Brief memory of the Houcine Ait Ahmed’s life in Switzerland

Humility, love of reading, unit insight, patriotism, hospitality, concern for the religious obligations and kinship are the qualities that accompanied the late leader Hocine Ait Ahmed, throughout his life and kept them in the forced or optional exile in Switzerland.

He refused the title of leader and war veteran (Mujahid), because all the people are war veterans in his opinion. He opened his home to all visitors who wanted to meet him up close; he was retracing the news of homeland closely via the press and the activities of the party.

Those were the diaries of the late Hocine Ait Ahmed, in his exile, which never alters his Algerian identity and his inimitable personality.

Sources that are close to his family told Echorouk that this historical personality retained its qualities until his last days, as calm, simplicity and humility, reading eagerly and walking, were features that were neither omitted by time nor by the circumstances of his life.

Da Houcine, according to testimonies that were collected by Echorouk, from his relatives, was the father of three and husband, and he did not choose to live a luxurious life, but he lived a simple and humble life, and books were the most fortunate comrades to occupy his time at his home in Switzerland, as he spent hours in reading also the daily newspapers and check out the nation’s news, as he accompanied visitors from the party members and even students and researchers to his home and did not receive them in cafes or react with specific protocols.

War veteran Houcine Ait Ahmed preserved the bonds of friendship and kinship, as he was in constant contact with his family in Ain Al Hammam, and with his family in Tazmalt in Bejaia (eastern Algiers), and he abhorred calling him with the glorified titles, especially the “war veteran” because in his view the Algerian people is the real and eternal war veteran.