Remains of the St Eugène Cemetery

Robert Fisk wrote "Tombs that bear witness to Algeria's Jewish tragedy" in the Independent yesterday (22 Jan 2011). His insightful take on a visit to the Saint Eugène cemetery in Algeria is reminiscent of numerous other returns that are pictured and depicted in the works of Marie Cardinal (Les Pieds-Noirs and Au pays de mes racines) and Hélène Cixous (Si près), as well as in other visual and literary by Algerian-born authors. The site is an icon for the now absent former Algerian citizens.


Return voyages almost always include emotional visits to cemeteries, representative of lost lives, ancestries, absent and untransportable genealogies, neglected and often destroyed. The now treacherous access to St Eugène seems to only reaffirm that murky access to the past.