The Organisation Armée Secrète was a far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was L’Algérie est française et le restera.
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 fought between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France.
Maurice Papon was a French civil servant who led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bordeaux during World War II, he participated in the deportation of more than 1,600 Jews. He is also known for his activities in the Algerian War (1954–1962), during which he tortured insurgent prisoners as prefect of the Constantinois department, and ordered, as prefect of the Paris police, the deadly repression of a pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) demonstration against a curfew that he had "advised."
Jacques Villeret was a French actor, best known internationally for his role as François Pignon in the comedy Le Dîner de Cons. During his career, he earned many awards including the prestigious medal and title of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.
The Paris massacre of 1961 occurred on 17 October 1961, during the Algerian War (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the French National Police attacked a demonstration by 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians. After 37 years of denial and censorship of the press, in 1998 the French government finally acknowledged 40 deaths, while some historians estimate that between 200 and 300 Algerians died. Death was due to heavy-handed beating by the police, as well as mass drownings, as police officers threw demonstrators into the river Seine.
Jacques Perrin was a French actor and film producer. He was occasionally credited as Jacques Simonet.
Émile Augustin Cyprien Driant was a French writer, politician, and army officer. He was the first high-ranking casualty of the Battle of Verdun during World War I.
Pierre Schoendoerffer was a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician. He was president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts for 2001 and for 2007.
Elements of both sides in the Algerian War—the French Armed Forces and the opposing Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN)—used deliberate torture during that conflict (1954–1962), creating an ongoing public controversy. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, a French historian, estimated that there were "hundreds of thousands of instances of torture" by the French military in Algeria. The FLN engaged in the use of torture against pro-French and uncommitted members of the Algerian population in retaliation for the French's use of torture.
Georges Wilson was a French film and television actor. He was the father of French actor Lambert Wilson.
Yves Godard was a French Army officer who fought in World War II, First Indochina War and Algerian War. A graduate of Saint-Cyr and Chasseur Alpin, he served as a ski instructor in Poland during 1939, but after World War II began he returned to France. He became a prisoner-of-war in 1940 and tried several times to escape, finally succeeding on his third attempt. He made his way to France and joined the French Resistance maquis in Savoy. From December 1944 to February 1946, he headed the 27ème bataillon de chasseurs alpins.
Jean Lartéguy was the pen name of Jean Pierre Lucien Osty, a French writer, journalist, and former soldier.
Henri Jules Bataille was a nineteenth-century French soldier. He rose to général de division of infantry, saw colonial service in Algeria, and fought in the Second Italian War of Independence and the Franco-Prussian War. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.
Philippe Louis Edmé Marie François Erulin was a senior officer in the French Army. He came from a family of renowned officers and military traditions.
Intimate Enemies is a 2007 French war film directed by Florent Emilio Siri, starring Benoît Magimel and Albert Dupontel. It was filmed in France and Morocco.
René Vautier was a French film director. His films, which were often controversial with French authorities, addressed many issues, such as the Algerian War, French colonialism in Africa, pollution, racism, women's rights, and apartheid in South Africa. Many were banned or condemned, and one caused him to go to prison for a year.
Mustapha Adib is an ex-captain in the Royal Moroccan Air Force. In late 1999, he was arbitrarily detained then imprisoned for 30 months after he denounced corruption in the military.
Captain Antoine Dominique Biancamaria was a French colonial infantry officer.
The Ferme Gautier is a torture center established during the Algerian war in the commune of Souk El Had in Kabylia within Algeria.
Raymond Chabanne was a French military officer who achieved the rank of général. He was commanding officer of the 3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment from 1972 to 1974.
