“ARTE” Documentary Film Lays Out Benjamin Stora’s Recipe For Reconciliation Of Memory

The documentary film, the first part of which was broadcast by the German-French channel (ARTE) and the French 2nd channel (France 2), from Tuesday to Wednesday nights, highlighted testimonies from various groups that made or experienced the event during the glorious national liberation revolution.

The broadcast of this series, entitled “At War for Algeria”, is in line with the recommendations made by the French historian, Benjamin Stora, in the report he delivered to French President Emmanuel Macron, which is considered as the recipe that the French side is looking for, in order to achieve progress in the field of Reconciliation of memories, which Macron put among his priorities in his first term, which is nearing its end.

The series was rich in terms of the diversity of testimonies, as those loyal to the National Liberation Front, which were fiercely defending the independence of Algeria by all available means, attended, in addition to the testimonies of some Europeans and Jews who were in Algeria, but it did not transmit or document the ugliness of brutal French colonialism and its heinous crimes committed in Algeria on a course of more than 132 years.

Among those documented in the series is a young French national recruited for national service, Stanislas Eitan, who was recruited in Madagascar, and then transferred to Algeria.

In his testimony, he says, “It was November 1955. I was just 24 years old. I had returned from Madagascar, where I had just completed my eighteen months of military service. I was training in philosophy at a seminary near Puy-en-Ville. I received a summons. When I knew I had to go to Algeria, I knew that there were wars of independence. I knew why there were revolutions. I had just lived in the colony. I asked myself the question: “Should I go or not?”.

This recruit spoke about the state of suffering that overwhelmed him when he received the summons: “I asked my father: If I did not leave, would I be considered a fugitive? My father replied, “You will be more useful on earth among men…”, but he decided to go in the end.. Other videos showed the provision of social services to Algerians, such as some French army doctors examining women and children in a tragic situation due to disease and poverty.

While the testimonies of the French conscripts were lost between thinking about disobeying military orders and fearing the horrors of war, the testimonies of the Algerians centered on their miserable conditions, on misery and suffering. Civilians among them spoke of poverty and destitution, and above that the unjustified taxes that French colonialism unjustly imposed on the Algerians, as one elderly Algerian woman put it: “They used to impose fines even on men’s beards!”

As for the militants and those calling for Algeria’s independence, they gave testimonies about some of their heroic deeds.. How they crossed the lines of Morris and the electrified shawl, to bring weapons inside, and the horrors they faced while the French enemy planted at least 12 million anti-personnel mines, which killed and disabled tens of thousands of Algerians.

The Harkis had a presence in this documentary series that showed rare videos dating back to the colonial era, and the prominent feature in one of the testimonies was that poverty and need were the direct reason for their joining the French army, in addition to other cases, which cannot be justified under any name.

What is remarkable about these testimonies, are those issued by the category of centenarians, “the colon,” which are testimonies that transferred “Nostalgia” to the lost paradise, Algeria, as they like to call it.

This type was represented by an elegant blonde woman, who recalled her childhood period in the municipality of Sidi Moussa in the depths of Mititdja…

She was bemoaning that beautiful time. She said with a burning heart: “My father came to Algeria in 1848 with very fertile lands located in the Mitidja region.. The fragrance of orange blossoms was sleeping out of my sight even at night…”

The series documented testimonies from various parties that took up arms, each according to his background. While the Algerians fought for liberation and regained their usurped rights, the French fought to preserve the land they looted, as well as the “colon” who feared losing what they owned unlawfully.