Author's note: I am grateful to Bonnie Smith, Rebecca Scales, Julia Clancy-Smith, Aaron Walker, and the anonymous reviewers and the editors of IJMES for their many helpful suggestions for revisions. Generous support for this research was provided by a Fulbright–IIE fellowship and a grant from the American Institute of Maghrib Studies.

¹ Marie Elbe, “Lundi s'ouvre le singulier procès des ‘progressistes,’” L'Echo d'Alger, 17 July 1957. The terminology for the population of colonial Algeria is extremely complex and fraught with identity politics. Until the interwar period, the European population, which comprised French, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese settlers who all had French citizenship, called themselves “Algerians” and then the français d'Algérie (French of Algeria), while indigenous Arabs and Berbers were called indigènes or français musulmans (Muslim French). During the Algerian revolution, the indigènes reclaimed “Algerian” to refer to the non-European populations of Algeria; in this article, I use the term Algerian in this way. I refer to the European-settler population alternately as “European settlers” and pieds-noirs while using “the French” to designate metropolitans or recent arrivals from France. The term pied-noir is of obscure and contested origin but is currently used to refer to settlers in Algeria of European descent who arrived after French colonization in 1830, possessed French citizenship, and were “repatriated” to France after the Algerian war. The term was used pejoratively during the colonial period, but “repatriated” settlers in France have since reclaimed it.

² “Lettre et rapport du Ministre de la Justice à Monsieur le Secrétaire d'Etat à l'Intérieur, Chargé des Affaires Algériennes,” 15 April 1957, Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer (hereafter CAOM)/Fonds Ministériaux (hereafter FM)/81f/917, Aix-en-Provence, France.

³ Leading proponents of the “progressivist movement” included worker-priests and the missionary communities of the Mission de France. It was widely discredited by 1954 following several papal condemnations and the 1949 Vatican order against Catholic cooperation with communism.

⁴ Boisson-Pradier, Jean, L’église et l'Algérie (Paris: Etudes et recherches historiques, 1968), 7, 289–90Google Scholar.

⁵ On the history of colonial Algeria's Roman heritage, see Lorcin, Patricia M. E., Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995)Google Scholar; and Curtis, Sarah A., “Emilie de Vialar and the Religious Reconquest of Algeria,” French Historical Studies 29 (2006): 261–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ Nozière, André, Algérie: Les chrétiens dans la guerre (Paris: Editions Cana, 1979), 192–203Google Scholar. Nozière discusses the deep attachment of “Christian” European settlers to French Algeria to the point of adherence to the Secret Army Organization at the end of the war. See also editorials in Le Petit Bônois (1955–59) and publications of the conservative Catholic organization La Cité Catholique defending French military tactics as a means of maintaining a Christian presence in Algeria.

⁷ On the French and pied-noir populations’ refusal to accept Algerian decolonization, see Shepard, Todd, The Invention of Decolonization (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

⁸ Massu, Jacques, La vraie bataille d'Alger (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1971), 216–17Google Scholar.

⁹ Theological currents within both Catholicism and Protestantism in France during the first half of the 20th century emphasized Christian responsibilities toward the poor and working classes. Within Catholicism, major thinkers included Jacques Maritain, Marie-Dominique Chenu, and Yves Congar. Protestants drew on the theology of Wilfred Monod, among others. Cholvy, Gerard and Hilaire, Yves-Marie, Histoire religieuse de la France contemporaine, 1930–1988 (Toulouse, France: Editions Privat, 1988)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ See stories on the arrests in Journal d'Alger, 22 March 1957; L'Echo d'Alger, 22 March and 26 March 1957; and Le Figaro, 25 March 1957.

¹¹ Françoise Giroud, “La lettre de ‘l'Express,’” L'Express, 26 July 1957, 8.

¹² Several of these reports are located in the archives of the Mission de France at the Centre des Archives du Monde du Travail (hereafter CAMT)/Fonds Mission de France (hereafter MDF)/1999013 0154, Roubaix, France. See also “Lettre au procureur général Jean Reliquet au garde des Sceaux,” 16 April 1957, cited in Sandrine Reliquet, “L’éxercise de la magistrature en Algérie d'octobre 1956 à octobre 1958, le cas du parquet général d'Alger” (Mémoire de diplôme d’études approfondies, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, 1989).

¹³ Nelly Forget's archives are in the CAOM/114 APOM, consulted and cited with permission from Mlle Forget. One defendant described how she was subjected to a simulated strangling, a water-torture technique in which a tube was placed in her mouth and her nose was held as water was forced into her body and then forced out through pressure on her abdomen. She also had electrodes placed on various parts of her body, including her tongue, and was left without food or water for three days.

¹⁴ Témoignages et Documents sur la Guerre en Algérie, January 1958, 2.

¹⁵ For recent debates on torture and colonial violence, see Cole, Joshua, “Intimate Acts and Unspeakable Relations: Remembering Torture and the War for Algerian Independence,” in Memory, Empire, and Postcolonialism, ed. Hargreaves, Alec G. (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2005), 125–41Google Scholar; and Lazreg, Marnia, Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also McDougall's, James review in American Historical Review 114 (2009): 1025–1027CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and idem, “Savage Wars? Codes of Violence in Algeria, 1830s–1990s,” Third World Quarterly 26 (2005): 117–31.

¹⁶ Coutrot, Aline, “Les Scouts de France et la guerre d'Algérie,” in La guerre d'Algérie et les chrétiens, special issue of Les Cahiers de l'IHTP 9 (1988): 121–38Google Scholar; see also the pamphlet “Des rappelés témoignent” (Comité de Résistance Spirituelle, 1957).

¹⁷ See François Mauriac, “La question,” L'Express, 15 January 1955; Simon, Pierre-Henri, Contre la torture (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1957)Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Examples among major works on the Algerian war include Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954–1962 (New York: New York Review of Books, 2006)Google Scholar; and Thénault, Sylvie, Histoire de la guerre d'indépendance algérienne (Paris: Flammarion, 2005)Google Scholar. Exceptions are the few texts that focus on specific groups. On the French Protestants, see Adams, Geoffrey, The Call of Conscience: French Protestant Responses to the Algerian War, 1954–1962 (Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1998)Google Scholar; on the Mission de France, see Chapeu, Sybille, Des chrétiens dans la guerre d'Algérie: L'action de la Mission de France (Paris: Les Editions de l'Atelier, 2004)Google Scholar. Nozière, Algérie: Les chrétiens dans la guerre, is the only significant work to address the actions of both Protestants and Catholics in Algeria over the entire course of the war.

¹⁹ See Le Sueur, James D., Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics during the Decolonization of Algeria (Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Connelly, Matthew, A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria's Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)Google Scholar; and Mathilde von Bülow, “Franco–German Intelligence Cooperation and the Internationalization of the Algerian War of Independence,” Intelligence and National Security 28 (forthcoming).

²⁰ On the Vatican and Algerian decolonization, see Alix, Christine, “Le Vatican et la décolonisation,” in Les églises chrétiennes et la décolonisation, ed. Merle, Marcel (Paris: Armand Colin: 1967), 25–28Google Scholar; and Nozière, Algérie: Les chrétiens dans la guerre, 156–57. On the WCC's preoccupation with Algeria, see “Aux pasteurs des Eglises réformées en Algérie,” WCC archives, WCC General Secretariat, carton 42.3.002, file 3.

²¹ “Regroupment camps” were an attempt to stop rural Algerians from resupplying FLN maquis. The French military forced mainly women and children from their homes into temporary camps, surrounded by barbed wire, where they had no access to livestock or any means to grow food. They were at the mercy of the French military and various aid groups who brought food and supplies.

²² See Daughton, J. P., An Empire Divided: Religion, Republicanism, and the Making of French Colonialism, 1880–1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²³ See, for example, Curtis, Sarah A., Civilizing Habits: Women Missionaries and the Revival of the French Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Clancy-Smith, Julia A., Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, c. 1800–1900 (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2011)Google Scholar.

²⁴ Curtis, Civilizing Habits, 101–17.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶ Clancy-Smith, Mediterraneans, 253. Vialar and the SSJ were ultimately expelled from Algeria in 1842 by the bishop of Algiers (with the support of French authorities), who resented Vialar's independence. They immediately found refuge and protection in precolonial Tunisia.

²⁷ On the Mission Rolland, see Adams, The Call of Conscience, 14–15.

²⁸ Cited in Lorcin, Imperial Identities, 177.

²⁹ Ibid., 62–63, 179.

³⁰ Ibid., 179. See also Direche-Slimani, Karima, Chrétiens de Kabylie 1873–1954 (Paris: Editions Bouchene, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³¹ Followers of Charles de Foucauld, who lived among the Tuareg in the Algerian Sahara, created the congregations the Little Brothers (and later Little Sisters) of Jesus in 1933. They had ideas similar to those of the worker-priest movement, including living in poverty and showing solidarity with local populations. See Antier, Jean-Jacques, Charles de Foucauld (Paris: Perrin, 1997)Google Scholar.

³² Nozière, Algérie: Les chrétiens dans la guerre, 27.

³³ Saaïdia, Oissila, “Le cas de l'Eglise catholique en Algérie avant la Première Guerre mondiale,” in Religions et colonisation XVIe-XXe siècle, ed. Borne, Dominique and Falaze, Benoit (Paris: Editions de l'Atelier/Editions Ouvrières, 2009), 169–72Google Scholar.

³⁴ On the question of defining Arabs and Berbers as “Muslim,” see Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization, chap. 1.

³⁵ Scotto, Jean, Curé pied-noir, évêque algérien (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1991), 10–11Google Scholar.

³⁶ Saaïdia, “Le cas de l'Eglise catholique,” 174.

³⁷ Ray, Marie-Christine, Le Cardinal Duval “Evêque en Algérie” (Paris: Editions du Centurion, 1984), 56Google Scholar.

³⁸ “Rapport très confidentiel sur les incidences religieuses des événements d'Algérie du 1 août 1955 au 25 mars 1956,” archives of Cardinal Duval, Archevêché d'Alger, casier 284. In his 26 March 1955 report to the Vatican, Duval explained this position: “Even if the majority of Catholics [in Algeria] demonstrate an affectionately submissive spirit toward Church leaders, a certain number of them have manifested, especially recently, contrary feelings. Under multiple influences . . . these Catholics accuse the Church of abandoning them and of taking the side of the Muslims.”

³⁹ On the history of Catholic Action movements, see Pelletier, Denis, “1905–2005. Un siècle d'engagements catholiques,” in Les catholiques dans la République 1905–2005, ed. Duriez, Bruno, Fouilloux, Etienneet al. (Paris: Les Editions de l'Atelier, 2005)Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Nozière, Algérie: Les chrétiens dans la guerre, 31–35.

⁴¹ On the France, Mission de, see Cavalin, Tangi and Viet-Depaule, Nathalie, Une histoire de la Mission de France (Paris: Editions Karthala, 2007)Google Scholar; and Chapeu, Des chrétiens dans la guerre d'Algérie.

⁴² “Je prie chaque jour pour la paix en Algérie,” El Watan, 22–23 January 1993.

⁴³ Scotto, Curé pied-noir, 78. The second Catholic social center in Algeria opened in Bel-Air in 1953 under the direction of two pied-noir social workers, Emma Serra and Simone Gallice. In 1955, the colonial government established Le Service des Centres Sociaux (the social centers); these were incorporated into the French Ministry of Education, and in 1959 their name changed to Centres Sociaux Educatifs (Educational Social Centers). Historian James Le Sueur claims the government centers were the brainchild of Soustelle; however, the Catholic centers, upon which Tillion modeled the secular project, had already been in place for several years. See Le Sueur, Uncivil War, chap. 3. See also Forget, Nelly, “Le Service des Centres Sociaux en Algérie,” Matériaux pour l'histoire de notre temps 26 (1992): 37–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁴ Conversation with Nelly Forget, Paris, 20 November 2008, and subsequent correspondence.

⁴⁵ Scotto, Curé pied-noir, 77–80.

⁴⁶ “Où va l'Association Catholique des Etudiants d'Alger?,” archives of Cardinal Duval, Archevêché d'Alger, casier 268, file 22.

⁴⁷ Ibid. They note in particular Muslim Scout leaders Amar (ʿUmar) Lagha and Salah Louanchi; both were later arrested.

⁴⁸ Meynier, Gilbert, Histoire intérieure du F.L.N. 1954–1962 (Paris: Fayard, 2002), 107Google Scholar. Meynier argues that the Scouts Musulmans d'Algérie was formed under the influence of the ʿulamaʾ and the Algerian nationalist Parti du Peuple Algérien (PPA) and that after 1945 it was “practically a sort of juvenile section of the PPA-MTLD despite the efforts of its leader Mahfoud Kaddache to keep its autonomy.” The PPA-MTLD produced a significant number of Algerian militants who became leaders of the FLN after its formation in 1954.

⁴⁹ Interview with Evelyne Lavalette Safir, Médéa, Algeria, 31 January 2009; interview with Pierre and Claudine Chaulet, Algiers, 23 February 2009; see also Denise Walbert's testimony in the CAMT/MDF/1999013 0154.

⁵⁰ Visser, W. A. ‘t Hooft, ed., The Evanston Report. The Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, 1954 (London: SCM Press, 1955), 59Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Ibid.; see in particular statements by the Rev. Peter Dagadu (p. 37) and Dr. O. Frederick Nolde (41–42).

⁵² Adams, The Call of Conscience, 25–37.

⁵³ Ibid., 90.

⁵⁴ Letter from Howard Schomer to Willem Visser ‘t Hooft, dated 2 January 1957, archives of the WCC General Secretariat, carton 42.3.002, file 3.

⁵⁵ “Notes on a Visit to Algeria and Tunisia,” Cimade archives, carton 3D 10/11 (DZ02), folder Wisser t'Hooft–December 1956.

⁵⁶ On the history of Cimade during World War II, see Alain Guillemoles and Arlette Domon, Aux origines de la Cimade, special issue of Cimade information (1990); and Les clandestins de Dieu (Paris: Fayard, 1968).

⁵⁷ “La Cimade à Marseille 1956–1962,” private archives of Charles Harper.

⁵⁸ Letter from Jacques Beaumont to Marc Boegner, 14 April 1956, Cimade archives, Personnel boxes, carton 2.3, Beaumont, Paris.

⁵⁹ Jeanson, Colette and Jeanson, Francis, L'Algérie hors-la-loi (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1955)Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Louanchi, a leader in the Scouts Musulmans d'Algérie, joined the FLN in 1955, becoming head of its French Federation in 1956. He later married Anne-Marie Chaulet, sister of Pierre Chaulet, and, through his European contacts, connected Francis Jeanson to the FLN.

⁶¹ See Louanchi, Anne-Marie, Salah Louanchi. Parcours d'un militant algérien (Algiers: Editions Dahlab, 1999), 63Google Scholar; and Khedda, Benyoucef Ben, Alger, capitale de la résistance 1956–1957 (Algiers: Editions Houma, 2002), 104Google Scholar.

⁶² Interview with Evelyne Lavalette Safir, Médéa, Algeria, 31 January 2009.

⁶³ Walbert, Denise, “Une française en Afrique du Nord de 1929 à 1957,” CAMT/MDF/1999013 0154; Raphaëlle Branche, La torture et l'armée pendant la guerre d'Algérie 1954–1962 (Paris: Gallimard, 2001), 57–60Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Interview with Evelyne Lavalette Safir, Médéa, Algeria, 31 January 2009.

⁶⁵ Lavalette was arrested in Oran on 13 November 1956 and sentenced to three years in prison. She was freed before the end of her sentence in 1959 under the amnesty given to those with prison sentences of less than three years.

⁶⁶ Robert Barrat, Un journaliste au cœur de la guerre d'Algérie (Paris: Editions de l'Aube, 2001).

⁶⁷ Forget, “Le Service des Centres Sociaux,” 37–47.

⁶⁸ Interview with Soeur Renée Schmutz, Algiers, January 2009.

⁶⁹ Horne, A Savage War, 184.

⁷⁰ Branche, La torture et l'armée, 110–19; Thénault, Sylvie, Une drôle de justice: Les magistrats dans la guerre d'Algérie (Paris: Editions La Découverte, 2004), 38–83Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Branche, La torture et l'armée, 107.

⁷² Massu, La vraie bataille d'Alger, 51.

⁷³ Ibid., 56.

⁷⁴ Ibid., 216.

⁷⁵ See Duval, Léon-Etienne, Au nom de la vérité: Algérie 1954–1962 (Paris: Editions Albin Michel, 2001), 26–27Google Scholar. In January 1955, Mgr Duval issued a statement that was to be read ex cathedra in all churches, in which he quoted large sections of Pope Pius XII's discourses on “natural rights” and specifically the moral limits of police and legal action against citizens. He also quoted an October 1953 declaration from the pope that “judicial instruction must exclude physical and mental torture . . . in the first place, because they damage a natural right, even if the accused is truly guilty, and because too often they give erroneous results.”

⁷⁶ Letter to an unnamed general from Mgr Duval, 22 August 1956, archives of Cardinal Duval, Archevêché d'Alger, casier 308.

⁷⁷ See Ray, Cardinal Duval.

⁷⁸ On FLN critiques of Duval's hesitations, see Lazreg, Torture and the Twilight of Empire, 194.

⁷⁹ Pope Pius XII announced in his Christmas message in 1956 that a Catholic “cannot invoke his or her own conscience in order to refuse to render the services and perform the duties established by law.” See Pius XII, Christmas message 1956, in The Major Addresses of Pius XII, vol. 2, ed. Vincent A. Yzermans (St. Paul, Minn.: North Central, 1961), 225.

⁸⁰ “Vingt-huit personnes inculpées,” Le Monde, 5 April 1957; “Lettre et rapport du Ministre de la Justice à Monsieur le Secrétaire d'Etat à l'Intérieur, Chargé des Affaires Algériennes,” CAOM/FM/81f/917.

⁸¹ “Vingt-huit personnes inculpées.”

⁸² “Lettre et rapport du Ministre de la Justice à Monsieur le Secrétaire d'Etat à l'Intérieur, Chargé des Affaires Algériennes,” CAOM/FM/81f/917.

⁸³ “Vingt-huit personnes inculpées.”

⁸⁴ “Le corps de Raymonde Peschard a dû être ‘arraché aux rebelles,’” unknown journal, 30 November 1957. Archives of Cardinal Duval, Archevêché d'Alger, casier 283.

⁸⁵ See Journal d'Alger, 22 March 1957; L'Echo d'Alger, 22 and 26 March 1957; Dépêche Quotidienne d'Algerie, 22 March 1957.

⁸⁶ Report from the public prosecutor to the Minister of Justice, 14 June 1957, CAOM/FM/81f/917. According to the 26 March 1957 issue of L'Echo d'Alger, a victim of the Diar-es-Saada attack, who supposedly identified Peschard in a photo, confirmed Marcelli's testimony.

⁸⁷ Although Djamila Boupacha was convicted of the crime, it was actually Zohra Drif who placed the bomb in the Milk-Bar. She was captured in 1957 with Yacef Saadi and convicted of terrorism in 1958.

⁸⁸ Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, “Des peines modérées sont requises contre la plupart des inculpés,” Le Monde, 24 July 1957.

⁸⁹ Serge Bromberger, “Premier audience du procès des ‘progressistes,’” Le Figaro, 23 July 1957.

⁹⁰ Letter from Mgr Duval to an unnamed archbishop (in file with Vatican correspondence), dated 5 July 1957, archives of Cardinal Duval, Archevêché d'Alger, casier 283, file 5.

⁹¹ The notes from the interview between Robert Lacoste and Bertrand Poirot-Delpech are cited in Branche, La torture et l'armée, 219.

⁹² This text is quoted in Boisson-Pradier, L’église et l'Algérie, 33.

⁹³ Scotto, Curé pied noir, 142.

⁹⁴ This perspective comes from conversations with Pierre and Claudine Chaulet in Algiers, 23 February 2009; Jean-Claude Barthez in Lyon, France, 25 April 2009; and André and Annette Gallice in Lyon, France, 5 May 2009. All stated they were not in favor of a trial defense that avoided political questions.

⁹⁵ Bromberger, “Première audience du procès des ‘progressistes.’” Bromberger notes that Jean-Claude Barthez admitted on the stand to hiding the Ronéo machine, an act that he “regretted.” See also Marie Elbe, “Au palais de justice,” L'Echo d'Alger, 23 July 1957. Elbe writes that on the stand Forget stated she helped hide Peschard because she believed the latter was innocent. In her deposition before the juge d'instruction in the Algiers military tribunal on 4 April 1957, Nelly Forget also detailed reasons for assisting Peschard. In CAOM, fonds privés 114APOM.

⁹⁶ Numerous periodicals announced the verdict, including Le Monde, 25 July 1957, which reported the sentences for the Europeans as follows: Denise Walbert, five years prison (suspended); Pierre Coudre, two years prison; Jacques and Eliane Gautron, two years prison (suspended); Abbé Barthez, five months prison (suspended); André Gallice, three months prison (suspended); Georges and Louisette Hélie, Jean Touilleux, Maurice Causse, and Nelly Forget were acquitted. Pierre Chaulet, who was arrested with the “progressivists,” did not participate in the trial for health reasons.

⁹⁷ Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, “Des peines moderées sont requises contre la plupart des des inculpés,” Le Monde, 24 July 1957.

⁹⁸ Nozière, Algérie: Les chrétiens dans la guerre, 237–38.

⁹⁹ “Memorandum du G.P.R.A. à N.N.S.S. les Evêques d'Algérie,” archives du Cardinal Duval, Archevêché d'Alger, casier 280.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid.

¹⁰¹ Louis Augros, “Suggestions relatives aux rapports entre l'Eglise et l'Etat dans l'Algérie de demain,” 18 October 1961, archives of Cardinal Duval, Archevêché d'Alger, casier 280. There are no real statistics on the number of “Christians” who stayed in Algeria after independence, because most tallies simply refer to “Europeans.” Martine de Sauto cites the number of Europeans in Algeria at around 100,000 in 1964. de Sauto, Martine, Henri Teissier, un évêque en Algérie (Paris: Bayard, 2006), 90Google Scholar. In September 1962, a circular of the Association d'Etudes, a group of European Christians of “liberal” and “progressivist” tendencies, noted that there were more than 100 regular attendees at their meetings in Algiers and many more letters of interest in their activities. Bulletin Intérieur de l'Association d'Etudes, 24 September 1962, private archives of Paul and Josette Fournier, Angers, France.

¹⁰² Letter from Madeleine Barot to Cimade team members concerning the creation of the Committee for Service in Algeria, dated 5 July 1962, Cimade archives, 3D 10/12.