Les oranges amères de Blida

Through my story, it is the story of many of my fellow combatants, both civilian and military, who in the shadows tried to save French Algeria.

Some lost their lives, others went to prison, and others, lucky ones, made it through everything.

It is to all of them that I wish to pay tribute.

"Until now, I have never managed to tell this story to the end, because the emotion catches in my throat.

And now everything rises up before me again: the war, the betrayals, the permanent insecurity, the risk of being kidnapped, of being arrested, and all this atmosphere of general disarray, piles of trash burning on the sidewalks, a city that is dying, planes and boats arriving in trickles, friends who died, those who were kidnapped... How can one forgive?..."

Starting in October 1960, Air Force non-commissioned officer Henri Mazzarino organized the resistance in Blida. A few months later, Mazza joined the OAS with his group. In October 1961, he deserted and went underground. Blida would be the "only city where the OAS took on a representative character" (Pierre Montagnon, La Guerre d’Algérie).

In this book, he describes his journey between 1958 and 1964, a journey that was very dangerous, sometimes dramatic, and often moving.

France-Algeria Collection 32

New, revised and corrected edition from 2014!