As soon as she approaches the field, at the sight of the stuffed animals and the flowers which now litter the ground, she cannot hold back her tears. It is here, on this plot surrounded by vines, that, on March 20, 2023, a search operation carried out by Inrap (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) revealed the existence of a cemetery with 27 baby graves. and young harkis children in the Gard. Abandoned in the middle of a military field, this cemetery was able to be found thanks to the tenacity of Nadia Ghouafria.
Daughter of harkis, these French Muslims recruited by the French army during the Algerian war (1954-1962), Nadia Ghouafria, a 52-year-old native of Nîmes, reception officer in a school, has been mobilizing for ten years to retrace her family history and, more broadly, those of the families of these veterans. She knows that her parents, who arrived in Marseilles on November 28, 1962, spent two hundred and twenty days in the Saint-Maurice-l’Ardoise transit camp, where at least 6,000 harkis lived (from 1962 to 1965). In this part of the Gard which borders the Rhône, hundreds of families have been parked in tents, in deplorable conditions. La Gardoise has found photos that show land surrounded by barbed wire, children suffering from malnutrition and scantily dressed in winter landscapes…
With the Aracan association (Association of repatriated veterans of North Africa), she conducts, from 2015 to 2016, research in the departmental archives of Gard, without obtaining convincing elements. But she persevered and discovered in 2017 the existence of a register dedicated to the Slate camp. The one where his family lived. “This document was prohibited for consultation, so I applied for an exemption, without really believing it. » Two years later, the Nîmes receives a positive response.
“The Graveyard of Shame”
Fatima, Moura, Saïd, Jeannette… On August 21, 2019, Nadia Ghouafria holds in her hands “the provisional burial register of the Ardoise military camp 1962-1964”, where 71 names follow one another, including 61 first names of children who died between 1 month and 2 years old or who were stillborn. Each has a number. “That of their burial”, says Nadia Ghouafria. She also finds a report whose conclusion challenges her: “It is written there that the affair should not be spread or brought to the attention of the former harkis”, reports the woman, who is still shaking: “There, I understood that it was a cemetery of shame. I made it my fight. »
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