these witnesses of the Algerian war go from high school to high school to “contribute to reducing the suffering”

As a symbol, they pose side by side, together. A son of an Algerian separatist, a daughter of a harkis, a former conscript from the French army and then a pied-noir: four faces of the same conflict found themselves facing a class of Terminale du Aragon-Picasso multi-purpose high school in Givors. They discussed the memory of the Algerian War, which ended just 60 years ago with the Evian Accords. And especially of the present and the future of the impact of this conflict which has left wounds within the families.

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Michel Wilson, pied-noir born in Algiers in 1952, intends to debunk received ideas, in particular on the role of the different protagonists. It is addressed to the heirs of this complex history. For six years, he has traveled to schools with his association “Coup de soleil”. He works with the 4ACG association (Ancient Called in Algeria and their Friends Against the War).

The high school students immediately ask him questions:Do you think that Algeria should remain French?” “No ! And France had nothing to do in Algeria“, he replies tit for tat. Or how to undo the clichés about the Algerian war, which, 60 years later, has not healed all its wounds. “We are people that everything could have opposed, and we show that we are friends, that we are side by side.“

This spirit of reconciliation is what struck Sophie, in Terminale, during her exchange with Michel Bret, 84, who did his military service in Algeria: “He said ‘I am proud to be able to shake hands with a former member of the FLN because it means that we have overcome that, and that we can move forward’. I find it wonderful.”, she confides, visibly moved.

For Alexandra-Dalila Amri, daughter of harki, these encounters are life-saving. She saw this exchange with high school students as therapy.

She tries to reconcile with herself and with her father. “I lived within me the harkism of my father, and its harmful consequences for us at home” she says. Her father is still alive, but she never managed to speak with him about the war. “Today, I would like to ask my father several questions: ‘why did you join the French army? And why did you flee at the time of the proclamation of independence? Did you have something to reproach yourself for?´ For years, I was ashamed of this harki status, and I preferred to affirm that my father was no longer in this world.“, she breathes.

Many high school students realize that, in their families too, this war is a well-kept secret. “My father lived in Algeria, and it’s taboo, we don’t talk about it at all“, explains a student. Michel replies: “Try to bring this up, because it is buried suffering. Contribute to reducing these sufferings. “This is the whole objective of the association: to break the silence, to appease memories and to ensure that the Algerian war is not a blind spot in our history.