In Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne, the Ehpad Saint-Joseph has been organizing since the end of April moments of exchanges between residents on the Algerian war. Every month, about twenty residents, as well as relatives and companions of these former recruits, meet to discuss their memories. A memory work initiated by the establishment’s psychologistSylvine Buron. “I had the opportunity to accompany several residents who lived through the Algerian war and for whom there was real trauma. They couldn’t talk about it, they talked about it in half-words by making detours. “
“We wonder what we went to do there.”
In 2019, the psychologist was contacted by the Lilavie association, which works on the transmission of the Algerian war. “We identified which residents were concerned, which residents had done their military service in Algeria, explains the psychologist. The objective is to develop a testimony and leave a trace.
Accompanied by facilitators and two psychologists, the residents evoke the traumas of war. The objective is to free speech as you go along. Daniel 83, remembers. He left at 20. “We wonder what we went to do there. We know what we did, we say what we know about it. We have that in mind, we start the problem to talk about it more” , explains the resident. “I had 22 days of leave after 15 months, and then I went back for a year, it was hard.” At the end of a session, Cécile, the facilitator, is surprised. “We didn’t expect there to be testimonials so soon, it’s rather a good thing”. These moments of exchange will last until the end of the year and should lead to a collection of words.