It is a painful part of the history of France, a scar that is always difficult to evoke: the war in Algeria. This conflict, also called “the nameless war”, which killed 250,000 on the Algerian side and more than 25,000 on the French side, ended March 18, 1962 with the signing of the Evian Accords. Independence condemns more than a million French from Algeria to exodus. VSthey who are called the “pieds-noirs” give up everything overnight. An unspeakable heartbreak for a majority of them, who had never set foot in France.
Broadcast in 2018 and again visible in replay on France 5 since June 5, the documentary The Pieds-noirs, a French story is dotted with a myriad of testimonies that relate the journey of these exiles who had “for fatherland France and for country Algeria”. They tell of the sweetness of life in this North African countries, their contrasting relations with the Algerians, but also the hostility of which they were victims as soon as they returned to France.
These returnees are sometimes accused of having taken advantage of the Algerians, sometimes held responsible for the death of many young people in combat. The hoteliers refuse to rent them rooms, their parcels are looted, the rumor grows about their alleged wealth. “The customs officers overwhelm us with their contempt and their haughtinesssays Alain Vircondelet, who was 15 when he arrived in France in 1962. They ask us if we have any gold bars.”
Most French people Algeria, however, had incomes well below the salaries practiced in France. Some were plumbers, railway employees or fishermen. “The French mostly believed that we were going to invade their country and that we were very rich people”continues Alain Vircondelet.
“The truth wasn’t told, so the French didn’t know who we were.”
Marie-Jeanne Soler, French from Algeriain the documentary
One day, as she is getting ready to get into a taxi, the driver refuses. “From that day on, I no longer wanted to say that I was pied-noir”, she says. After the confusion and the cautious reception of these returnees, aid is organized and the French State takes charge of their integration, through housing and allowances, as a CNRS researcher interviewed in the documentary recalls. But even if their assimilation leads, for many, to professional success, accomplishment appeases neither the melancholy nor the nostalgia of these uprooted people for a dream Algeria.
The documentary The Pieds-noirs of Algeria, a French story directed by Jean-François Delassus is visible in replay on france.tv until June 30, 2022.