On May 8, 1945, the day of the Allied victory over nazism, violent riots broke out in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata, 3 cities in East Algeria.
The demonstrators are Algerians, some of whom fought in France, Germany, Italy, Africa & Middle East in the French troops who helped to bring down nazism and fascism. They wanted to take advantage of the victory of the Allied Forces to obtain independence. Unthinkable for the French political class, right and left combined, which does not conceive of getting rid of Algeria.
When the victory of democracy over nazi barbarism seemed imminent, some Nationalist and Muslims in Algeria hoped that the right of peoples to self-determination would finally be implemented.
Among them Messali Hadj, leader of the PPA (Algerian People's Party), banned since 1939. But he was thrown into prison by the French authorities and 20,000 of his supporters marched on May 1, 1945 in Algiers in his favor.
And, on the morning of 8 May, 1945 a new demonstration occurred in Sétif with cries of "Independence, free Messali". PPA activists are instructed not to bear arms or fly the Algerian flag, but a Muslim scout ignores this and raises the flag in the heart of European neighbourhoods.
This young scout, Bouzid Saâl aged 26, was shot dead by the police.
And it was from this that the events took a dramatic and wild turn. Even in other regions and cities like Guelma.
The repression of the French police and French army has been extremely brutal, ferocious and criminal. Aviation itself was required to bomb insurgent areas. Even the Marine, where on May 10 and 11, the Duguay-Trouin cruiser shot on 10 occasions in the cape Aokas area (East Coast of Algeria).
Officially, the French authorities estimate that this tragedy has caused a hundred (103) deaths among French people of European origin.
But regarding the Algerian dead, the French are quite silent and evasive.
French historians Jean-Louis Planche and Gilbert Meynier speak of 25,000 to 30,000 deaths among the Algerian civilian population.
And for the Algerian authorities, they estimate that this tragedy has caused more than 40,000 deaths.
No matter the numbers, it was a massacre, a genocide.
This tragedy, these mass killings, went unnoticed by world opinion, which had its head elsewhere because of the capitulation of Nazi Germany on the same day.
Yes, on May 8, 1945, the day of the victory against nazi barbarism, in Algeria it was this :
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if the oppressed had value as to be sold to the americas they would not have been killed
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