The decree of the French Ministry of Culture, published in the Official Gazette, allows access to all “public archives created in the context of issues related to the events that occurred during the Algerian war between 1954 and 1962,” according to “AFP”.
This includes “documents related to cases brought before the courts and the implementation of court decisions” and “documents related to investigations conducted by judicial police departments.”
The documents include those “in the National Archives, the National Archives of Overseas Territories, the Prefectural Archives, the Archives of the Police Directorate, the Archives of the Ministry of Armies and in the Archives Department of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs,” according to the decree.
It was not allowed to view these documents for 75 years without permission.
Successive French governments over the past 20 years have facilitated access to archives relating to sensitive periods in the country’s history: World War II, the occupation and then the post-war end of the colonial empire.
President Emmanuel Macron promised to help historians unravel the mysterious aspects of the Algerian war, from the beginning of the revolution to gain independence in 1954 until independence in 1962.
On September 13, 2018, the latter admitted the responsibility of the French army for the disappearance of mathematician and communist activist Maurice Auden in Algeria in 1957, and promised his family to make a large part of the archive available.
On March 9, 2021, it was announced that access to the secret archive, which is over 50 years old, would be facilitated, which made it possible to shorten waiting times.
.