José Aboulker

José Aboulker (5 March 1920 – 17 November 2009) was a French Algerian Jew and leading figure in French Algeria of the anti-Nazi resistance in World War II. After the war, he became a neurosurgeon and a political figure in France, who argued for the political rights of Algerian Muslims.

He was born in Algiers, capital of Algeria into a Jewish family. His mother, Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker, was a celebrated poet and playwright. His father, Henri Aboulker, was a surgeon and professor in the Faculty of Medicine in Algiers.

The Benichou family was one of the great Jewish families of Oran, where they owned a famous villa, equipped with its own synagogue.

The Aboulker family of Algiers originated in Spain and, over the centuries, has included numerous scholars, rabbis, merchants and physicians.

A medical student at the outbreak of World War II, Aboulker was mobilized in April 1940 as an officer cadet. He was demobilized in February 1941.

In September 1940, Aboulker founded a resistance network in Algiers, in partnership with his cousin Roger Carcassonne who had done the same at Oran, and Aboulker subsequently became one of the main leaders of the resistance movement in pro-Nazi Vichy Algeria. The two cousins met Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie, with whom they prepared to support the expected Allied landings in North Africa, in collaboration with Colonel Germain Jousse and the U.S. Consul Robert Murphy, President Roosevelt's representative in Algiers. The headquarters for the preparation were at his father's house at 26 Rue Michelet.

On 23 October 1942, Aboulker was among the resistance leaders who met with General Mark Clark in Vichy Morocco. The Americans agreed to supply weapons and radios, which were landed on 5 November. On the night of the Allied landings in North Africa, 8 November 1942, Aboulker led the occupation of the main strategic points in Algiers by 400 members of the Resistance, seizing the central police station, with his deputy Bernard Karsenty and the help of Guy Calvet and Superintendent Achiary.

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