Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Respectfully,
Albert Camus
Paris, October 28, 1957
Mr. President,
I have recently received information concerning several more Algerian prisoners who are condemned to death. As in the previous cases, the charges against them do not involve indiscriminate terrorism, and in many instances there were no deaths. I am afraid, however, of presuming on the kindness you recently showed me by reiterating a plea I have already made on several occasions.
I simply ask your permission to state my belief as a French citizen born in Algeria. With the current lull in terrorism and revival of hope for the future, further executions risk jeopardizing this opportunity and spurring new terrorist attacks. By contrast, pardons, visible measures of generosity, would, I am sure, help to calm emotions and foster additional hope. That is why I beg you, sir, to exercise your prerogatives and avoid the worst by suspending executions now.
I am nevertheless aware of the presumptuousness of this new plea and beg you to forgive me for it. If the stakes for our country were not so serious, and if I were not so deeply affected by the Algerian tragedy, rest assured that I would remain in my place and not add to the burdens of your office. I am grateful for your consideration.
Respectfully,
Albert Camus
6. Both letters are from Eve Morisi, ed., Albert Camus contre la peine de mort (Paris: Gallimard, 2011), 201–4.
7. The Mezzi brothers, Brick Amar, Harfouchi Mohamed ben Ahmed, Haddidi Mohamed, Letabi Rabah, Arabi Rabah, Yanes Bachir, Bourenane, Kab Abderrahmane, Bensaadi Said, etc. According to information gathered by Mostefa Boudina, K. Abderrahmane and M. Bourenane were executed at Serkadji prison in Algiers on October 9, 1957, and Yanes Bachir and Letabi Rabah were executed on October 10. On October 28, 1957, Camus sent another letter to the president, reproduced below. A note of acknowledgment dated October 30 stated that the president “was aware of the delicacy that inspired the terms” of the author’s request.—Trans.
The Nobel Prize Press Conference Incident8
DECEMBER 14–17, 1957
Stockholm Polemic: Albert Camus Reveals to Swiss Students His Attitude toward the Algerian Problem9
Stockholm, December 13. Yesterday afternoon, Albert Camus was the guest of a group of students in Stockholm. During this private meeting, he was asked to respond to a wide variety of questions and once again demonstrated his mastery of language, which is becoming legendary in Sweden. After discussing conscientious objection and the Hungarian problem, Camus himself issued an open invitation: “I have not yet given my opinion about Algeria, but I will do so if you ask me.” Various questions were then posed, concerning in particular the freedom of expression of writers and journalists, which several Swedish newspapers have recently questioned. Camus acknowledged the existence of censorship in Algeria, which he seriously regretted, but also insisted on the “total and consoling freedom of the metropolitan press.”
“There is no government pressure in France, but there are influential groups, conformists of the right and left. Believe me when I say with utmost sincerity that no government in the world, if faced with the Algerian problem, would handle it with such relatively minor faults as the French government.”
A representative of the FLN in Stockholm then asked Camus why he intervened so readily on behalf of East Europeans but never signed petitions in favor of Algerians. From that point on, the dialogue became confused and degenerated into a fanatical monologue by the representative of the FLN, who pronounced various slogans and accusations, prevented the writer from speaking, and insulted him in the crudest of terms. Camus faced this harsh polemic, which scandalized the Swedish audience, without for a moment losing his poise or dignity. The cause of the FLN, which had previously been disserved on several occasions by the clumsiness and offensiveness of any number of its propagandists, suffered a major moral defeat yesterday in Stockholm, especially since the incident was discussed and disapproved by the local press. In the end, Camus managed to make himself heard, not without difficulty.
“I have never spoken to an Arab or to one of your militants as you have just spoken to me in public.… You are in favor of democracy in Algeria, so please be democratic now and let me speak.… Let me finish my sentences, because the meaning of a sentence often isn’t clear until it ends.”
After pointing out that he was the only French journalist forced to leave Algeria for defending the Muslim population, the Nobel laureate added:
“I have kept quiet for a year and eight months, which does not mean that I have ceased to act. I have been and still am a proponent of a just Algeria in which both populations must live in peace and equality. I have said repeatedly that justice must be done to the Algerian people, who must be granted a fully democratic government, and I went on saying this until the hatred on both sides attained such proportions that it became unwise for an intellectual to intervene lest his statements aggravate the terror.
It seemed to me that it was better to wait until the moment was right to unite rather than divide. I can assure you, however, that you have comrades who are alive today thanks to actions you know nothing about. It is with a certain reluctance that I explain myself in this way publicly. I have always condemned terror. I must also condemn the blind terrorism that can be seen in the streets of Algiers, for example, which someday might strike my mother or family. I believe in justice, but I will defend my mother before justice.”
This declaration was punctuated by ovations.
Letter to the Editor of Le Monde, Paris, December 17, 1957
On returning from Sweden, I found in Le Monde the articles by your Stockholm correspondent. The statements attributed to me are perfectly correct except for one, which I ask your permission to clarify.
I did not say that our governments had committed only minor faults in dealing with the Algerian problem. I believe the opposite, in fact. But when questioned about the freedom of expression afforded to French writers, I said that it was total. To another question challenging the freedom of our press, I said that the restrictions imposed on that freedom by governments mired in the Algerian tragedy had thus far been relatively minor, which does not mean that I approve of those restrictions, even if they are limited. I have always regretted that there exists no association of journalists that would defend the freedom of the press against the state while enforcing within the profession the duties that such freedom necessarily involves.
I would also like to say, in regard to the young Algerian who questioned me, that I feel closer to him than to many French people who speak about Algeria without knowing it. He knew what he was talking about, and his face reflected not hatred but despair and unhappiness. I share that unhappiness. His face is the face of my country. That is why I was willing to state publicly to that young Algerian, and to him alone, personal explanations that I had previously kept to myself and that your correspondent accurately reported.
—Albert Camus10
8. “Stockholm Polemic,” Pléiade, 4:287–90.
9. Article from Le Monde, December 14, 1957.
10. In this article, Le Monde’s special correspondent in Stockholm, Dominique Birmann, reported some of what Camus said during a debate organized by Swedish students on December 12. It was during this session that Camus, in response to questions from an Algerian student about events then taking place in Algeria, uttered the sentence that (in somewhat distorted form) became famous: “People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother.” Afterward the questions and answers resumed in a lighter tone. But Camus’s statement was not passed on to posterity as it was spoken. Birmann ended his article with a paraphrase: “I believe in justice, but I will defend my mother before justice.” And of course this “paraphrase” was then widely repeated by various polemicists in yet another version: “Between justice and my mother, I choose my mother.”
Index
Abbas, Ferhat, 4, 92, 105, 107–110
Abbo region, poverty in, 47
Abi-Youcef, poverty in, 47–48
Action Français, 16, 187n
Adni: education in, 61; poverty in, 47
Aghrib region, education in, 62–63
Aguedal douar, education in, 61
Aït-Aïlem, education in, 61
Aït-Yahia, poverty in, 47–48
Akbils, poverty in, 47–48
Algeria: AC likens hurt felt in to pain in lungs, 3, 7n, 113; Arabic and French languages in, 10–11; federalism issues, 3, 35, 69, 107, 166, 180, 181–184, 206; French population and colonialism issues, 30–32, 34–35, 176, 180; political organization in, 66n
Algeria, AC on crisis in 1945: AC’s letter to Aziz Kessous, 113–116; “Conclusion,” 111–112; “Crisis in Algeria,” 89–92; “Famine in Algeria,” 93–96; “The Party of the Manifesto,” 107–110; “The Political Malaise,” 101–105; “Ships and Justice,” 97–99
Algerian Chronicles (Camus): AC’s preface to, 21–35; in context of Camus’s
