French soldiers who saw Belsen recognized the same moral degradation in Algeria’s torture

Evidence

Then appeared Captain Pierre-Henri Simon’s book, Contre la Torture. Simon was a Catholic writer who had spent five years in prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War; shortly after his release he had visited Belsen and, shocked by the rejection of responsibility by the local Germans, he had said to himself, “May the good people of France never fall into such a moral degradation of this order!” Though Simon was in no way an apostle of withdrawal from Algeria, his book listed malpractices witnessed there, sternly denouncing them as well as the collective culpability of the army and nation at large. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 729

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader theme of the French Revolution’s legacy being ‘fought back’ — here by Catholic moral conscience. — connects to: Torture won the Battle of Algiers but lost the war for France; Torture’s Nazi echoes caused France’s defeat despite its military supremacy; Torture boomeranged against France in the Algerian war (+8 more)

Related

• Torture’s Nazi echoes caused France’s defeat despite its military supremacy (similarity 0.92)
• Perpetrators of torture carried its moral damage home to France in person (similarity 0.88)
• Torture won the Battle of Algiers but lost the war for France (similarity 0.87)
• Torture in Algeria left a lingering poison in the French system (similarity 0.86)
• Torture boomeranged against France in the Algerian war (similarity 0.86)
• The Battle of Algiers exposed torture as a lasting poison for France (similarity 0.85)
• Torture was the chief factor in France’s defeat. (similarity 0.85)
• Torture more than any single factor caused France’s Algerian defeat (similarity 0.85)
• Conscripts forced to commit torture brought psychological scars back to metropolitan France (similarity 0.85)
• Torture destroyed the Muslim third force and turned French opinion against the war (similarity 0.84)
• Torture’s contested truth made it a lasting canker for France (similarity 0.83)
• Torture became institutionalized in the French army during the Battle of Algiers (similarity 0.82)
• Torture proved a boomerang weapon that undermined the power using it (similarity 0.82)
• Torture backfired as a boomerang weapon in the Algerian war. (similarity 0.82)
• Catholic writers and journals led the early French anti-torture campaign in Algeria (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Torture backfired as a boomerang weapon in the Algerian war. #exemplifies (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1659
• Torture boomeranged against France in the Algerian war #exemplifies (0.50)
• Torture in Algeria left a lingering poison in the French system #exemplifies (0.50)
• The Battle of Algiers exposed torture as a lasting poison for France #exemplifies (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 580
• Torture became institutionalized in the French army during the Battle of Algiers #exemplifies (0.45) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 592
• Torture’s contested truth made it a lasting canker for France #exemplifies (0.45)
• Torture in Algeria threatened France with state self-destruction #exemplifies (0.45) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 734
• More soldiers cited French atrocities than war hardship as their worst Algerian experience #exemplifies (0.40) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 732
• Torture destroyed the Muslim third force and turned French opinion against the war #exemplifies (0.40)