The Silences of the Police. July 16, 1942 - October 17, 1961

The Knocking Spirit, Paris, 2001, 95 pages - ISBN 978-2844051738

A two-part work that establishes a chilling parallel between two state crimes perpetrated by the French police: the Vél d'Hiv roundup of July 16, 1942, and the massacre of Algerians on October 17, 1961.

Einaudi and Rajsfus, both specialists in these tragedies, examine the mechanisms of state violence, the strategies of concealment and the complicit silences of the police institution.

The authors demonstrate how, nineteen years apart, the Paris police were guilty of crimes against humanity in blind obedience to orders.

The book analyzes the similarities in methods: mass arrests, extreme violence, official denial, and disinformation. The two historians question collective responsibility, national memory, and the deliberate concealment of these dark pages.

This short but powerful book constitutes an essential reflection on the capacity of democracies to commit the unspeakable and on the necessity of the duty of remembrance to avoid the repetition of such crimes.