At the end of my first six-week period researching ‘Identifying North Africans in the French Resistance’ I have been reflecting on what I have learnt and what has surprised me. To be honest, the main difference between how I thought about ‘Identifying North Africans in the French Resistance’ at the start of my research project and now is that I’ve realised it’s as much about North Africa as it is about France. In other words, I thought I would only be learning about France and French culture, when it has been more the case that I have been learning about the colonial history of Morocco, Tunisia and, in particular, Algeria. It’s a worrying thought; do I view everything in such a Eurocentric way? Probably, but hopefully doing this research project will help change that.
Anita Pant’s map (below) highlights the relative proximity of North Africa to France. The red dots on the map mark the places in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco from where people came to fight in the Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (FFI). Being able to see their journey in this way is important for people considering French-Maghrebin history as showing the place of birth of North Africans in the Résistance makes these places tangible for people who are unfamiliar with them; making these places and the journey taken by North Africans in the French Resistance is an important step on the way to viewing the participation of non-French people in the FFI as a part of World War Two history which is as valid as any other.
Pant, A. 2018. Map of resistance fighters from North Africa.
The ‘Map of resistance fighters from North Africa’ was created using data from my database that I had collected by going through online sources containing information about those who fought in the FFI: such online sources include the Mémoire des Hommes website, the Bibliographie des Fusillés website, MémorialGenWeb.org and the monumentsmorts.univ-lille.org website. From these sources, which have information about people from many countries, I picked out information about North Africans and added this to my database. I then analysed this data, looking for patterns and trends. For example, in all three Maghreb countries, the majority of Résistant.e.s were born in urban areas. In my further research, it will be interesting to see if being born in an urban area as opposed to a rural area made a great impact on a person and their life. Perhaps an urban person had better chances regarding education and work than a rural person, which may have enabled them to undertake the expensive and bureaucratically-challenging task of emigrating to France for work before World War Two began in 1939 (MacMaster, 1997).
Another trend in the database is that North African Jews from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are disproportionately represented in the database. In other words, the population in Algeria in 1940 was around 7,600,000 (Looklex.com) of which approximately 116,700 were Jewish, making them a minority group (Le Foll-Luciani, 2015). By contrast, in my database, 50% of Algerian Résistant.e.s are Sephardic Jewish. This disproportionate representation is significant because Jews had a more powerful position in Colonial North African society than the Muslim population (if still a less powerful position than the French and European settlers). It is unlikely that this privileged status led many Jewish people to feel such an affinity with France that they wanted to go and fight in the FFI; indeed, the anti-Jewish laws passed in France by Vichy also applied in Algeria, alienating many Jews from ‘La Patrie’ (Le Foll-Luciani, 2015). However, for those who did participate for whatever reason, perhaps it was more likely that they or their relatives would be able to successfully complete the bureaucratic and complex process of becoming an accredited member of the FFI.
A third trend worth noting is that the mode age for a Résistant is twenty-eight, suggesting that most members of the Résistance were young independent men. This matches with the profile of a typical person who left their home in North Africa to work in France before World War Two. Young, trustworthy men left their home in North Africa and while working in France – in appalling conditions and often for less money than their European counterparts – saved money to send back to their families (MacMaster, 1997).
Pant, A. 2018. Age of North African participants in the French Resistance.
While the vast majority of people in my database are male (Résistants), there are females as well (Résistantes). Only five out of twenty-eight of the Résistant.e.s. in my shortlist below are women because there are very few women in the online databases I have been using for my research, a problem for researching the Résistance from any angle. As one of the aims of the project ‘Identifying North Africans in the French Resistance’ is to address the lack of historical representation of particular ethnic groups of people in French history, it is doubly important that research is done on North African women in the Résistance. To try to redress this lack of representation, next year I will also be researching the wives of two of the Résistants in my database; the names of these wives – Alice Sportisse[1] and Miriam Levy, a “dangerous” woman (Le Maitron, Dictionaire Bibliographique) – appeared several times during my research this year, suggesting some further investigation is required.
SPORTISSE Lucien, Haï.
Already, I have found some details about why certain North Africans became involved in the Résistance. By considering just a small selection of Résistants, it can be seen how diverse the North African members of the FFI were, and how many different factors affected why they joined. Maxime Samama, born in Tunis, left Marseille aged twenty to avoid being caught and killed by the Nazis. Instead of escaping to Switzerland, which he had the opportunity of doing, he joined the AS gardois maquis and then the Bir Hakeim maquis, before being killed in action (Balenet). A different example is Ali Ben Hamed, a Moroccan Prisoner of War who was freed from a German work gang by the maquis FTP Horteur that he subsequently joined. He was later recaptured and shot by the Germans (Delaselle). A different example again is Lucien Sportisse, a militant of the Communist Party who the colonial authorities transferred from Algeria to France in 1937 to combat the role he was playing in activating the Algerian proletariat. During World War Two, Sportisse played an important role in the Front National group in Lyon until he was killed by a group of fascists acting on behalf of the Gestapo (Gallisot, Moissonnier). He is a particularly interesting example: he sought to liberate France as he considered a Europe free of fascist control a prerequisite for the formation of an Independent Algeria (Drew, 2014). Such a far-sighted political motive for joining the FFI as that demonstrates the significance of World War Two to many political spheres around the world other than the concerns generally addressed by French/European accounts of World War Two.
I have come to the project ‘Identifying North Africans in the French Resistance’ with very little knowledge about North Africa or the French Empire, therefore it has been necessary to do wider reading. Indeed, it has been useful to read fiction – such as Valérie Zenatti’s book Jacob, Jacob, published in 2014 – as this provides me with a point of view other than my own. In particular, Jacob, Jacob highlights the complex relationship between Algerian Jews and France. This relationship was pushed and pulled by various French policies: the Décret Cremieux gave Algerian Jews the full political rights of a citizen of France, then the Vichy regime passed anti-Jewish laws in 1939 removing these rights as well as access to public institutions such as schools. Despite this, Algerian Jews such as the eponymous character of Jacob, Jacob were required to go to war for France in World War Two. Moreover, reading academic books and articles has also been important in providing me with the historical context in which to view the numbers in my database. However, more has been written about Algeria than about Tunisia and Morocco, meaning I will have to make a more concerted effort to find information about Résistant.e.s from Morocco and Tunisia when I continue my research next summer. The availability of books about Algeria and France is perhaps because Algerians are one of the largest minority ethnic group in France in the twenty-first century, making the history of this particular group pertinent. Moreover, Algeria was the jewel in the crown of the French empire, which, coupled with the long and extremely violent war of decolonisation which led the French Empire to lose control of Algeria, mean this country retains a certain fascination for the French and those who study French culture. Also, I will aim to find out more about the Muslim Résistant.e.s (two possible Muslim women in the shortlist) from North Africa who fought in the FFI; so far research done on the North African Jewish population has been more readily available. However, I will also have to bear in mind that the involvement of people from French colonies in the French Resistance is a thorny issue for all parties involved; this is perhaps why there is sometimes little research on the issue.
Despite the sensitivity of this issue, research into the role of North Africans in the French Resistance is important because it helps us understand the multicultural reality of twenty-first century France, which many consider to be embodied by the World cup-winning ‘Bleus’ of 2018. It is essential to be aware of the past relationships and movement between France and countries in North Africa in order to understand the presence in France today of French people of Maghrebin descent. Indeed, if a person is not ignorant but rather knows that North Africans fought in World War Two, and that they are woven into the fabric of French culture and history (and vice-versa, for better or worse) then hopefully this makes racist or xenophobic ideas or policies harder to subscribe to. Indeed, education is a key tool used by anti-racist organisations such as SOS Racisme and, considering the progression of Marine le Pen to the final round of presidential elections in 2017, the need for better understanding of French colonial and post-colonial history has become an urgent matter. The reverse of understanding and acceptance of diversity are ignorance and hostility, exemplified on the streets of Paris where an Arab-French youth is twenty times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white youth (Le Parisien, 2017). On a larger scale, it should be noted that the largest car factory in Africa is owned by French company Renault-Daccia and is situated in Casablanca in Morocco. Why is it here? Because in Morocco Renault-Daccia has access to a skilled workforce who speak French – the latter attribute being a direct result of French colonisation – whom they can pay less than an equivalent French workforce. Additionally, outside the European Union there are fewer regulations to which Renault-Daccia must adhere. In short, this French company can exploit Morocco to make a greater profit than it could if the same factory were in Europe.
Pant, A. 2018. Place of death map.
In my second period of research identifying North Africans in the French Resistance, I will be working on building profiles of a shortlist of Résistant.e.s chosen from my database. To choose my shortlist, I have tried to select people who reflect the trends in my database – in terms of age, sex, place of birth, place of death, religion and whether or not they definitely died during World War Two (research into where certain Résistants died are shown on the above map). I have also tried to choose a range of people who embody the broad range of experiences of North Africans in the French Resistance. This shortlist is necessary because in summer 2019 my supervisor Dr. Nina Wardleworth and I will be going to France to research Résistant.e.s in the archives of government ministries, museums and other institutions. From this, I will hopefully gather enough information to make profiles about around ten Résistant.e.s. These profiles will aim to give details on where a Résistant.e came from, why they joined the FFI, what they did during the WW2, and how their war-time actions influenced the rest of their lives, and the lives of their family and friends. Below is the shortlist. If anyone has information about any of these people, please let me know at @PhilippaHumphr2 (Twitter account).
Shortlist of North African Résistant.e.s:
| Bensoussan | Roland |
| Yahia | Amed Slimahne |
| Ben Hamed | Ali |
| Salmeron | Auguste |
| Salmeron | Alexandre |
| Sportisse | Lucien Haï |
| Sportisse (née Crémadès) | Alice |
| Ben Ali | Mohamed |
| Hayoun | René |
| Amram | Menahem |
| Levy | Miriam |
| Samama | Maxime |
| Seror | Alice |
| Seror | Marie Elise |
| Benichou ép. Courrier | Simone |
| Khimmoun | Rabia |
| Birhi | Mohamed Amar |
| Tahar | D’Hib Salem Ben Brahim Ben Hadj Saad Dhib |
| Boudeha | Aissa |
| Raouya | Mahmoude |
| Teboul | Georges |
| Sei | Jean Elie Paul |
| Belgacem | Ben El Adjini Ben el Hadj Fedj |
| Djidel | Hammond |
| Djilali Ben Rahal | Ben Rahal |
| Gamouri | Bachir |
| Salem Ben Brahim Ben Hadj Saad Dhib | Tahar D’Hib |
| Khemdoudi | Djaafar |
The look of love!
References
Balenet, A. Samama, Maxime alias “Maxime”. [Online]. [Accessed 20/07/2018]. Available from: http://maitron-fusilles-40-44.univ-paris1.fr/spip.php?article194452.
Delasselle, C. BEN HAMED (ou BEN HAMID ou Ben Ahmed) Ali. [Online]. [Accessed 20/07/2018]. Available from: http://maitron-fusilles-40-44.univ-paris1.fr/spip.php?article168633.
Drew, A. 2014. We are no longer in France, Communists in colonial Algeria. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Jacob, Jacob. [Online]. [Accessed 20/07/2018]. Available from: https://www.babelio.com/livres/Zenatti-Jacob-Jacob/635402.
Le Foll-Luciani, P. 2012. Le Camp des Oliviers, William Sportisse entretiens avec Pierre-Jean Le Foll-Luciani. Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Le Foll-Luciani, P. 2015. Les juifs algériens dans la lute anticoloniale, Trajectoires dissidents (1945-1965). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Le Parisien. 2017. Les jeunes noirs ou arabes ont 20 fois plus de risques d’être contrôlés par la police. Le Parisien. [Online]. 20 January. [Accessed 20/07/2018]. Available from: http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/les-jeunes-noirs-ou-arabes-ont-20-fois-plus-de-chances-d-etre-controles-par-la-police-20-01-2017-6595137.php.
Gallissot, R., Moissonnier, M. SPORTISSE Lucien, Haï. [Online]. [20/07/2018]. Available from : http://maitron-fusilles-40-44.univ-paris1.fr/spip.php?article107723.
MacMaster, N. 1997. Colonial Migrants and Racism Algerians in France, 1900-62. London: Macmillan Press Ltd..
Quote about Miriam Levy: Arch. PPo. 77W 1472, 77W 3114 from: http://maitron-fusilles-40-44.univ-paris1.fr/spip.php?article147228
Pant, A. 2018. Age of North African participants in the French Resistance.
Pant, A. 2018. Place of death map.
Pant, A. 2018. Map of resistance fighters from North Africa.
Tore Kjeilen. Demographics. [Online]. [Accessed 20/07/2018]. Available from: http://looklex.com/e.o/algeria.demographics.htm.
[1] Alice Sportisse was politically active during World War Two in the Communist Parties of Algerian and France, as well as helping to organise the Communist movement in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (Le Foll-Luciani, 2012). As of yet, I do not know enough about her actions during World War Two to say whether or not she could have been a member of the FFI.
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