Belkacem Radjef

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Belkacem Radjef in the 1950's

Belkacem Radjef (1909-1989) was born in Fort-National (today Larbaa Naït Iraten), Algeria and spent 32 years of his life in the fight to liberate Algeria from French colonialism. He joined the first movement for independence (L'Etoile Nord Africaine) in 1930. He became its Treasurer in 1933 and was one of its president's, Messali Hadj, two principal lieutenants and advisors during the 1930's.

He was voted onto the thirty member central committee of L'Etoile Nord Africaine (ENA) and remained in this position through both subsequent renamings of this organization: the Parti du Peuple Algerien in 1937 and Le Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques in 1946. The start of the War of Independence on November 1st, 1954 marked the merger of the military, religious, and political associations into Le Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). Radjef became a permanent member of the central committee of this organization in 1956 and remained so until the Algerian Independence in 1962.

He then joined the new Algerian government as a special attaché to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs (Bachir Boumaza). At the same time he founded Le Secours National Algerien, whose mission was to lodge, feed, and educate the neglected shoe-shine youth of the colonial era. Radjef retired in 1978.

Personal Life: Radjef had three children with his wife, Reine Bulot: Tarek, Yamina, and Patrick (né Amar).

References

• Cauchois, Elisabeth. MEMOIRE DE MAITRISE: BELKACEM RADJEF, (1909.1989). Université de Paris 7: October 1996.

• L'Histoire du Peuple Algerien