Unveiling the Unheard Story: A Memoir of Harkis’ Experiences

How did you come up with this book idea?

This is following the documentary film (Editor’s note “Souvenir de harkis de Breil-sur-Roya”, produced at the initiative of the town hall and presented for the first time on September 25, 2023). It struck me, I couldn’t explain it but I told myself that I had to tell his story.

How did you present this to Aldjia?

Well quite simply, the day after the screening I went to her house and asked her if I could write her story. I told him right away that I had never written anything and that I didn’t know if I was going to succeed but that we could try.

Is the idea of ​​writing new to you?

No, to tell the truth, I already thought about it, I had ideas but I never had anything click.

How did the realization of this project go?

I went to see Aldjia every week for 9 months, that’s around 30 recordings of an hour / an hour and fifteen minutes. At the beginning, I started writing, I saw that I was succeeding but I didn’t know what it was worth so I gave it to a first friend then a little later to a second who made me feel better. ‘quite a good return.

Once finished, I sent my book to five or six publishers and I received two positive responses for publication on behalf of a publisher!

Why a first book on the harkis, did you know this story well?

A little, of course, a minimum. But I didn’t know the details of what happened in the transit camps. These are things that we don’t learn at school, yet we were raised together, it’s also our history.

Did you grow up with Harkis’ children?

Yes. At the beginning, they were forced to go to school among themselves, I was one of the first children who went to school with the harkis’ children. I did all my schooling with them in my class. I had always known the camp, I started working with the harkis I had grown up with. As I like to say it’s our local history.

Have a comment to make to us about your book?

This book is organized in three parts, the first on his childhood in Algeria, the second on his adolescence after independence then his exodus to France and his life in the transit camp and the forestry hamlets.

Aldjia Boucharif now has the floor.

How was the transmission of your story?

Xaviere came to my house, she asked me questions and I answered her. There were things she already knew about me, when we worked together at the hospital, and also when she was a private nurse and she came to the house for my husband. But over time, it’s as if she came inside me, she understood everything I wanted to say without me having to finish explaining.

How did you experience the fact that people wanted to write your story?

It made me very happy and I thought about it sometimes. I told myself everything my mother suffered, what we suffered… we are going to leave and no one will know what we went through. Xaviere is like an angel to me, it’s as if someone had sent her to me.

Is your story more special than the others?

Everyone suffered differently. My story is special because my mother was an orphan, we have no family on her side. But everyone has something different to tell, even if we were together [les harkis, NDLR] It’s everyone’s own story.

The story traces your entire life?

This is the story of when I was 5 years old until I was 17 when I arrived in France. And then until I was 25 when I had my last child.

And what do you think of the book?

That tells it all and I’m relieved the story is written. I tell myself that when I am no longer here, the story of my parents and me will not have died with us.

Xaviere Olharan’s book can be ordered in all bookstores. In the Roya valley, it is possible to contact the author directly by email (xaviere1967@gmail.com), by private message on Facebook (Xaviere Olharan) or on Instagram (xaviere.olharan). It is also possible to obtain it online on the éditions histoire website (vosrecits.com)