General Jacques Massu

Biography

Jacques Massu was born on May 5, 1908, in Dhron, Germany, into a French military family. He was educated at Saint-Cyr military academy and spent the interwar years in colonial service in Africa. When World War II began he joined de Gaulle's Free French Forces and fought with distinction in the 2nd Armored Division under General Leclerc, participating in the liberation of Paris in 1944. His military record made him one of France's most decorated and respected officers. By 1956, Massu commanded the elite 10th Parachute Division, hardened veterans of Indochina who had experienced the humiliation of France's defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. In January 1957, the civilian government of Algiers, paralyzed by FLN bombings, handed police powers to Massu's division. Massu conducted what would become the most controversial French military operation of the 20th century. His paratroopers used a system of mass arrests, interrogation under torture (including electric shock via the 'gégène,' waterboarding, and suspension by ropes), and targeted killings to systematically destroy the FLN's organizational structure in Algiers over ten months. Massu succeeded militarily: by the end of 1957, the FLN urban network in Algiers was dismantled, the bombings stopped, and thousands of fighters were dead or imprisoned. But the methods used became an international scandal, fueled by the testimonies of torture survivors, the anguished public resignation of police commissioner Paul Teitgen, and the courageous reporting of French journalists and intellectuals including Henri Alleg, whose account of his own torture, 'La Question,' became a bestseller despite being banned. Massu himself never expressed significant remorse, though shortly before his death he admitted the torture 'served no purpose' strategically. He died in 2002 at the age of 94.

Key Battles