The Algerian War politically divided French intellectuals over colonial violence

Evidence

The years in which Algeria was fighting for self-determination, 1954 to 1962, were traumatic ones, bringing appalling suffering. The bloodshed found its way to Paris, as pro-independence demonstrators were killed in the heart of the city. French torture and executions of civilians in Algeria caused widespread dismay. Camus’ loyalties were with his mother, but he opposed the authorities’ abuses too. Sartre and Beauvoir were more single-minded in their support of the Algerian liberation movement; they campaigned actively, and both wrote eloquent contributions to books by and about tortured Algerians. Sartre wrote in his foreword to Henri Alleg’s The Question: ‘Anybody, at any time, may equally find himself victim or executioner’ — an allusion to Camus’ earlier essay ‘Neither Victims Nor Executioners’. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 874

Categorization

• XREF: The victim/executioner theme resonates with Beauvoir’s confession of national guilt in the previous paragraph, and with the general existentialist concern with complicity. — connects to: Le Pen’s anti-Muslim rhetoric tapped Algerian War post-colonial resentments — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 495; Celebrity intellectuals openly incited desertion from the Algerian war and shifted French politics

Broader Connections

• Celebrity intellectuals openly incited desertion from the Algerian war and shifted French politics #exemplifies (0.85)
• Le Pen’s anti-Muslim rhetoric tapped Algerian War post-colonial resentments #expands (0.82) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 495