The Harkis, the Algerians who sided with France and/or served as auxiliaries in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), offer a prime example of a community in limbo. As margins are sometimes used to define "the center", the Algerian government used the Harkis to create the "imagined Algerian community" and solidify its national identity, by violently banishing members of this group as "traitors", figuratively and practically. At the same time, the Harkis faced marginalization, abuse, discrimination, neglect, and oblivion in France, where many of them found refuge after the war. They remained generally silent about their past, but a certain group among their children and grandchildren launched a kind of 'collective memory work' during the 1990s in France. Much of the scholarship about the Harkis focuses on this memory work, which it generally describes as striving to create a Harki identity within the larger French national identity, and find a place of honor for the community in French society. Using Harki associations' websites, Algerian media outlets, and other carriers of collective memory (memoirs, films, exhibitions, colloquia), this study will compare the strong voice of "second generation Harkis" in France, who work to create their collective memory and identity, with the silence of Harkis in Algeria. I will trace how the Algerian state built the image of the Harki to serve its nationalist narrative, how and why these attitudes changed during the past two decades, and why a rehabilitation of this image, let alone the creation of a distinct community, did not materialize in Algeria. In contrast, I will show how the memory work of the community in France includes and excludes "potential members" of the community, and how their efforts are connected to changing social conditions and political interests in France, as well as to a larger memory work concerning the Algerian War that has gained rapid momentum in France since the 1990s. Finally, I will address certain issues in collective memory studies, suggesting that a collective identity of a marginalized, "other" group could be created only by an extensive memory work that taps into, or allowed to operate by, the hegemonic narrative.