At an early stage in the revolution it became a customary initiation ritual for a new recruit to be made to kill a designated “traitor”, mouchard (police spy or informer), French gendarme officer or colonialist, in the company of a “shadow” who would dispatch the recruit himself should he show any sign of flinching. Admitting this policy in an interview in a Yugoslav journal, Krim stated: “An assassination marks the end of the apprenticeship of each candidate for the A.L.N.” Through this “passingout ceremony” the apprentice became both proven in reliability and bound, Faust-like, to the rebel cause by his act of outlawry.

XREF: Connects to broader studies of initiation rituals and how coercive commitment mechanisms bind members to groups — echoes themes in literature on cults, gangs, and resistance movements.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 416