Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

As previously mentioned many Algerians were taken to internment camps to await interrogation
and to be separated from the rest of the city‘s population. During the ten month span of the battle
Algerian police records show that about 24,000 people were taken from the city and placed in various
camps. 12 The main camp was at Beni-Messous, with various others spread throughout the area around
Algiers. The man in charge of the main camp was Ceccaldi-Raynaud and by his account in one day 1,000
people were brought to the camp in the span of a few hours and there was only enough room left for
300. 13 This led to massive overcrowding which would have made the conditions in the camps highly
unsanitary and dangerous to those who were forced to live in them. There are no records to show how
many people died just from living in the camps or the torture they received in the camps, but from records
kept by Secretary General of the Police, Paul Teitgen, it is know that of the 24,000 arrested and interred
as many as 4,000 simply disappeared. 14 Many people that disappeared were known to have been killed by
having their feet set in cement and then being thrown out of helicopters and planes into the ocean. Those
who were killed or had their bodies disposed of this way were later known as Bigeard‘s shrimp after
Colonel Bigeard who ordered it done. 15
Throughout the war and specifically during the Battle of Algiers, many high ranking members of
the French military resigned because of the use of torture. Included in those who resigned were head of
Algerian police Teitgen and Ceccaldi-Raynoud. 16 In Teitgen‘s letter of resignation he clearly stated how
he and many others felt:
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
I‘ve been convinced for three months now that acting anonymously and without
responsibility can only lead to war crimes…I wouldn‘t dare make such a statement were
it not for a recent visit to the Paul-Cazelles and Beni-Messous camps, where I recognized,
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