Camus at "Combat": Writing 1944-1947 by Albert Camus, Jacqueline
Levi-Valensi, David Carroll, and Arthur Goldhammer (Hardcover - Dec
27, 2005)
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s8020.html
>From Chapter 1
COMBAT UNDERGROUND: MARCH-JULY 1944
Articles that appeared in clandestine issues of Combat can at best be classified as "probably" by Camus, and it is not out of the question that he wrote others. For obvious reasons, he kept no record of what he wrote, and no firm conclusions can be drawn from either the themes or the style of what was published, since everything that appeared in the paper constituted an act of resistance and reflected goals shared by everyone who wrote for it.
Combat, Underground No. 55, March 1944
Against Total War, Total Resistance1
Lying is never without purpose. Even the most impudent lie, if repeated often enough and long enough, always leaves a trace. German propaganda subscribes to this principle, and today we have another example of its application. Inspired by Goebbels's minions,2 cheered on by the lackey press, and staged by the Milice,3 a formidable campaign has just been launched--a campaign which seeks, in the guise of an attack on the patriots of the underground and the Resistance, to divide the French once again. This is what they are saying to Frenchmen: "We are killing and destroying bandits who would kill you if we weren't there. You have nothing in common with them."
Although this lie, reprinted a million times, retains a certain power, stating the truth is enough to repel the falsehood. And here is the truth: it is that the French have everything in common with those whom they are today being taught to fear and despise. There is one France, not two: not one that is fighting and another that stands above the battle in judgment. For even if there are those who would prefer to remain in the comfortable position of judges, that is not possible. You cannot say, "This doesn't concern me." Because it does concern you. The truth is that Germany has today not only unleashed an offensive against the best and proudest of our compatriots, but it is also continuing its total war against all of France, which is exposed in its totality to Germany's blows.
Don't say, "This doesn't concern me. I live in the country, and the end of the war will find me just as I was at the beginning of the tragedy, living in peace." Because it does concern you. Take note. On January 29, in Malleval in the Isère, a whole village was burned by the Germans on the mere suspicion that compulsory labor service holdouts4 might have taken refuge there. Twelve houses were completely destroyed, eleven bodies discovered, fifteen men arrested. On December 18 at Chaveroche in Corrèze, five kilometers from Ussel, where a German officer was wounded in murky circumstances, five hostages were shot and two farms put to the torch. On February 4 in Grole, in the Ain, Germans, after failing to find the holdouts they were searching for, shot the mayor and two leading citizens.
These dead Frenchmen were people who might have said, "This doesn't concern me." But the Germans decided that it did concern them, and on that day they demonstrated that it concerned all of us. Don't say, "This doesn't concern me. I'm at home with my family, I listen to the radio every night, and I read my newspaper." Because they'll come after you on the pretext that somebody at the other end of France refused to go. They'll take your son, who also said it was no concern of his, and they'll mobilize your wife, who until now thought the whole business was for men only. In reality, it does concern you, and it concerns all of us. Because all the French are today bound together so tightly by the enemy that one person's act inspires all the others and one person's inattention or indifference can cost ten others their lives.
Don't say, "I sympathize, that's quite enough, and the rest is no concern of mine." Because you will be killed, deported, or tortured as a sympathizer just as easily as if you were a militant. Act: your risk will be no greater, and you will at least share in the peace at heart that the best of us take with them into the prisons.
That way France won't be divided. The enemy's effort is in fact intended to encourage Frenchmen to hesitate to do their national duty to resist the S.T.O.5 and support the underground. It would succeed but for the fact that the truth stands in its way. And the truth is that the combined efforts of the assassins of the Milice and the killers of the Gestapo6 have yielded risible results. Hundreds of thousands of holdouts are still holding out, fighting, and hoping. A few arrests won't change that. And that is what the 125,000 young men whom the enemy plans to deport every month must understand. For all of them are in the enemy's sights, and the '44 and '45 drafts to which the enemy refers with admirable candor as "a labor reserve" stand for France itself, which in Germany's hate-filled eyes stands united.
Total war has been unleashed, and it calls for total resistance. You must resist because it does concern you, and there is only one France, not two. And the incidents of sabotage, the strikes, the demonstrations that have been organized throughout France are the only ways of responding to this war. That is what we expect from you. Action in the cities to respond to the attacks in the countryside. Action in the factories. Action on the enemy's lines of communication. Action against the Milice: every militiaman is a possible murderer.
There is only one fight, and if you don't join it, your enemy will nevertheless supply you with daily proof that that fight is yours. Take your place in it, because if the fate of everyone you like and respect concerns you, then once again, rest assured, this fight does concern you. Just tell yourself that together we will bring to it the great strength of the oppressed, namely, solidarity in suffering. That is the force that will ultimately kill the lie, and our common hope is that when that day comes, it will retain enough momentum to inspire a new truth and a new France.
COMBAT
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ChainofFlowers/rockfolk0703.html "Rock and Folk" article : Robert Smith and his books RF : Then you studied French at Crawley college, where you discover authors who will leave their mark on The Cure, like Camus whom "The stranger" directly influence your first single "Killing an Arab".
RS : The theme of the absurd has always fascinated me, that ironically joined all those idiocies that have been said about this track. We never gave up to have to justify ourselves, and today it continues, with War in Iraq or the Middle East conflict. At the beginning in the UK, I used to sing "Killing an Englishman", the British press didn't understand. During concerts in the US after the first Gulf War, it was "Killing an American" : the American press just massacred us. If I knew it before, I would have called it "Standing on the beach", it would have avoided many troubles.
http://www.thecure.com/community/discography_comment.asp?assetid=1091251&artistid=491
>...Killing an Arab - Personnal Review
10/22/2005 2:32:48 AM - by bobthelord
Killing an Arab is the most controverse track of the long life story of the Cure. Used in 1986 by some extravagant Dj's as a racist hymn, Robert has recently said (Tout le monde en Parle - 2003), that if he had to change one thing in his carreer, it would be the title (inspired, as everyone knows, by the novel of Camus = L'Etranger). On the last summer tour (2005), he even changed the name into Kissing an Arab. As Robert said in 1986, the Arab could habe been changed into Killing an Englishman. This track was previously released under the "Small Wonder" Label. If you find it in Campden Town under the Small Wonder Label, buy it, its worth money.