Henri Alleg
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Henri Alleg (20 July 1921 – 17 July 2013), born as Harry John Salem, was a French-Algerian journalist, director of the '' Alger républicain'' newspaper, and a member of the
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
. After Editions de Minuit, a French publishing house, released his memoir '' La Question'' in 1958. Alleg gained international recognition for his stance against torture, specifically within the context of the
Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...
(1954–1962).


Early life

Alleg was born in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 1921 to
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
parents of Russian- Polish origin. During his childhood in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, Alleg never fully embraced his Jewish identity due to his opinions of Israel as an agent of racist colonialism. His early educational years coincided with the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, during which time he was met with an increasingly politicized school environment with Italian refugees who opposed Mussolini arriving in France along with Jewish Germans.


Early journalism career and controversy

Alleg left for
Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
in 1939 and, at age 18, became intimately involved with the Algerian Communist Party. A fifteen year old Georgette Cottin served as an intermediary with the leaders of the Jeunesses Communistes and supplied a typewriter and roneo saved from the headquarters of the Youth Hostels of Algiers which made it possible to publish a few issues of the Jeune Garde newspaper. Postwar, Alleg worked as editor-in-chief of the ''Alger Républicain'', a daily paper sympathetic to Algerian nationalism, from 1950 to 1955. In 1951, Alleg became director of the publication, which alone in Algeria advocated a free democratic press for Algerian grievances against France. The newspaper was banned in September 1955 by the French authorities due to its
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
and anti-colonial perspective. In November 1956, after many of his colleagues at the newspaper were arrested by French colonial authorities, Alleg went into hiding, maintaining his journalistic connections by continuing to submit pro-independence articles to the French Communist journal ''
l'Humanité (; ) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, ''de facto'', and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist." History ...
''. Many of his articles never saw publication due to government
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
of writing that advocated Algerian independence.


Initial arrest and torture

On 12 June 1957 Alleg was arrested on suspicion of undermining the power of the state by France's 10th Paratrooper Division in the home of his friend, mathematics professor Maurice Audin, who had been arrested the day before and later died under torture by the French state during the Battle of Algiers. Alleg underwent one month of torture in El-Biar, a suburb of
Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
, despite the fact that no charges had been laid against him. While in French custody, Alleg was submitted to many kinds of cruel tortures, both physical and mental, in an effort to get him to reveal the names of those who had sheltered him for the past several months. His "treatment" consisted of electric shocks, burning, forced swallowing and inhaling of water to simulate drowning (now known as water boarding), and being hung from various devices. He was also injected with an experimental dose of the
barbiturate Barbiturates are a class of depressant, depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medication, medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological a ...
sodium pentothal, which was thought to be a kind of truth serum. Despite the intensity of his torture and the relentless pursuit of answers by the French "paras", Alleg never talked or revealed the names of anyone who aided or abetted him in his undercover life. While imprisoned, French soldiers visited Henri's wife and questioned her about his activities and whereabouts. She was not subjected to any use of force, but was considered under arrest for the five days of her questioning. As his French torturers realized that Alleg would rather die than betray those who hid him, they transferred him to Lodi camp in Algiers, where he recovered at the Barberousse military hospital and prison. He wrote a letter to his wife confirming his presence at the Lodi camp and saying that he "hoped to regain his health, given rest and time."


''La Question'' and censorship

It was in the Lodi camp that Alleg wrote and smuggled out an account of his ordeal''.'' His wife, Gilberte, who at the time had been deported from Algeria, would receive the pages, type them, and distribute them to the French literary and journalistic connections that Alleg had made during his tenure at the ''Algier républicain''. His declarations of maltreatment were printed in ''L'Humanité'' in late July; however, the public remained in the dark about the situation as the French police promptly seized the whole of the issue in which Alleg's claims were to be made public. Gilberte worked tirelessly to present the memoir to various publishing houses all while campaigning to raise awareness around the reality of what was transpiring in Algeria. At one public meeting in Paris, Gilbert pleaded the metropolitan French population to act. "If the 'sequestration' of my husband, the 'escape' of Maurice Audin, ndthe 'trial' of Djamila Bouhired had an exceptional impact, these are not exceptional cases. This is the daily reality in our country...we expect you to help us to stop all executions...we ask you for an immense effort, an effort commensurate with your responsibility." While most publishers expressed interest in what Alleg had to say, they were hesitant, given the political climate, to publish it themselves and jeopardize their business. Gilberte persisted until she succeeded in getting her husband's work published by Editions de Minuit as ''La Question'', a play on words referring to both the question of the legitimacy of torture and the fact that "la question" was the technical term for torture in the pre-Revolutionary French judicial system. Upon the initial publication, on 12 February 1958, ''La Question'' met with no attempts at censorship and did not evoke an initial denial from the French government. However the Ministry of the Interior did censor French newspapers that attempted to comment on or publish excerpts of the memoir. In one example, although at this point Alleg's book itself had been freely on sale for several weeks, the French government confiscated a March 1958 issue of ''France Observateur'' because the publication reproduced sections of Alleg's book. At this point, the government accepted the memoir itself, but did not condone public discussion of Alleg's claims and situation. Part of this had to do with the censorship process of the French government, which has a legal "droit de regard" that allows a local government prefecture to read newspapers but not books before they are published. Despite the seizure of articles pertaining to or citing the book, ''La Question'' itself became a "near bestseller and a subject of lively debate" in the French nation. During this time, the French government also seized "A Victory", an article published in ''L'Express'' in which
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...
outlined the implications of Alleg's book for the French nation. Although censored, this essay continued to be distributed clandestinely and later became the preface to the book's English translation. As rumors of torture proliferated and public discussion turned increasingly critical, the French government officially banned ''La Question'' in hopes of combating France's increasingly tense political atmosphere. Acting on a warrant from the military tribunal which recently began legal action in connection with "attempted demoralization of the Army with intent to harm the defense of the nation", French authorities seized the 7,000 remaining copies at the Éditions de Minuit publishing house on 27 March 1958; however, they could do nothing about the more than 60,000 copies that had already been sold. ''La Question'' continued to sell, clandestinely or otherwise, over 162,000 copies in France alone by the close of 1958. After the initial seizure, other leftist French publishers continued production of the book, a defiance that continued well throughout the Algerian War despite the official ban. On the day ''La Question'' was seized, the French government released information that the inquiry into the alleged torture of Alleg was nearly completed. They claimed that although doctors had noted scars on M. Alleg's wrists and groin, the officers accused by Alleg continued to deny the charges levied against them, and therefore no charges were brought against the French government.


The trial

In August 1957, Henri sent a similar account of his torture from the civil prison in Algiers to both lawyers and judicial authorities in Algeria. At this point in Algiers, rumors were flying in the Algerian press about his disappearance or even death. It was only with Alleg's complaint and after a broad press campaign that Alleg was presented before an examining magistrate, two full months after his arrest. The officers accused by M. Alleg publicly denied the charges levied against them. Robert Lacoste, then Minister of Algeria, claimed that an investigation was proceeding to determine the truth of the "allegations." The "trial", which was held in November 1957, found Alleg guilty of attacking the external safety of the state and attempting to reconstitute a dissolved league. Military authorities sent in two doctors to examine Alleg; however, no one from outside the French government was allowed to see Henri after his transferral to Lodi. This raised suspicions in the public, at least to those who were paying attention. However, as a result of M. Alleg's charges against the paratroopers, the general commanding officer in Algiers ordered an inquiry to be opened against "persons unknown" for "assault causing bodily harm". The military judge traveled with Alleg to visit the buildings in which Alleg claimed to be tortured and had Alleg describe the interior from memory in order to substantiate his assertions. Indeed, Alleg was able to describe with a high degree of accuracy several parts of El-Biar, especially the kitchen where torture was known to occur. This suggested that he had truly been mistreated, for, had the interrogation proceeded "normally", Alleg would not have been able to accurately describe the torture room. Despite this evidence that Alleg and others were actually tortured by the French paratroopers at El-Biar, the French government continued to ignore Alleg's demands for justice and put him back into an army jail.


Escape and return to France

Alleg escaped from prison and made his way to
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''ÄŒesko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
. With the passing of the
Évian Accords The Évian Accords were a set of declarations between the French Government and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic on 18 March 1962 in Évian-les-Bains which outlined the agreements for Algeria's Independence alongside coope ...
in 1962, Alleg returned to France and then Algeria. He helped rebuild the ''Alger Républicain'' and continued to publish numerous books and appear in several documentaries. Declared ''persona non grata'' in Algeria following the 1965 military coup d'état of
Houari Boumédiène Houari Boumédiène (; born Mohammed ben Brahim Boukharouba; 23 August 1932 – 27 December 1978) was an Algerian military officer and politician who was the list of heads of state of Algeria, second head of state of independent Algeria from 196 ...
, Alleg moved again to France in the Paris region, where he lived until his death in 2013, aged 91.


Works

* ''Mémoire algérienne: souvenirs de luttes et d'espérances'' (2005); trans. by Gila Walker as The Algerian Memoirs: Days of Hope and Combat (2011). * ''Grande aventure d'Alger républicain'' (co-authored with Boualem Khalfa and Abdelhamid Benzine, 1987) * ''Prisonniers de guerre'' (1961) * ''La Question / The Question'' (Introd. by Jean-Paul Sartre, 1958) * ''Requiem pour l'Oncle Sam'' (1991) * ''U.R.S.S. et les juifs'' (1989) * ''Victorieuse Cuba : de la guérilla au socialisme'' (Preface by Boualem Khalfa, 1963) * ''Red Star and Green Crescent'', Progress Publishers, translated into English by Sergei Sossinsky, 1985. (Originally published by Messidor, Paris in 1983.) 230 pages. Listed on abebooks.com


See also

* Torture during the Algerian War * Censorship in France


References


Further reading

* Aussaresses, General Paul, ''The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955–1957''. (New York: Enigma Books, 2010) . * Sartre, Jean-Paul, "A Victory", trans. Azzedine Haddour, in ''We Have Only This Life to Live: The Selected Essays of Jean-Paul Sartre 1939–1975'', ed. Ronald Aronson and Adrian Van Den Hoven (New York: New York Review Books, 2013) 253–65. .


External links


Video


Interview with Henry Alleg
from ''Democracy Now!'' program, November 5, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alleg, Henri 1921 births 2013 deaths French communists Algerian Communist Party politicians French newspaper editors Algerian journalists French memoirists French political writers French human rights activists Anti-torture activists French torture victims Algerian War torture victims French people of the Algerian War Marxist journalists French male writers Algerian male writers 20th-century French journalists 20th-century Algerian writers French emigrants to Czechoslovakia 20th-century French Jews French expatriates in the United Kingdom French people of colonial Algeria