Juridical and Ethical Testimony in Abdelhamid Benzine’s Le camp

Summary of Le camp (1962)

Photo of Abdelhamid Benzine taken at Lambèse in 1960

Abdelhamid Benzine’s Le camp (1962) was written over the course of a week in September of 1961 while its author was still interned at the Camp militaire d’internés spécial of Boghari, and published the following year by Éditions Sociales with a preface by Henri Alleg. A member of the Parti Communiste Algérien (P.C.A.), Benzine joined the Armée de liberation nationale (A.L.N.) in 1956. He was arrested as a “pris les armes à la main” (P.A.M., a nebulous category created during the Algerian War that did not enjoy the same rights as prisoners of war) on November 14, 1956, and subsequently tortured before being held captive until the end of the war in a succession of prison and internment camps.  

In Le camp, Benzine recounts his internment at Boghari, primarily focusing on the initial three months from February to April 1961. In January 1961, he and fellow P.A.M. prisoners at the penal colony of Lambèse are informed of a “suspension d’exécution de peine” that will result in their transfer to a military camp for a month before liberation. They arrive at Boghari, an annex of the military internment camp of Morand run by the French Foreign Legion, on February 1st. During the three months that follow, they are subjected to miserable conditions, backbreaking labor from which even the sick and wounded are not exempted (their work consists mainly in breaking up rock, as well as in serving the prison guards), and endless physical and psychological torture, which appears to serve no purpose other than to satisfy the sadism of their captors.

Roughly the first half of the text is dedicated to introducing the camp’s guards, interspersed with descriptions of their methods for running the camp. Benzine provides detailed portraits of ten of them, identifying them by rank and first initial, as well as by the nickname the prisoners invented for them. Although he only describes two as explicitly identifying as Nazi officers, he refers to them generally as “Allemands nazis anciens de la Gestapo” and distinguishes them from the soldiers in the French army, finding them (with some exceptions) to be crueler and more sadistic, and noting their corrupting influence, especially on conscripts (53).

The second half of the text is a chronological account of Benzine’s time at Boghari from February to June, which continues to unveil the abuses he suffers during his incarceration. A shift occurs when visits are allowed, leading to a meeting with his lawyer and a visit from a general overseeing camp inspections. The legionnaires are eventually removed, and prisoners, including Benzine, demand equal treatment, culminating in a strike. The text concludes with a pragmatic exploration of their juridical non-status and a hopeful vision for a future independent Algeria fostering cooperative relations with compatriots of all backgrounds.

Note: Types of camps during the Algerian War

In addition to prisons, there were four types of camps that existed in Algeria during the war, all officially referred to as “centres” (although Benzine, notably, refers to them as “camps” and to the prison of Lambèse as a “bagne”):

1. Centres d’hébergement, created in 1955, were for individuals who had not committed any crime but were considered a potential threat to security and public order. Detainees were kept for an indeterminate length of time. These camps were unique in that they did not serve a military function and were run by the prefecture.

2. Centres de triage et de transit, legalized in 1957, were for individuals detained by the army for interrogation, and were often the sites of torture.

3. Centres militaires d’internés, opened in 1958, were for individuals designated as “pris les armes à la main” who were not delivered to the judicial system, but kept under military control and subjected to an accelerated reeducation program with the goal of integrating them into the French army as harkis.

4. Centres de regroupement, created in 1957, were for Algerian civilians, especially from rural areas, who were removed from their villages and placed under military surveillance with the goal of preventing them from housing, feeding, or informing ALN soldiers.

Testimony in Le camp

As a work of testimony, Le camp responds to two imperatives: it fulfills a quasi-juridical function in that it reveals a hidden truth about incarceration and related abuses perpetrated in Algeria, educating its readers about the ways the system in place endangers human rights and violates international laws, and explaining the legislative machinations that enable this to continue; and it responds to an ethical and social imperative, testifying to the humanity of the Algerian revolutionaries incarcerated at Boghari and appealing to the reader’s sense of compassion and indignation by evoking their courage and suffering.

Juridical Function of Benzine’s testimony

Benzine’s text details and denounces the abuses he experiences at Boghari, and he also emphasizes that his own experience is not isolated, describing incarceration in Algeria as a systemic issue that infringes on the rights of all detainees. He mentions, for example, the “centres de regroupement” where thousands of Algerian peasants have endured worse hunger and cold than he and his companions. He describes “par le détail ce que nous avons souffert dans cet enfer de Boghari,” not in order to emphasize his own suffering, but “pour souligner la conduite des colonialistes français jusqu’en cette année 1961” and to “apporter un témoignage de plus…sur les atrocités colonialistes durant toutes ces années de guerre” (28). In his introduction, Henri Alleg also emphasizes this, stating that Benzine’s experience is not “l’exception mais la règle,” “à la fois le fruit et la technique de la guerre coloniale, une application pratique du mépris de l’homme” (11). Le camp is thus not intended simply to evoke pity for Benzine and his compatriots, but to denounce an entire system of dehumanization.

Benzine also describes how the secrecy of this camp and the abuses that occur there are maintained. The camp’s leadership “veillait bien à ce que nul n’entendit parler de nous,” he writes (59). The prisoners are told to lie to outsiders about their injuries: “La consigne pour nous tous, si nous étions interrogés par quelque étranger à notre camp sur nos blessures, était de répondre ‘je suis tombé’” (43). Their contact with the outside world is limited. For two months, they are not allowed to write letters or receive visits. When they are finally allowed to correspond with outsiders, they are not allowed to write freely, but are given forms to complete with pre-written statements. After a legionnaire kills one of the detainees, the police visit demonstrates the limits of justice when law enforcement sides with the perpetrators: the police arrive, take photos, and “l’affaire se trouv[e] ainsi classée” (79).

In addition to detailing the abuses he and his fellow detainees endure at Boghari, Benzine provides readers with an explanation of the legal maneuvering that enables this to continue, notably clarifying the precarious status of prisoners designated “pris les armes à la main.” He explains that, prior to being transferred from Lambèse to Boghari, the prisoners were informed that they were “bénéficiaires d’une ‘suspension d’exécution de peine’ (décret signé par le ministre français des Armées en août 1960),” and that for this reason they were to be transferred to military camps (17). Their subsequent transfer to Boghari, where their punishment, far from being suspended, became more severe, illustrates the disconnect between written orders and reality. In fact, the prisoners found themselves in a sort of administrative no-man’s land, where minimal oversight and a policy of isolation gave the camp overseers free reign to exact whatever punishments they saw fit onto their captives. Towards the end of the text, Benzine provides a concise overview of the prisoners’ precarious legal status:

Il n’y a en effet aucune garantie quant à notre sécurité. Nous ne sommes reconnus dans aucune catégorie de prisonniers juridiquement protégés. Nous ne sommes, paraît-il, ni des prisonniers de guerre, ni des prisonniers politiques, ni des prisonniers administratifs, ni des prisonniers de droit commun. Nous cumulons les inconvénients qui s’attachent à chacune de ces catégories, mais ne profitons pas de leurs “avantages.” Nous avons appris depuis quelque temps seulement que nous étions des “assignés à résidence dans les C.M.I..” Les Conventions de Genève ne nous sont pas appliquées puisque nous ne sommes pas reconnus comme prisonniers de guerre et nous ne dépendons pas non plus du Garde des Sceaux français. […] Notre situation demeure donc des plus équivoque et nous demeurons toujours livrés au bon plaisir de quelque Etat-Major de l’armée française. (93)

Here, Benzine appeals to his readers’ reason to demonstrate the extent to which the legal apparatus organizing internment during the Algerian War strategically strips detainees of the rights and protections that should be guaranteed both by international law, and, in principle, by the laws of the French Republic. By placing these prisoners within an exceptional category with no defined rights, the French government is able to subject them to arbitrary detention while still appearing to respect the form of the law. It is this “virtuosité à jouer sur les mots pour tromper l’opinion internationale et l’opinion française elle-même,”  as Alleg describes it in his introduction to Le camp, that makes it more practical to try cases like Benzine’s in the court of public opinion than in an actual court: the exceptional legislation put in place during the Algerian War has effectively manipulated the law in favor of the French government (11). Of course, this exceptional legislation was nothing new in the French colonies; throughout the colonial era, Algerians had been subjected to an exclusionary status, codified into law in the Code de l’indigénat, that marginalized them politically, socially, and economically. Legally, they were not and had never been citizens of the French Republic, but subjects of the French colonial regime. It is precisely this that limits the efficacy of purely juridical testimony; the law, for all its purported objectivity, reinforces and crystallizes the biases of the people who wrote it.  

Ethical function of Benzine’s testimony

In addition to presenting a simple, cogent argument against legality of his incarceration, Benzine’s text serves a patriotic political and humanistic function: he writes, as Alleg puts it in his introduction, out of a sense of “conscience de devoir la vérité au monde” (8). Both Benzine and Alleg work to humanize the Algerian revolutionaries, encouraging readers to empathize with them by depicting their courage and their suffering. Alleg establishes Benzine’s credibility as a witness as well as his essential human goodness in his introduction to the text, and Benzine heroizes the Algerian freedom fighters by emphasizing their solidarity with one another. The solidarity Benzine idealizes is in no way insular: in fact, he appeals to his readers’ empathy and fraternity by demonstrating both at every turn.

In his introduction to Le camp, Alleg establishes Benzine’s credibility and likeability, describing him as “trop généreux pour savoir bien haïr” and stating that readers will believe him and love him because of “sa simplicité, sa sincérité, si totale qu’il se fait un point d’honneur de rendre justice à certains des ennemis plus humains et qu’il ne craint pas d’avouer les faiblesses de quelques-uns de ses frères” (8, 10). He also provides a portrait of him from his time at Alger républicain: 

Je le revois tel qu’il était au journal, penché sur la maquette de la ‘1’, fignolant un titre ou bien, dix journaux d’Orient devant lui, faisant un choix pour la revue de presse arabe dont il était chargé. Toujours détendu, même dans les moments où l’agitation et les bruits de la salle de rédaction atteignaient leur sommet, il était efficace et sérieux mais savait aussi jeter le mot qui fait rire. (9)

The depiction of Benzine in this context adds dimensionality his character, portraying him neither as a victim or a hero, but as a capable and agreeable colleague, and thus rendering him more relatable to the average French metropolitan reader.   

Benzine does for his fellow prisoners what Alleg does for him, humanizing and individualizing them. The text fulfills a “devoir de mémoire” in its dedication to Senoussi Maâmer, a twenty-four-year-old man murdered at Boghari whom Benzine eulogizes briefly, describing his intelligence, courage, and sincere patriotism (78). In describing his other companions, Benzine emphasizes their optimism, solidarity, and fraternity, stating that they are “unis comme les doigts de la main” in their struggle to survive (65). He also recounts with gratitude the kindness his younger companions show him in attempting to spare him from the heaviest manual labor: “[c]es jeunes frères paysans pensaient plus à moi qu’à eux” (67).

Alleg is right to point out Benzine’s need to do justice to the humanity of everyone he encounters, including that of his enemies. Although much of Le camp is dedicated to describing the cruel and sadistic behavior of the camp’s overseers (most of whom are legionnaires), Benzine embraces a radical fraternity and faith in humanity throughout, taking every possible opportunity to depict evidence of kindness or solidarity. Sometimes this can come across as excessively and naively optimistic as when, for example, a group of French conscripts mock him and his fellow prisoners, pointing at them “comme au cirque,” and Benzine looks at them and “trouve à beaucoup des têtes sympathiques” (22). He is quick to point out that some of the soldiers in charge of the camp only participate in the torture of the prisoners “par conscience professionelle” rather than out of hatred or cruelty and are even apologetic (37). He extends this generosity to others as well, including some of the legionnaires, who are not “tous des voyous”: he describes one “vieux sergent asiatique” as a “brave homme” who provides the prisoners with moral support; he recounts an anecdote in which a sergeant from sub-Saharan Africa sneaks packs of cigarettes to the prisoners; he writes about a homesick master corporal who arranges on multiple occasions to alleviate the prisoners’ suffering (51, 26, 37, 51). Ultimately, he conveys a message of hope and idealism, an inclusive and generous vision of humanity that is consistent with the vision of a welcoming, pluralistic, and independent Algeria with which he closes:

Et si nous survivons, nous saurons sans doute encore trouver, une fois l’Algérie indépendante, la force de taire notre ressentiment, de nous discipliner pour que naissent les conditions d’une coopération fraternelle avec nos compatriotes européens et juifs et entre notre peuple et le peuple français. (94)

Conclusion

Benzine’s testimony thus fulfills two functions: it provides evidence of carceral abuses that violate international laws designed to protect human rights and argues against the legitimacy of the French legal apparatus that enables these abuses to continue; and, through Benzine’s own example of radical fraternity, it invites readers to recognize the humanity they share with the Algerian revolutionaries imprisoned at Boghari and attempts to move them to compassion and indignation. In fulfilling this latter function, Benzine’s testimony responds to a public duty to remember that aims to rescue these people, including the deceased Senoussi Maâmer, from obscurity, to prevent their being erased from the world’s memory. 

References

Benzine, Abdelhamid. Lambèse. Dar El Idjtihad, 1989.

Benzine, Abdelhamid. Le camp. Éditions Sociales, 1962.

Jarvis, Jill. Decolonizing Memory: Algeria and the Politics of Testimony. Duke University Press, 2021.

Stora, Benjamin. "La politique des camps d’internement." L’Algérie des Français. Seuil, 1993, pp. 295-299.

Thénault, Sylvie. “Interner en République: le cas de la France en guerre d’Algérie,” Amnis, vol. 3, 2003.

Thénault, Sylvie. “Personnel et internés dans les camps français de la guerre d'Algérie: Entre stéréotypes coloniaux et combat pour l'indépendance,” Politix, vol. 69, no. 1, 2005, pp. 63-81.

Thénault, Sylvie. Violence ordinaire dans l'Algérie coloniale: Camps, internements, assignations à résidence. Odile Jacob, 2012.

Wieviorka, Annette. L’ère du témoin. Paris, Plon, 1998.