Harkis in Eastern France: History and Ongoing Memory

The 1962 Evian Accords ended the Algerian War, but left about 250,000 Algerian Muslims who had fought alongside the French army—known as Harkis—in a precarious situation. Many were abandoned, imprisoned, or tortured, and were placed in internment camps across France, including sites such as Bias (Lot‑et‑Garonne), Saint‑Maurice‑l’Ardoise (Gard) and Rivesaltes (Pyrénées‑Orientales). Between 1962 and 1965 an estimated 90,000 Harkis, women and children, managed to reach France; more than 10 % settled in the eastern regions, especially Lorraine, the Vosges and the industrial valleys of northern Lorraine, attracted by labor demand. Over the decades they endured poor living conditions and marginalisation, and few survivors remain today. Their widows, children and grandchildren now form a community of several tens of thousands that keeps the memory of this difficult chapter alive.