Catholic writers and journals led the early French anti-torture campaign in Algeria

Evidence

From January 1955 onwards François Mauriac, in the “Bloc-Notes” which he contributed for Servan-Schreiber’s L’Express, had been hammering away at army excesses in Algeria, and had acquired a widening measure of support. In February 1957 Témoignage Chrétien published the “Muller Dossier”, compiled by a rappelé killed in Algeria in which he and fourteen of his comrades denounced “degrading practices” they had witnessed. Another organ of Catholic protest against torture was the Comité de Résistance Spirituelle, founded among others by the popular Abbé Pierre. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 729

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: French governors repeatedly ordered torture prohibited before the Battle of Algiers; Torture more than any single factor caused France’s Algerian defeat — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 51; Political rivalries shaped how Algerian war history was written

Related

• Torture more than any single factor caused France’s Algerian defeat (similarity 0.82)
• Torture was the chief factor in France’s defeat. (similarity 0.82)
• French soldiers who saw Belsen recognized the same moral degradation in Algeria’s torture (similarity 0.82)
• Torture boomeranged against France in the Algerian war (similarity 0.82)
• French governors repeatedly ordered torture prohibited before the Battle of Algiers (similarity 0.81)
• The Battle of Algiers exposed torture as a lasting poison for France (similarity 0.81)
• Torture’s Nazi echoes caused France’s defeat despite its military supremacy (similarity 0.81)
• Torture in Algeria left a lingering poison in the French system (similarity 0.80)
• Torture became institutionalized in the French army during the Battle of Algiers (similarity 0.80)
• Torture won the Battle of Algiers but lost the war for France (similarity 0.80)
• Torture backfired as a boomerang weapon in the Algerian war. (similarity 0.79)
• Torture proved a boomerang weapon that undermined the power using it (similarity 0.79)
• Torture in Algeria threatened France with state self-destruction (similarity 0.79)
• Torture destroyed the Muslim third force and turned French opinion against the war (similarity 0.79)
• Perpetrators of torture carried its moral damage home to France in person (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Political rivalries shaped how Algerian war history was written #corroborates (0.45)
• Torture more than any single factor caused France’s Algerian defeat #qualifies (0.35) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 51