the path to scientific work, to historical work, which is entirely necessary, particularly for the younger generations who need to know this history.”
However, the French historian said he feared the arrival of the French extreme right to power: “Perhaps within two years, these people risk coming to power in France,” he said. It is therefore necessary, he recommended “to protect what has already been achieved, that is to say the official recognition by France of the assassinations and kidnappings… to protect the fact that there is the opening of the archives and the sharing of the archives”.
“My problem is that if today or tomorrow the extreme right comes to power, it will unravel all of these measures which were a start.
I am well aware of this. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. This was not the end of a job. It was the start of a job.” Asked about the fact that certain parties want to “erase” or “rewrite” history, Benjamin Stora wanted to be reassuring, “there are a lot of people who are mobilized to prevent this rewriting of history. There is still a real awareness.”
“I saw it myself. I am often invited in France to give conferences by high school students, in youth centers, etc. I have given a lot of conferences around all these measures that have been taken.”
However, the French historian deplored the fact that there are people in France today “who are at the highest level of the State, and who do not recognize this history, who do not want to hear it, who say today that it is in the past, let’s turn the page…”. Benjamin Stora knows what he is talking about.
“In 1991, I made a documentary entitled ”The Algerian Years” and French pilots testified to having used, in 1959, chemical weapons, that is to say Napalm, against Algerians in the Constantinois region,” he indicated last March in an interview with the Canal Algérie TV channel. These pilots “testified that Algerians were burned alive,” he stressed.
Lakhdar A.