Paris massacre of 1961
|Paris massacre of 1961|
|Part of Algerian war|
|Date||October 17, 1961|
|Victims||a demonstration of some 30,000 pro-National Liberation
Paris massacre of 1961
|Paris massacre of 1961|
|Part of Algerian war|
|Date||October 17, 1961|
|Victims||a demonstration of some 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians|
|Perpetrators||head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the French National Police|
The Paris massacre of 1961 occurred on 17 October 1961, during the Algerian War (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the French National Police attacked a demonstration of some 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians. After 37 years of denial and censorship of the press, in 1998 the French government finally acknowledged 40 deaths, although there are estimates of 100 to 300 victims. Death was due to heavy-handed beating by the police, as well as massive drownings, as police officers threw demonstrators in the river Seine.
The massacre appears to have been intentional, as has been substantiated by historian Jean-Luc Einaudi, who won a trial against Maurice Papon in 1999 (Papon had been convicted in 1998 on charges of crimes against humanity for his role under the Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II). Official documentation and accounts of eyewitnesses within the Paris police department suggest that the 1961 massacre was directed by Papon himself. Police records show that Papon called for officers in one station to be "subversive" in quelling the demonstrations, and assured them protection from prosecution if they participated.
Forty years after the massacre, on 17 October 2001, Bertrand Delanoë, the Socialist Mayor of Paris, put up a plaque in remembrance of the massacre on the Pont Saint-Michel. How many demonstrators were killed is still unclear. In the absence of official estimates, the placard which commemorates the massacre stated: "In memory of the many Algerians killed during the bloody repression of the peaceful demonstration of 17 October 1961". On 18 February 2007 (the day after Papon's death) calls were made for a Paris Métro station under construction in Gennevilliers to be named "17 Octobre 1961" in commemoration of the massacre.
The events were documented by a number of photographs, many of them graphic.
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On 17 October 1961, the massacre took place in the context of the Algerian War (1954–62), which had become increasingly violent over the years. After de Gaulle's equivocal return to power during the May 1958 crisis and his sudden change of policy concerning Algerian independence, the OAS used all possible means to oppose the National Liberation Front (FLN), which took the war to the metropolis where it was helped by some activists such as the Jeanson network. The repression by French authorities, both in Algeria and in metropolitan France, was very harsh.
The French National Police
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According to historian Jean-Luc Einaudi, a specialist on the massacre, some of the causes of the violent repression of the 17 October 1961 demonstration can best be understood in terms of the composition of the French police force itself, which still included many former members of the force in place during the World War II Vichy regime which had collaborated with the Gestapo to detain Jews, as for example in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of 16–17 July 1942.
The vast majority of police officers suspended after the Liberation of Paris in 1944 for extreme forms of collaborationism (including assistance to the Parti Populaire Français and similar groups) were later reintegrated into the police forces. In contrast, some of the policemen who had been part of the Resistance movement had their career advancement blocked because of Cold War anti-communism, since the Resistance was partially communist and communist ministers had been expelled from the government in May 1947. Moreover, police officers who had been members of the Resistance might well have taken part in the various raids against Jews and other persecuted groups during the Vichy regime, as otherwise they would have been dismissed, according to Einaudi and Maurice Rajsfus.
The career of Maurice Papon as Head of Paris' police force in the 1960s and Minister of Finance under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's presidency in the 1970s, suggests that there was institutional racism in the French police until at least the 1960s. In fact, Papon was not charged and convicted until 1997–98 for his World War II crimes against humanity in being responsible for the deportation of 1,560 Jews, including children and the elderly, between 1942 and 1944.
Papon appointed head of Police Prefecture (March 1958)
Before his appointment as chief of the Paris police, Pa