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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A generation after it ended, the Algerian war (1954-62) has produced a substantial body of writing, some of it polemical, some of itjournalistic, much of it sober and reflective.1 The present work explores the responses to the war by members of the French Protestant community on both sides of the Mediterranean. Research for this study was based in part on an examination of the existing literature, including primary sources such as newspapers, parliamentary records andmemoirs. Much additional information was gleaned from conversations aswell as correspondence with individual Protestants who had been actively engaged in the conflict. Many of these men and women opposed the war and the government which sanctioned it as well as the military men who directed it. Some of them openly supported those working for the liberation of Algeria from French control. A few championed the cause of French Algeria till the end. The writer is in great debt to those Protestants on both sides of the conflict who agreed to discuss their role in the Algerian drama. Their hospitality, their courtesy and patience in responding to an outsider's battery of questions about what was always a painful experience and at times had all the grim tension of an undeclared civil war, and their candour in revealing what had often been kept private for thirty-odd years, are deeply appreciated. Whatever the intrinsic merits of the text that follows, it is surely enriched by their testimony. Professor Andre Encreve, a leading authority on modern French history, offered invaluable counsel early on in this research project, providing a helpful list of persons to contact and warning against a number of pitfalls which the writer hopes to have avoided. Pastor Michel Leplay, editor of the Protestant weekly Reforme, suggested a series of highly productive leads and, with the utmost tact, expressed reservations about a number of the author's original assumptions. Mme Cane and her colleagues at the Centre Protestant d'Etudes et de Documentation extended a generous welcome and unearthed a treasure of unprinted and printed material. Frederic Cepede of the Office Universitaire de Recherche Socialiste introduced the writer to the rich resources of the Office's library and pointed to critical materials dealing with the internal battles over Algeria within Socialist ranks. Michel Rocard gave generous access to unpublished texts which he had produced during these intra-party debates. Mile Madeleine Barot, co-founder of the Comite Inter-Mouvements d'Entraide aupres des Deportes et Refugies responded generously to a Canadian professor's interest in exploring the role played by CIMADE during the war and opened doors which would otherwise have remained closed. xix xx The Call of Conscience Fortunately for the writer, Andre Lemiere was putting his archivist's skills to work onthe immense documentaryresources of CIMADEjust asthis research was getting under way. His generosity in undertaking a preliminary editing of papers dealing with Algeria helped sharpen the focus of this study. Pastor Jacques Beaumont, secretary-general of CIMADE during the Algerian crisis, now living in New York, agreed to two lengthy interviews during which he responded to a variety of questions with patience and good humour while offering a reflective vision of the work of the Protestant relief organization. Jean Carbonare, oneofBeaumont'skeylieutenants duringthe war, was all too modest in discussing his work for peace and reconciliation and his efforts to maintain a personal link with the new Algeria after the war. Mile Mireille Desrez talked with passionate enthusiasm about her struggle as a CIMADE team-worker to improve the physical and psychological conditions of Muslim women and children whose lives were violently disrupted by the war. Professor Bernard Picinbono of the Universityof Paris-Orsay, scion of a prominent settler family, recounted his conversion from support for the European minority to the espousal of peace and economic development in an independent Algeria. Professor Bernard Roussel of the Sorbonne recalled the extraordinarily difficult responsibilities he assumed as a young Reformed pastor in Algeria during the last years of the war. Doctors Patrick and Monique Schlotterer, who lived out much oftheir youth in Algeria in the midst of the conflict, talked with a mixture of nostalgia and bitterness about lost opportunities for French-Algerian and Muslim-Christian amity. Maurice Causse, an uncompromising champion of open dialogue between Protestants and Muslims, agreed to enter into what became (for the writer at least) a richly rewarding correspondence, followed by lengthy conversations in France about his experience as a Christian activist during the Battle of Algiers...

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