Continued French Denial Of Horrendous Colonial Crimes Does Not Benefit Bilateral Relations
French historian Jean-Michel Abati called on the French to revisit the truth of French colonial history in Algeria to understand the realities of the tragedies Paris caused Algerians, in his confrontation with MP Julien Odoul, the official spokesperson for the far-right “National Rally” party, known for defending French colonial crimes in Algeria.
Jean-Michel Abati told Julien Odoul on the set of the French television channel “LCI” on Sunday, June 28, 2025, that France committed many heinous massacres over 132 years of colonialism, and that the French are ignorant of the truth of their bloody history in Algeria. However, he cited only two massacres that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century.
The French historian addressed the far-right MP: “..There are many massacres. As you know, I always tell them, I have two very simple stories to tell, because if we had to form a joint committee, we in France know nothing about what we did in Algeria. In May 1945, after the liberation of France and the defeat of the Nazi regime.”
Jean-Michel Abati explained: “In May 1945, French settlers and soldiers burned people alive in Guelma, and a massacre occurred in Sétif and Kherrata in eastern Algeria. They burned thousands of Algerian bodies in hot ovens.” He addressed Julien Odoul, saying: “I don’t know if you realize the symbolism of this massacre. They killed many; the National Liberation Front killed about one hundred Europeans, and retaliatory actions caused the deaths of at least ten thousand Algerians. This is the approximate ratio.
In any case, we do not have the exact numbers for Algerians. But we have the exact numbers for Europeans, which is exactly 171. As for Algerians, we do not know.”
Last week, the right-wing MP from Marine Le Pen’s party, Cyril Trébouillani, accused his country’s authorities of neglecting the memory file and leaving it for Algeria to use to embarrass France. This came in the form of a written question addressed to Alix Revo, Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs in Sébastien Lecornu’s government, calling on her to “recognize the necessity” of the events of Oran that occurred on July 5, 1962, which coincides with the day of Algeria’s declaration of independence.
The historian also cited another massacre committed by the French occupation army in Algeria about a year after the outbreak of the liberation revolution, on August 23, 1955, in Philippeville (now Skikda), where the French army, along with European settlers, gathered between three and four thousand Algerians for three days in the city’s stadium (Skikda), before they were shot with machine guns in a brutal scene.
In Jean-Michel Abati’s opinion, resolving the lingering memory file between the two countries must come through France’s recognition of all the atrocities it committed in Algeria over 132 years of occupation. The historian wondered if the French side is still unwilling to bear its historical responsibilities, “Is there still French denial today? In other words, we are in 2026, and we tell ourselves that time has passed, but we talk about Iran, Trump, Russia, and Ukraine… and we ignore what we did in Algeria.”
The French historian stressed the need to overcome this dilemma and close the memory file: “I repeat and say, I am interested in looking at the whole truth, not just from the perspective of repentance (apology). French Algeria, dear to the identity of your party (Le Pen’s party dreaming of French Algeria), is a crime against a people. For 130 years. They invaded them, killed them, and burned them. How many liters of blood does it take to build a hospital?”
