The Ministry of Culture publishes on the FranceArchives portal a digital guide of sources related to Harkis. It offers, for the first time, an overview of the archives relating to the Harkis and the other auxiliary forces of the Algerian war, whatever the place in France where they are kept, making it easier for interested researchers and citizens to access these archives.
This guide is in line with the memorial work undertaken by the Government on the period of the Algerian war, which is also illustrated by the opening of archives relating to this war, recently decided by interdepartmental order of 22 December 2021. Moreover, in 2020, the Ministry of Culture published on the same model a numerical guide of the sources relating to the disappeared of the Algerian war (1954-1962).
This guide, for all interested audiences and accessible on the FranceArchives portal, consists of three parts:
- A general introduction presents the different categories of substitutes, the maps of the establishment of reception camps in France and the cultural and pedagogical resources on the subject;
- The state of sound and audiovisual sources refers to photographs, films and testimonies; it is complemented by a “toolkit” for services wishing to launch a campaign of collecting testimonies from the Harkis, their families and those who have been around them;
- The written sources, very abundant, are taken into account until today, with a first chronological division (before/ after 1962), then thematic.
It is the result of exemplary interdepartmental collaboration, reflecting the diversity and richness of sources on the subject. Managed by the Ministry of Culture (Service interministériel des Archives de France, Archives nationales et Archives nationales d'outre-mer), it benefited from the assistance of the Ministry of the Interior (Prefecture of Police of Paris), the Ministry of Armed Forces (Heritage, Memory and Archives Directorate, Defence Historical Service, Defence Communication and Audiovisual Production Establishment and National Office of Veterans and War Victims) and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
Guide available here: https://francearchives.fr/fr/actualite/439975315