Torture In Ww1 Research Paper

Violence, most notably took the form of torture during the Algerian war. Due to the immense violence of the war, it was difficult to come to terms even decades after. Torture took many forms of pain, humiliation and shaming of the Algerians in order to gain information. The information that was at stake helped the French to bring down the hierarchy of the FLN. Although torture helped the French win battles, in the end it might of cost them the war by bringing more Algerians to the FLN’s side. The war might have ended differently if torture was not a factor and the FLN might have remained a small faction. Through the incredible violence and trauma that the Algerian War caused, with the use of torture, it took many years for any involved to come …show more content…
As Alleg was brought to a room for torture and told to take his clothes off troops were coming and going watching him undress. Then after he was undressed one of the troops “laid on the ground a black plank, sweating with humidity, polluted and sticky with vomit left, no doubt, by previous ‘customers’.” By having to remove his clothes in front of other men coming and going, and being forced to lay on a plank covered with vomit by someone else it added to the humiliation that he had to go though in order for the French to get the information they wanted. In addition, to the humiliation that he went through troops stood around him while he was tied to the board and said things like: “Why don’t your friends come and rescue you?” and ”its better not to lose time with trash like that”. The extent that the troops attempted to humiliate those captured was meant to break down the will of the prisoners in order to talk faster. The shaming and humiliation took on many different forms just like with the pain of torture. With torture, there is physical pain and then shaming and humiliation to the person as well; with humiliation, it can be physical with like undressing in front of others or mental by making fun of the person. The torturers acted kind at points then when that did not work, they had to start the torture sessions and the …show more content…
Having to relive the pain and humiliation that torture brought upon him was difficult, he would not of been able to think about the trauma that he went through unless he knew that it would help others. By talking about the trauma that had happened it might help others that want to talk about what they went through but did not have the support to bring it up or it could help prevent the torture from ever happening again. The most powerful thing that Alleg states is that “the Algerians do not confuse their tortures with the great people of France”. Since Alleg is French, he is trying to express to the Algerians that not all of the French people feel this way and there are a great deal that support the Algerian Independence. Torture destroyed so many people’s lives in Algeria that they could not bring themselves to talk about. However, with Alleg, since he was French they most likely went easier on him because of this. Alleg was able to talk about his accounts because he knew that in some way it could help others going