Thus, during the Occupation, he found the Arabs to save Jews? The Great Mosque of Paris served as a rallying point, even way out to escape the Nazis? That story, incredible, overwhelming, remained unknown for more than half a century. With the Free Men s Ferroukhi , thats all a part of our memory that revives. And the impact is huge: the brotherhood of arms, the hand stretched across communal divisions, so she really existed. The rector Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit (played by Michael Lonsdale ) has favored sectors, provided false documents, hidden other son of the Book, while remaining compliant with the German authorities. A tribute is due to those Muslims who, in the darkest days, were able to resist. The film begins in 1942 While Younes, a young Algerian, practical system D, he was recruited by the French police and sent to spy on the Mosque. There he met Salim, a North African singer, and learns that he, in fact, is Jewish. Younis then confides to the rector Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit, and turns: it switches the Resistance and discovers the ways of fighting against the Nazis. Liberty, cherished liberty ... Declined by French, destroyed by the Germans, which she will, this freedom after the war? Inspired by an article in the Nouvel Observateur Ferroukhi uncovered with the help of the historian Benjamin Stora , this story erased. It is the originality of this sensitive and courageous movie: drawing on authentic events, free men traces the journey of people considered sub-humans. These immigrant workers, often illiterate, always mistreated, humiliated constantly, had a dignity that many good French have trampled. They remained men, only men, but men highly. Benjamin Stora historian of contemporary Maghreb, university professor, BENJAMIN Stora is the author of Algerian Immigrants in France 1912-1962 and Messali Hajj. For free men, he reopened archives hitherto remained buried. Photo: Isabelle Simon (Sipa) Le Nouvel Observateur - This is a totally unknown story. Why? Benjamin Stora - The History of Algerians in France remains a blind spot in our history. These are invisible men. In 1939, yet they were nearly 100,000. The first wave, consisting mainly of Kabyle, came after World War II. It was hard to identify because the Algerians were neither foreign nor subjects (like the Moroccans or Indochinese), nor the French, they do not have French nationality. Statistically, they do not exist. The only accounting traces are in port records, which give an indication of migration flows. What was their status? No specific legal status. Unskilled labor, socially crushed at the bottom of the ladder, they were all peasants thrown into the industrial world without knowing anything about urban codes. They lived in very poor conditions, trimmed manning coffee, employment agency, place of exchange, the village square. The men had no family in France, and then walked away one day, which made them even more invisible. No labor law, trade union or political. It was a sub-humanity. They were called the norafs. What was their way to exist as men? Political and trade union struggle. Hence the importance of an organization created in 1926, the North African Star, under the direction of Messali Hajj, which advocated independence. This was the main way to assert themselves at the time. This political movement has participated in the strikes of the Popular Front. These men and denied by the French state, why are they committed against the Germans? Patriotism? Warning! They engage in the Resistance, for some of them. Their motives are not patriotic! They are in a cultural and political, which is that of trade unionism and socialism matrix. They follow a working tradition. The Communist Party, which at the beginning in the creation of the North African Star, then looks with great suspicion, even hostility. Because these men want their independence, reject the authority of the PCF . They are nationalists, not internationalists. They are believed by the PC to the set of Axis Powers. What is wrong, of course. There was still the example of the mufti of Jerusalem, which was a division of the Waffen SS and Hitler attended. Its very different. Most North African political leaders in France are in contact with the Socialists. Their anti-communism does not push them to Jacques Doriot, but by Marceau Pivert. The majority of immigrants of this period, Poles, Italians, Spaniards, join the PC, via the ME, the Red Poster ... Not Algerians. Suddenly, the French historians have chosen to overlook this movement. The PC, in 1939, had chased the Algerian militant immigrant, much like the Trotskyists. Moreover, Messali Hajj, the main separatist leader at the time, was close to the Spanish Poum [Unification Marxist Workers Party] , so in the eyes of the Communists, almost an enemy. There has been Algerian nationalists who have gone on the side of the Axis, with the words The enemies of our enemies are our friends. There has also been a North African brigade in Paris, rue Lauriston, who was distinguished by his cruelty. Messali Hajj, he was against Vichy. He also sentenced in 1941 to six years hard labor. He stayed three years in prison for refusing collaboration. One of the most surprising aspects of the film, its the kindness shown by the rector of the Paris Mosque, Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit, toward Jews. Indeed. Mosque of Paris, it is an interesting story. It was founded in 1926 in honor of the Muslim soldiers who died for France. Si Kaddour is close to the Sultan of Morocco, in the diplomatic apparatus which he worked. The Mosque is a place where immigrants institutional distrust in the 1930s They go shortly. But it will become a focal point early in the war, because you can find something to eat, to dress. By 1939, the men remained in France are starting to get there. The rector, he was appointed by France. It fits. It is very political. In the film, he converses with the Nazis and saved Jewish children, at the same time. What happened to Sephardic Jews in Paris in 1940-1941? Most spoke Arabic. They were circumcised. It was tempting, vis-à-vis the occupation authorities, to pose as Mohammedans to escape Rafes and arrests. Direction mosque, so be quiet. Jews Mohammedans there listening to Eastern music and could eat there, some that there would be no pork. For the President, the mosque open to Jews was not a political line. It happened by chance encounters and necessities. It was a tolerance. Unimaginable today. Yes. But at the time, Sephardic Jews and Arabs were in the same cultural universe. There was an old ancestral background of hostility, certainly, but they were living together. Today. There was also had the pogrom in Constantine in 1934, with many deaths, but despite these clashes, Arabs and Jews shared in the public space the same universe, the same values, the same roots. Obviously, for the Jew who came from Odessa or Minsk, it was different ... From there to obtain false papers to Jews, to provide them with escape routes, there is a big step ... In the film, we see the President listen to the radio , and in November 1942 he becomes aware of the invasion of North Africa. There, for him, everything changes. Americans are in Morocco. Collaboration, its over. Another story begins. So in Si Kaddour, there is a share of political calculation, and, in addition, it is not anti-Semitic at all. It is in the makhzenian tradition, that of the protection given by the sultan. People of the Book is protected. Ferroukhi Born in 1962 in Morocco, son of a worker in a cardboard factory, it is a self-taught: ISMAEL FERROUKHl was first used in an industrial chicken farm before becoming, among others, writer Cédric Kahn ( Too Much Happiness, the plane ...) His film. Grand Voyage (2004) received the lion of the future (Best First Film) in Venice. Photo: Maria Laura Antonelli-Rex (Sip So there is no planning in this sense, the mosque? No. It happened at the mercy of circumstances. Of course, there are Muslims who have criticized this attitude. And the Germans have played on these divisions. But it did not work. Thus, despite the German propaganda in Algeria, people did not appropriate the property of the Jews! My grandparents were expropriated by the Vichy regime in the Aures, and were able to reclaim their property after the war. The rector he was worried by the Germans? Yes, in 1940, and in 1943 - a difficult year. In 1944, over. It goes fast. Then, in 1947, he was decorated for his attitude during the war. He died in 1954 and was the man of benevolence. This kindness she gone now? No. Deep in the company of Algeria, Morocco , Tunisia - I am not speaking of the state speech - there is always a form of nostalgia for the Jewish presence. The Jews were the index of the plurality, the plurality that gradually erased in the Arab world. After the war resisters Algerians did not have the right to recognition of France? No. Because the vast majority of Algerian immigrants were separatists. And after the massacre of Setif in May 1945, a history of conflict begins between French and Algerians. Free Men is a late rehabilitation, but necessary. I talk about these events in my books for thirty years. For me, the film Ferroukhi essentially a recognition of the whole story. Interview by François Forestier Free men s Ferroukhi , in theaters September 28.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 21:54:59 +0000
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