“High School Students Learn about WWII and Harkis through Historical Testimonies”

The Joseph-Saverne high school in L’Isle-Jourdain welcomed Marc Bouhours, son of a Resistance fighter from Toulouse. He discussed with the students about his author book, “What are my friends who have become”, recently released and on which his name does not appear: “It is my father’s book, Christian Bouhours, I care about it. I don’t I didn’t want my name to appear on it, nor to receive royalties”.

Using images and texts, he explained to young people the story of his father, a partisan sniper, his involvement in the Resistance and in the Liberation Army in October 1944. A rich story of teaching of the time, a passage from memory which is integrated into the history course of high school students. In the continuity of testimonies on history, Fatma Adda came to meet the final year students specializing in history-geography, geopolitics and political science (HGGSP) of MM. Goasse and Coulaud. She has been responding to the invitation for several years to tell the story of her family and more broadly of the Harkis who arrived in France in 1962.

Meeting and exhibition

In a dispassionate account, devoid of rancor and victimhood, she spoke about what she learned from the press, from her teachers rather than from her parents who did not talk about these events. Military, his father and his uncles were taken to France by officers who disobeyed the orders of General de Gaulle to abandon the Harkis at the camp of Mirande, more precisely at the hamlet of forestage, with many Harkis and their families. Living conditions were acceptable.

She spoke of the drift of some who started drinking, unable to express what they felt. In 1973, most of the camp occupants were sent to Corsica. Only Fatma Adda’s family remained in Mirande. The Gers has welcomed many Harkis. Fatma Adda thanked the school of the Republic which allowed the non-French-speaking child that she was to succeed in her studies (private law) and her life.

After his story, the students asked questions. Many of them have a member of the “black foot” family, a Frenchman born in Algeria who came to France in 1962, like the Harkis. Like Fatma Adda, they know little about this family history. This meeting follows the visit of the exhibition “The Algerian War, common history, shared memories?” loaned to high school by the National Office for Veterans and War Victims (ONACVG). Information on www.onac-vg.fr/histoire-et-memoires-de-la-guerre-algerie“.