Paris marks killing of protesters
October 21, 2001 - The Boston Globe
PARIS - The plaque unveiled by Mayor Bertrand Delanoe of Paris on Wednesday morning was as stark as it was simple.
‘‘In memory of the many Algerians killed during the bloody repression of their peaceful demonstration on 17 October 1961,’’ read the plaque at the Pont Saint-Michel.
It was a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of a violent clash between French police and Algerian protesters that still stings the French conscience. The protesters were demonstrating against the French-Algerian war when about 200 of them were killed by police officers. Many of them were thrown into the Seine River beneath the bridge.
Like President Jacques Chirac’s 1995 speech publicly admitting French participation in the July 1942 roundup of almost 13,000 Parisian Jews under the pro-Nazi Vichy government, the plaque is one of the first public monuments to take into account something that does not cast a favorable light on the country’s past.
Several unofficial plaques and memorials - usually discreetly put up by friends and relatives - often appear in Paris’s Jewish Marais quarter marking negative events during World War II, but very little in the city goes against the idea of the rich and beautiful history of France.
The new plaque sits not only at the heart of the conflict, but also at the heart of the city, adjacent to Paris police headquarters, only two blocks from Notre Dame Cathedral and visible to thousands of Parisians and tourists every day.
At the time of the 1961 demonstration, the police were under the direction of Maurice Papon, who had worked as an official in France’s pro-Nazi Vichy government. In 1998, at the age of 87, in one of the longest trials in French history, he was convicted of war crimes including the deportation of more than 1,500 French Jews from the Bordeaux region to their deaths between 1942 and 1944, and he is in the process serving out a 10-year prison sentence.
At a time when demonstrations today in Paris happen almost daily in a tense international climate, local police say the timing of the plaque’s debut is out of place. They now face renewed scrutiny for an event they were ordered to control more than 40 years ago with little warning, poor resources, and a questionable leader.
On Wednesday evening, four police officers stood across the street from the plaque, and behind them several trucks were filled with officers at the ready. One of the four, who did not wish to be named, was visibly agitated when asked about the events. ‘‘I’m not paid to think about this; I’m here to make sure the evening goes peacefully,’’ the officer said.
French citizens, for the most part, do not hold the police responsible, and all week, they gathered at the site to reflect on what happened and discuss how they felt. On Wednesday evening, a group of French Algerians who had gathered to see the plaque seemed content to have a permanent memorial and a sense of closure over the incident.
‘‘My father died here,’’ said one man, gesturing to the bridge. ‘‘And now I work for the state in a prison.’‘
A Parisian woman who was on the bridge on the date of the conflict was surrounded by a rapt audience, almost entirely French Algerian. Pointing to different areas along the bridge, she said, ‘‘As they were killed, I watched them toss bodies into the river.’’ Forty years later, everyone was stunned at what she reported.
Part of the recent push for the plaque came from the renewed memories of the killings that were published in a popular 1998 detective novel, ‘‘Murder in Memoriam,’’ by Didier Daeninckx, that was based on the events of 1961. The book helped many people, including Algerians who had never known what happened to lost relatives, put together the truth about what happened.
One Parisian who had come to see the plaque was especially glad to see it surrounded by flowers and candles, along with the large turnout.
‘‘It’s the pages of history that don’t get written that provoke violence like we saw that night,’’ he said.
Still, there were a number of people who found it hard to believe the government would ever admit to what really happened in October 1961. Walking by, some students who did not know of the plaque’s existence stopped in their tracks.
‘‘Is this a joke?’’ one of them asked. ‘‘The state didn’t put this here, did they?’‘
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
