The son of activist Maurice Audin, assassinated by the French army in 1957, died on Sunday, May 28. On social networks, tributes are multiplying
“He worked for France to recognize that she had murdered his father. Beyond that, he was a lover of Algeria and a great anti-racist activist. Farewell Peter.”
As soon as the death of Pierre Audin was announced on Sunday evening May 28, those who wanted to pay tribute to him, like Dominique Sopo, president of the SOS Racisme association, published touching testimonials on social networks. the man and the activist.
Pierre Audin is the son of Maurice Audin, a professor of mathematics, member of the French Communist Party, and activist for the independence of Algeria. Arrested by General Massu’s paratroopers in June 1957, he disappeared. Until today, his body has never been found.
Today, his assassination is beyond doubt: the first to mention this track was the historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet in 1958. In 2014, the recording of a conversation between General Aussaresses, the right arm of Massu during “the battle of Algiers”, and the journalist Jean-Charles Deniau is made public. Aussaresses confesses that the army killed Maurice Audin.
Two recognitions, in 2014 and 2022
In June 2014, French President François Hollande officially acknowledged that the activist “died while in detention”.
Emmanuel Macron will go further in September 2018, “in the name of the French Republic”, saying that the young communist mathematician Maurice Audin was “tortured to death, or tortured and then executed by the French army” in 1957.
Pierre Audin attended in June 2022 the inauguration of his father’s bust, place Audin in Algiers, on the eve of the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of his disappearance, and obtained his Algerian passport.
“I was a month and a half old. I am 65 today. And when the president came to my mother, I was already 61 years old and already retired. So I was barely born when it started and when the French power agreed to recognize what it had done in the case of Maurice Audin, I was already retired… there was a life that had passed what“, he said at the time.
“What were the exact circumstances of the disappearance of Maurice Audin? Where are his bodies and those of the many fighters for the independence of Algeria and civilian victims of enforced disappearances? When will historians finally be able to access without hindrance all the archives, on this subject and on all the others? questioned the Josette and Maurice Audin Association in a press release published on the occasion of the death, saying that it was “more than ever determined to continue this quest so that all the light is shed on the ”Audin affair’. ‘ and on all the crimes committed at the time in the name of the State, in Algeria as in France”.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivaled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form.
