Mohamed el-Maadi

His paternal grandfather, Abdallah ben Messaoud El Maadi married Frenchwoman Marie Madeleine Thérèse Lacave. Muhammad El Maadi's two grandfathers were brothers—his father, lawyer Mahfoud El Maadi, married his first cousin, Melouka El Maadi. Mohamed El-Maadi thus, a French by birth, came from a Chaoui Berber and Muslim family that was well assimilated into French culture. Mohamed El-Maadi (alias: Mohamed SS) was, like the other Algerian nationalist Saïd Mohammedi, a member of the Gestapo, who actively collaborated with the Third Reich during the Vichy regime. Strongly imbued with the discourse of the Croix-de-Feu, military and an active militant of the French far-right, he encouraged Muslim anti-Semitism in French Algeria, and played a crucial role in the Constantine riots from 3 to 5 August 1934. In that event, Muslims killed twenty-five Jews (fourteen men, six women, and five children; fourteen of whom were beheaded). He temporarily left the army in 1936 to avoid serving the leftist government of Léon Blum. Re-enlisting during the 1940 campaign, he was awarded the Legion of Honor. After working with the Gestapo, El-Maadi finished the war with the rank of Captain within the Schutzstaffel SS. == Ideology ==

El-Maadi's political evolution was driven by a consistent set of political aspirations rooted in a strongly ideological vision of North African history. Six months after Algeria was occupied by the allies, El-Maadi authored a political manifesto entitled "L'Afrique du nord, terre d'histoire" in Paris. This publication, echoed the ideological stance he previously defended in Er Rachid. Within its pages, El-Maadi articulated his vision for a "Eurafrican" collaboration, envisaging a partnership between a fascist France and the indigenous "Arabo-Berber" communities of North Africa. Central to El-Maadi's narrative was his reinterpretation of Numidian chivalry of antiquity, Christian Donatism of Aures, and themes of medieval Islamic pride from Iberia. in 1942 the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism received 12,000 recruits, who were largely a mix of fascists, misfits and a number of North African immigrants who had been inspired by the anti-Communist rhetoric of El-Maadi. In 1943, Mohamed El-Maadi met Henri Lafont, head of the Parisian bureau of the Gestapo, with whom he founded the North African Brigade. {{Cite book == References ==