ABSTRACT
T h e reading by the judge of the thir ty-one pages of the decision, the first on this historically important subject, had the audience holding their breath for nearly an hour. In the opinion of the court those Algerian deaths on 17 O c t o - ber 1961 are not a historian's whim but a tragic reality worthy of a discussion about those responsible. ' F r o m the moment we admit that the official version of events of 1961 seems to have been largely inspired by reasons of s t a t e — possibly admissible because of the situation at the t i m e — a n d that the extreme brutality of the crackdown at that time should today call for a different analysis that does not exclude the use of the word 'massacre,' it would be impossible to condemn an historian, whose overall research is unquestionably valid, for
THE MAGISTRATES' COURT OF PARIS ACKNOWLEDGES . . . 241
Returning to the accusation by Jean-Luc Einaudi of the responsibility of Maurice Papon, the verdict quotes both the vengeful words of the police chief-"For each blow received, we will give t e n " — a n d the written comments in 1 9 6 3 claiming a "direct and personal responsibility" for the maintenanceof-order directives.
