Pacification en Algérie (2002)

The first part of "Pacification in Algeria" begins in 1945 and ends in 1956. In May 1945, Paris celebrates the end of Nazi barbarity, while at the same time, on the other side of the Mediterranean, the French army massacres more than 10,000 people in Algeria in retaliation for the nationalist uprising in Sétif. The Algerians, who had fought Germany alongside the French, demand independence. But France clings to its empire, believing it is defending its lost greatness. In the colonial imagery of the time, Algeria would be nothing without the civilizing work of France. "Algeria is France", said François Mitterrand, and when the FLN guerrilla war really begins in 1954, the governments of the Fourth Republic give the army carte blanche to restore order. The laws of "collective responsibility" repealed at the Liberation by de Gaulle are being dusted off, the press is being censored, "regroupment camps" are being opened, and soldiers who dare to denounce torture are being threatened: this is the "pacification" of Algeria, officially a police operation, in fact a real war that will intensify in 1958 with the vote of full powers to the army. In the second part, André Gazut picks up the chronology where he left off. It is 1956, the "pacification" is continuing in general indifference. Apart from families where one of the sons is called to fight, few people feel concerned by "the events" in Algeria. However, it is soon "the battle of Algiers". The paratroopers have all the powers to suppress "terrorism" and do not hold back: mass arrests, torture, summary executions. Anyone who denounced the army's practices was immediately accused of communist subversion and punished. On television, the Prime Minister lied to the French. While the army systematically sabotaged attempts at negotiation with the FLN, factious tendencies within it were exacerbated. In May 1958, they imposed the return to business of General de Gaulle, then fomented the "putsch of the generals" in 1961 against this new Republic which was negotiating the independence of Algeria.