ABSTRACT
Between 1958 and 1962, Algerians in the Paris region were subjected to a policy of state terror by the French security forces under Paris police chief Maurice Papon in the context of the French state's war with the pro-independence Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). In the face of the highly constricting conditions of political and social "illegitimacy" for the memories of October 1961, many Algerians in France adopted a strategic silence. The reasons for this silence, and the forms it took, represent one key memorial dimension that this chapter examines, before moving on to analyze the chronologically differentiated pattern of leaving silence behind that some Algerians followed in relation to their experiences of repression. Finally, the chapter examines the transformations in these memorial dynamics due to the greater public visibility and social credence that October 1961 has enjoyed since the late 1990s, even if the vast majority of Algerians have remained silent about their difficult wartime pasts.
