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99 - [ALGERIA]. Germaine TILLION (Allègre 1907–Saint-Mandé 2008) …
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Estimate €250 - €500
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Description
[ALGERIA]. Germaine TILLION (Allègre 1907–Saint-Mandé 2008) Resistance fighter, ethnologist, Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) and subsequently at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Inducted into the Panthéon in May 2015. A typewritten document accompanied by a signed handwritten note, dated Monday 28 January [1958] to [Carmen ROY], the whole presented in a burgundy half-percale folder with flaps. “Please read the document I am sending you herewith, do not share it with anyone, and keep it in a safe place.// It will explain why I have written to you so little (and I owe you this explanation) – // affectionately // G. Tillion The people in question are in mortal danger and only silence can save them __ for in this way I ensure that they are not brought to trial. // Furthermore, we must not risk causing any trouble for my government, which is in an extremely difficult situation, caught between pressing and largely irreconcilable problems.” The document is a 14-page typescript, 21 x 27 cm, concerning Saadi YACEF and Zohra DRIF. (Small tear at the fold on 1 page). It is an account of the interviews that Germaine Tillion held on 4 July and 9 August 1957 with Mr Saadi YACEF and Miss Zohra DRIF. The account was recorded in case she was prevented from testifying. Germaine TILLION had made “thirty copies, which [she] had entrusted to friends in whom I had confidence”. This particular copy was sent to her friend, the ethnologist Carmen ROY. In these pages, G. TILLION briefly recounts her scientific mission to the Aurès Mountains as an ethnologist, her return to Paris in May 1940 and the establishment, immediately upon her return, of a resistance organisation: “Musée de l’Homme Hauet-Vidé network”, of which she was the sole survivor. Arrested and deported in 1942, she was repatriated to France in 1945. She subsequently undertook a mission to Algeria from March 1955 to February 1956, following which she published *L’Algérie* in 1957. In it, she “outlines the process of collapse in underdeveloped countries and concludes that it is absolutely essential for Algeria to live in economic symbiosis with France.” “In writing this pamphlet, I had hoped to draw the attention of the Muslim public to the extreme danger that unlimited and unconditional independence would pose to Algeria.” The interviews with Saadi YACEF were a result of this publication. During these discussions, G. TILLION expressed his pessimism due to the balance of power between the opposing sides. The topics of torture and terrorist attacks were raised. “Terrorism is seen by some as a justification for torture. In the eyes of another section of public opinion, torture and executions are the justification for terrorism. It is a vicious circle from which it is impossible to escape.” Saadi YACEF undertook to ensure that attacks would no longer claim civilian victims, but the executions would continue. During Saadi YACEF’s third trial, his lawyers, who were in possession of this text, released it to the press. The full text was published by *L’Express*. Germaine TILLION finally published it in *Les Ennemis complémentaires*. Paris, Editions de Minuit, 1960, where it appears on pages 33 to 66 in the chapter entitled “Testimony for a Man Condemned to Death”. Saadi YACEF was sentenced to death in 1958; his life was spared by the general amnesty granted by General DE GAULLE upon his election as President of the Republic. Carmen ROY, 1919–2006, Canadian poet and ethnologist. Saadi YACEF (Algiers, 1928), leader of the FLN, and Zorha DRIF (Tissemsilt, 1934), FLN activist (entry compiled by C. Perrin). Enclosed is a long, hand-signed card from General Fournier dated 19 February 2019, to whom the document was loaned.
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About the sale ANTIQUARIAN AND MODERN BOOKS
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Auction time 09/18/2026 at 2:00 PM
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