Resistance Fighter Jose Alboulker

 

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José Aboulker was born into a heavily intellectual family and raised in French Algiers in the 1920s and 30s. His mother was an accomplished writer and his father was a surgeon and professor of medicine.

Aboulker established a resistance network in Algiers. Through his alliance with Roger Carcassonne, who had completed identical work in Oran, Aboulker lead the resistance movement within Nazi-backed Vichy Algeria. On October 23, 1942 in Vichy Morocco, he, along with other resistance leaders, met with US General Mark Clark. The Americans agreed to supply weapons and radios for communication and Aboulker presided over the resistance’s occupation of Algiers on November 7th, as the Allies landed in North Africa.

They seized the central police station and Aboulker and his team were successful in halting Vichy military officials. The existence of resistance forces in the region, coupled with the recent presence of Allies forces, proved too much for the Vichy Government. The Allies and resistance factions were successful in neutralizing all relevant regions previously under Vichy control.

This prevented the Vichy government from attacking the central police station. This Allied-Resistance collaboration, coupled with Alboulker’s order for his fellow leaders to evacuate their positions and replace their presence with barricades in an effort to halt enemy progress, stirred confusion amongst Vichy forces and allowed the Allies to form a circle around Algiers, trapping the Vichy government.

In May of 1943, Aboulker went to London where he joined the Free French movement. He later joined the French Communist Party and resumed his medical studies after the war. Albouker’s insistence on preserving French blood at all costs made him a formative peacemaker amidst a time of brutal global bloodshed.