Genocide Crimes Forced Algerians to Change Their Means of Struggle

In anticipation of the 80th anniversary of the May 8, 1945 Massacres Day, the French Colonial and Postcolonial History Association has devoted an extensive file to the genocide committed against Algerians by the colonial armed forces and settler gangs following the end of World War II, while they were demanding that France grant them the rights it had promised them before the war.

The Anti-Colonisation Foundation commissioned a group of historians involved in French colonial affairs in Algeria, such as Alain Ruscio and Aissa Kadri, as well as excerpts from the research of historian and freedom fighter (Mujahid) Mohamed Harbi.

According to the file, “France, liberated from Nazi occupation, committed one of its worst collective colonial crimes in Algeria. While Nazi Germany celebrated its surrender, and under the pretext of rioting, its army and settler militias massacred thousands of Algerian civilians.”

The file stated that Algerians’ attempts to express their hopes for a change in their status as colonised people, despite their declarations during World War II, were in vain. It relied on historian Alain Ruscio to dwell on the events that occurred in the northern Constantine region in May and June 1945 and their human cost.

For historian Alain Ruscio, the term commonly used to describe the events of May 8, 1945, in northern Constantine (eastern Algeria) seems highly inappropriate. Perhaps for some French people. But for Algerian society as a whole, it was a true “shock.” The Sétif and Guelma massacres of 1945 were a colonial crime among many others, but their violence and the active participation of the European population left a lasting mark on the minds of people on the other side of the Mediterranean.

The massacre began on May 7th in Algeria, with the announcement of the Nazi surrender. The first incidents between Europeans and Muslims erupted in Setif (eastern Algeria). “In the same city, the planned protests began on the morning of May 8. A group of 7,000 to 8,000 Muslims was more visible than the few hundred French. Flags of the Algerian People’s Party were numerous, and banners bearing slogans such as “For the Liberation of the People” and “Long Live Free and Independent Algeria” were visible.

He added: “Police Commissioner Valère phoned the prefect, André Achiary, to inform him that the intervention was risky. The answer was, ‘Well, there will be a fight.” Valéry, assisted by Commissioner Lucien Olivieri, ordered the protesters to remove their flags and banners, but they refused. The shooting began, and it is still unknown who fired first. At 9:00 a.m., the young scout, Bouzid Saâl, fell.”

The number of Algerian victims varied. Some historians put the number at less than 45000, while others, according to an elected Muslim official, put it at 90,000. However, the figure ultimately settled at 45,000, compared to only 104 French, which qualified it as a genocide.

Historian Aissa Kadri concluded in his research that the events of May 8, 1945, shifted the Algerian people’s struggle from one stage to another. He focused on France’s loss of its Algerian supporters. He noted here that France rejected Ferhat Abbas’s reformist, or rather integrationist, demands. This position evolved, eventually leading to the dissolution of the demands of the independence movement, represented by the Algerian People’s Party (PPA), the primary nucleus of the liberation revolution, whose efforts led to independence.

These tragic events, on the one hand, and the French occupation authorities’ treatment of their perpetrators by granting them unjustified immunity, prompted Algerian revolutionary activists to reevaluate their dealings with colonial France, which had promised them but ultimately betrayed them, even disavowing them and committing crimes of genocide against them.

Accordingly, the historian Mohamed Harbi was quoted as saying: “The consequences of the earthquake are multiple (referring to the massacres of May 8, 1945). It now appears that the long-awaited settlement between the Algerian people and the European colony has become a mere wish.” Meanwhile, the falsehood of some of the French who nominally supported Algerian rights was exposed, referring here to the French Communist Party, which chose to side with the occupying army by demanding the execution of the leaders of the Algerian movement at the time.