Paris massacre of 1961

The Paris massacre of 1961 refers to a massacre in Paris on October 17, 1961, during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police Maurice Papon, the French police attacked an unarmed and peaceful demonstration of 30 000 Algerians, and may have killed up to 200 people .

The October 17, 1961 massacre appears to have been intentional, as has been demonstrated by historian Jean-Luc Einaudi, who won a trial against Maurice Papon in 1999 — the latter was convicted in 1998 on charges of crime against humanity due to his role under the Vichy collaborationist regime during the Second World War. Official documentation and eyewitnesses within the Paris police department indeed suggest that the massacre was directed by its police chief, Maurice Papon. Police records show that Papon called for officers in one station to be 'subversive' in quelling the demonstrations, and assured them protection from prosecution if they participated Jean-Luc Einaudi: "La bataille de Paris : 17 octobre 1961", 1991, ISBN 2020135477 . Many demonstrators died when they were violently herded by police into the River Seine, with some thrown from bridges after being beaten unconscious. Other demonstrators were killed within the courtyard of the Paris police headquarters after being arrested and delivered there in police buses. Officers who participated in the courtyard killings took the precaution to remove identification numbers from their uniforms, while senior officers ignored pleas by other policemen who were shocked when witnessing the brutality. Silence regarding the events within the police headquarters was further enforced by threats of reprisals from participating officers.

Forty years later, Bertrand Delanoë, member of the Socialist Party (PS) and mayor of Paris, put a plaque in remembrance of the massacre on the Pont Saint-Michel on October 17, 2001 BBC News . How many demonstrators were killed is still unclear, but estimates range from 70 to 200 people. In the absence of official estimates, the street plate stated: "In the memory of the many Algerians killed during the bloody repression of the pacific demonstration of October 17, 1961". In 1961, the police prefecture talked only about "2 persons shot dead". . But in 1998, the state acknowledged the massacre and spoke of 40 dead. In 1997, Minister of Culture Catherine Trautmann (PS) allowed limited access to historian David Assouline to consult part of the police documents (which were supposed to be classified until 2012). With only limited access, he found a list of 70 persons killed, while the texts confirmed Einaudi's comments that the magistrates seized by families of victims had systematically acquitted the policemen. According to Le Monde in 1997, which quoted the director of the Paris' Archives, the register would list 90 persons on the second half of October Concerning David Assouline's access to part of the Paris' Archives and the Monde quoting the director, see .

Background

The October 17, 1961 massacre took place in the frame of the Algerian War (1954-62), which had became more and more violent through-out the years. Since de Gaulle's equivocal return to power during the May 1958 crisis and his sudden change of policy concerning Algerian independence, the OAS, a far right terrorist group, used all possible means to oppose the National Liberation Front (FLN), which took the war to the metropole where it was helped by some activists such as the Jeanson network.

The French National Police

According to historian Jean-Luc Einaudi, a specialist in the October 17, 1961 massacre, some of the causes of the violent repression of the October 17, 1961 demonstration can best be understood in terms of the composition of the French police force itself, which still included many holdovers from the the force in place during the WWII Vichy regime which had collaborated with the Gestapo to detain Jews, as for example in the July 16, 1942 Vel'd'hiv Raid.

The vast majority of policemen suspended after the Liberation of Paris]] in 1944 for extreme forms of collaborationism (including assistance to the thugs of the Parti Populaire Français and similar groups were later reintegrated within the police forces, while the few policemen who had been part of the Resistance movement (although, as J.-L. Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus pointed out, they had necessarily took part in the various raids against Jews and other persecuted people during Vichy or else they would have been fired) had their career advancement blocked because of anticommunism (the majority of the Resistance was composed by communists, and the communist ministers had been expelled from the government in May 1947, as in Italy). The career of Maurice Papon, Parisian head of the police in the 1960s and budget minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's presidency in the 1970s, is a brilliant illustration of the institutional racism which impregnated the French police until at least the 1960s. Papon would only be convicted in 1997-98 for crimes against humanity, because of his responsibility in the deportation of 1,560 Jews, including children and the elderly, between 1942 and 1944.

The nomination of Maurice Papon at the head of the Prefecture of Police (March 1958)

Jean-Luc Einaudi recalled the nomination of Papon as Prefect of Police. On March 13, 1958, 7,000 policemen demonstrated in the courtyard of the Police headquarters, against the delays in the "risk prime" accorded to them because of the war — although the FLN hadn't yet started targeting policemen at this time. Encouraged by far right deputy Jean-Marie Le Pen, 2,000 of them attempted to enter in the Palais Bourbon, seat of the National Assembly, among cries of "Sales Juifs! A la Seine! Mort aux fellaghas!" (insulting Jews and Arabs). Under the proposition of Minister of Interior Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, Maurice Papon was named the next day as prefect of the police. Since two years, he had assumed in Constantine (in Algeria) the special functions of Inspecteur général pour l'administration en mission extraordinaire (IGAME - General Inspector for the Administration on Extraordinary Mission). "Prohibited zones, detention centers (camps de regroupements), torture, executions without trial: this is the reality of the war he ^* was supervising out there. According to Einaudi, in the following years, he would apply to Paris and to the Seine department the methods generalized in Algeria" Jean-Luc Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus, Les Silences de la police - 16 juillet 1942, 17 octobre 1961, L'Esprit frappeur, 2001, ISBN 2844051731 (p.72)

After the May 1958 crisis and the installation of the new Fifth Republic under Charles de Gaulle's leadership, Maurice Papon was kept by the Resistance hero. Papon created the compagnies de district ("district compagnies"), police forces specialized in repression where new police recruits were formed. These district compagnies were mainly formed of veterans from the Indochina War (1947-54) or youth coming back from Algeria.

The August 1958 raids

On August 25, 1958, an FLN offensive in the metropole killed three policemen boulevard de l'Hôpital (XIIIe arrondissement) and another in front of the cartoucherie de Vincennes. Prefect of police Maurice Papon organized in retaliation massive raids of Algerian people in Paris and its suburbs. More than 5,000 Algerians were detained in the former hospital Beaujon, in the Japy gymnasium (XIe arrondissement) and in the Vél'd'Hiv — the Japy gymnasium as the Vél'd'Hiv had been used as detention centers under Pétain's collaborationist regime See Jean-Luc Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus, 2001, op.cit., pp.73-74 for the August 25, 1958 FLN offensive; the detention of 5,000 Algerians; L'Humanité quote and the "boasting about throwing Algerians in the Seine". . A former member of the FTP resistance, reporter Madeleine Rifaud then wrote in L'Humanité:

"Since two days, a racist concentration camp has been opened in Paris. There hasn't even been the reserve to choose a site which would not recall anything to the patriots who are currently celebrating the anniversary of the Liberation of Paris." Ibid.

The creation of the CIV and of the FPA militia (1959-1960)

According to Einaudi, "Already at this time, policemen ^* boasting about throwing Algerians in the Seine" river Ibid. Vincennes' Identification Center (CIV - Centre d'identification de Vincennes) was then created under the authority of the prefecture of police in January 1959. Algerians detained during police raids in the Paris region could be brought there for identity verifications but could also be put under "house arrest" (assigné à résidence) by the police prefect. "These raids were frequently the occasion of violences" according to Einaudi Jean-Luc Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus, 2001, p.74 .

The Auxiliary Police Force (FPA - Force de police auxiliaire) was then created in 1960. This suppletive force, put under the authority of the Algerian Affairs Coordination Center of the Prefecture of Police (Centre de coordination des Affaires algériennes de la préfecture de police) and supervised by military, was under the orders of the police prefect, Maurice Papon. Led by captain Montaner and based in the fort of Noisy in Romainville, it was composed of Algerians (whom, for the most part, were opposed to the FLN for personal reasons, but some of them had been forcefully recruited in Algeria). In autumn 1960, the FPA was composed of 600 members. It first operated in the XIIIe arrondissement where it requisitioned hotels. "Torture was practiced notably in 9, rue Harvey and 208, rue du Château-des-Rentiers... Disappearances took place. The FPA then extended its action in the XVIIIe arrondissement where three hotels were requisitionned rue de la Goutte-d'Or. It was also active in the suburbs, in particular in Nanterre's bidonvilles. Some voices opposed themselves to these crimes denied by the police prefecture" Jean-Luc Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus, 2001, op.cit., p.75 . Christian magazine Témoignage Chrétien wrote: "It is not possible to stay mute when, in our Paris, men are resurrecting the methods of the Gestapo" Quoted by J.-L. Einaudi, 2001, op.cit., p.76 .

Autumn 1961

The FLN decided the resumption of bombings against the French police end of August 1961; from the end of August 1961 to the beginning of October 1961, 11 policemen were killed and 17 injured (in Paris and its suburbs). "These bombings had the effects of spreading fear through the Parisian police ranks, but also of multiplying the desire of revenge and hate against the whole of the community. During the whole of September, the Algerian population was severely repressed. In practice, this massive repression was based on physical appearance", according to Einaudi Op.cit., p.76 . Daily raids against Algerians — frequently confusing any Magrebin people (Moroccans or Tunisians), and even Spanish or Italian immigrants, with Algerians people — Algerians arrested at work or in the streets, thrown in the Seine with their hands tied in order to drown them, etc., were the methods used for this repression, as shown by example by a report realized by priest Joseph Kerlan from the Mission de France Report quoted by Einaudi pp.76-79, op.cit.

According to historian Einaudi, "it is in this climate that, on October 2, during the funerals of a policeman killed by the FLN, the police prefect proclaimed, in the prefecture's courtyard: "For one hit taken we shall give back ten!" This call ^* immediately understood as such. On the same day, visiting Montrouge's police station, the prefect of police declared to the present policemen: "You must be subversive also in the war that oppose you to the others. You will be covered, I give you my word on that." J.-L. Einaudi, op.cit., p.79

Events

On October 5, 1961, the prefecture of police led by Maurice Papon announced in a press statement the instauration of a curfew from 8h30 PM to 5h30 AM in Paris and its suburbs for the "Algerians Muslims workers", the "French Muslims" and the "French Muslims of Algeria" (all three terms used by Papon, although the approximatively 150,000 Algerians who lived at the time in Paris were at the time officially considered French and possessed a French identity card). The French federation of the FLN thus called the whole of the Algerian population in Paris, men, women and children, to pacifically demonstrate against the curfew, perceived as a racist administrative measure, on October 17, 1961. According to historian Jean-Luc Einaudi, the head of the police Maurice Papon had 7,000 policemen, 1 400 CRS and gendarmes mobiles (riot police and constabularies) to block this demonstration, to which the Prefecture of Police hadn't given its accord (mandatory for legal demonstrations). The police forces thus blocked all accesses to the capital, metro stations, train stations, Paris' Portes, etc. On a population of about 150,000 Algerians living in Paris, 30 to 40 000 of them managed anyway to join the demonstration. Police raids were carried out in all of the city. Detained people (not only Algerians, but also Moroccans, Tunisians, Spanish or Italian immigrants) were then sent to the various police offices, the courtyard of the police prefecture, the Palais des Sports of Porte de Versailles (XVe arrondissement), in the Coubertin stadium, etc.

Despite these raids, 4,000 to 5,000 people succeeded in demonstrating pacifically on the Grands Boulevards from République to Opéra, without any incident. Blocked at Opéra by police forces, the demonstration backtracked. Reaching the Rex cinema (in the same site of the Rex Club on the current "Grands Boulevards"), the police opened up fire on the crowd and charged, leading to several deaths. On the Neuilly bridge (separating Paris from the suburbs), the police forces and FPA members also shot on the crowd, killing some. Algerians were thrown and drowned in the Seine in all of the city and its suburbs, most notably on the Saint-Michel bridge in the middle of Paris and near the Prefecture of Police, near Notre Dame de Paris.

"During the night, a massacre took place in the courtyard of the police headquarters, killing tens of victims. In the Palais des Sports, then in the Palais des Expositions of Porte de Versailles", the detained Algerians, most of the time already injured, ^* systematically victims of 'welcome committee'. In these places, violences were pursuied and prisoners tortured. Men will be dying there until the end of the week. Similar scenes took place in the Coubertin stadium... The raids, violences and drownings will be continued in the following days. During weeks, unidentified corpses were discovered along the shores. The result of the massacre may be estimated to at least 200 dead". J-L Einaudi, op.cit., p.82-82 .

While the police originally claimed that only two deaths were observed during the demonstration, historians estimate that between 32 and 200 demonstrators died. With almost no media coverage at the time, the events surrounding the massacre, as well as the death toll, were almost unknown both in France and worldwide for decades, in part because they were overshadowed by the February 8, 1962 Charonne massacre, which didn't simply involve Algerians but also members of the Communist Party (who disposed of the means of recalling the massacre each year).

Reactions to the massacre

On October 26, Georges Montaron, editor of Témoignage Chrétien, Claude Bourdet, editor of France Observateur, Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, editor of Libération, Avril, editor of Télérama, parish priest Lochard, Jean-Marie Domenach, editor of Esprit magazine, Jean Schaeffert and André Souquière organized in the Mutualité a meeting to "protest against police violences and the repression of the October 17, 1961 demonstration in Paris".

A few days later, some anonymous policemen published a text called A group of republican policemen declare... (Un groupe de policiers républicains déclarent...) on October 31, stating:

"What happened on October 17, 1961 and in the following days against the pacific demonstrators, on which no weapons were found, morally forces us to bring our testimony and to alert public opinion... All guilty people must be punished. The punition must be extended to all of the responsibles, those who give orders, those who feign of letting it happen, whatever their high office may be... Among the thousands of Algerians brought to the Parc des Expositions of the Porte de Versailles, tens have been killed struck by pistol grips, pick grips... In one of the extremity of the Neuilly bridge, groups of policemen on one side, CRS on the other, slowly operated their junction. All the Algerians captured in this huge trap were knocked out and systematically thrown in the Seine. A good hundred people were subjected to this treatment... the Parisian police headquarters, torturers sent their victims by tens in the Seine which flows at only a few meters from the courtyard, in order to subtract them to the forensics scientists. Not before having taken their watches and money. Mr. Papon, prefect of the police, and Mr. Legay, general director of the municipal police, assisted to these horrible scenes... These indisputable facts are only a small part of what has happened in these last days and what continues to happen. They are known by the municipal police. The exactions committed by the harkis, the special district brigades, the brigade des aggressions et violences are not any more secrets. The few information brought by the newspapers are nothing compared to the truth... We do not sign this text and sincerely regret it. We observe, not without sadness, that the current circumstances do not allow us to do so..." Quoted by J.-L. Einaudi, op.cit., pp.83-84

The anonymous authors remained so until the late 1990s although Maurice Papon tried to discover them. In February 1999, its main author, Emile Portzer, former member of the National Front resistance organization during the war, testified in favor of historian Jean-Luc Einaudi during the trial which followed Papon's suit against him (won by Einaudi). On January 1, 1962, the police prefect Papon declared to the police forces under his orders: "On October 17, you won... the victory against Algerian terrorism... Your moral interests have been successfully defended, since the aim of the police prefecture's opponents to put in place an investigation committee have been defeated." Quoted by Einaudi, op.cit., p85

February 8, 1962 Charonne massacre

On February 8, 1962, another demonstration against the OAS pro-"French Algeria" terrorist group, which had been prohibited by the state, was repressed at Charonne metro station. Nine members of the CGT trade union, for most of them communists, were killed by the police forces, directed by the same Maurice Papon under the same government, with Roger Frey as Minister of Interior, Michel Debré as Prime minister and Charles de Gaulle as president, whom did all they could to "dissimulate the scale of the 17 crime" (Jean-Luc Einaudi J.-L. Einaudi, op.cit., p.83 ). The funerals on February 13, 1962 of the nine persons killed were attended by hundreds of thousands of people. .

Reporting

Despite the extent of the massacre and publicity surrounding the event - anecdotes tell of piles of bodies in the street, as well as bodies being found downriver for weeks afterwards - the paucity of objective press coverage at the time of the massacre was likely due to two factors: successful censorship of the media by several levels of the French government, and biased reporting by major media outlets in countries that were supportive of the French government's policy regarding Algeria. Some censorship was enforced by the Paris government due to concerns about responsibilities within the Paris police department for the massacre, while other censorship was enforced by the government because of concerns about its deteriorating position in Algeria's war for independence. Furthermore, coverage of the massacre by major British and American media sources, such as The Times, TIME magazine and The New York Times, downplayed the severity of the massacre as well as the Paris government's responsibility for the events The Washington Report on the Middle East: The 1961 Massacre of Algerians in Paris: When the media failed the test .

Given the high number of victims, the decades-long silence on the massacre may be a reflection of the fragile state of civil rights and justice when people and governments feel threatened by events beyond their control.

On the other hand, it may be a reflection of the fact that the killings took place in the middle of a large scale and brutal war in which at least 380,000 died, and there is an endless number of atrocities, on both sides, that could be discussed. 5,000 died in the "café wars" in France between the Algerian FLN and rival Algerian groups. European descended civilian casualties exceeded 10,000 (including 3,000 dead) in 42,000 recorded terrorist incidents. More than two million Algerians were displaced. Thousands of Algerians were tortured and killed in French Army or Police custody. Many captured French soldiers were tortured to death by the Algerian independence fighters. The Paris Massacre, and reporting of it, took place in this context, in which there was a constant stream of violent events to be reported.

Human rights issues were an important issue for French newspapers and the French electorate throughout the war. The scandal of the use of torture (the electric gégène) had disastrous morale effects. By the end of the war human rights were a more important issue than the preservation of French Algeria. Public support for French Algeria was low by the end of the war, in part as a response to the human rights question. Jean-Paul Sartre, for example, supported the Jeanson network, of which Henri Curiel was an active member. Human rights issues were widely reported and bitterly debated, and while the Paris Massacre may not have been constantly discussed as a specific event, it certainly falls into the overall issue of human rights which was very extensively debated.

Recent events

The French government acknowledged in 1998 that the massacre occurred and that 40 people died in the massacre.

No-one has been prosecuted for participation in the killings, because they fell under the general amnesty for crimes committed during the Algerian War. This included on one side French police and military personnel; and on the other side various French (pro-independence, often communist) and Algerian terrorists, for attacks on civilian targets such as cafés, which killed 3,000 civilians.

Forty years after the massacre, in 2001, the event was officially acknowledged by the city of Paris with the placement and unveiling of a memorial plaque near the Saint Michel bridge . This resulted from work by the Socialist Party local government. At the unveiling of the plaque, Bertrand Delanoë, the Socialist Party Mayor of Paris, cited the need for France to come to terms with this event in order to move forward with unity. Centrist and right-wing French politics, as well as the police union, objected to the plaque on various grounds (increased threat of civil unrest, alleged tolerance of terrorism (sic), and encouragement of disrespect for the police). On the other hand, historian Olivier LeCour Grandmaison, president of the October 17, 1961 Association, declared to L'Humanité that "if a step forward had been taken with the decision of the Parisian' townhall to put a commemorative plate on the Saint-Michel Bridge, deplored that the text which was chosen for it doesn't bring about neither the idea of a crime against humanity nor the responsibility of the author of the crime, the state. Under no excuse does this Parisian initiative exempts the highest national authorities of taking their responsibilities. In the same manner, if [former Socialist Prime minister Lionel Jospin personally expressed himself last year 2000 talking about "tragic events", neither the police's responsibility in the crime nor the responsibility of the political responsibles at the time have been clearly established and much less officially condemned."

The massacre was prominently referenced in Caché, a 2005 film by Michael Haneke.

References

External links

Sources and bibliography

Didier Daeninckx: "Meurtres pour mémoire", 1984, ISBN 2070406490
Jean-Luc Einaudi: "La bataille de Paris : 17 octobre 1961", 1991, ISBN 2020135477
Jean-Luc Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus, Les silences de la police - 16 juillet 1942, 17 octobre 1961, 2001, L'Esprit frappeur, ISBN 2844051731 (Rajsfus is a historian of the French police, the first date refers to the July 16, 1942 Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv)
Olivier LeCour Grandmaison, Le 17 octobre 1961 - Un crime d’État à Paris, collectif, Éditions La Dispute, 2001.

Massaker von Paris 1961 | Massacre des Algériens à Paris

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