Sétif and Guelma massacre began - May 8, 1945

On this day in 1945, the massacre of Algerian civilians by French authorities and European Algerians began in retaliation for anti-colonial demonstrations.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi, I'm Eves and Welcome to This Day
in History Class, a show that uncovers a little bit
more about history every day. Today is May eighth, nineteen.

(00:24):
The day was May eighth, nineteen. France was celebrating v
E Day or Victory in Europe Day, the day that
the World War two allies formally accepted Nazi Germany's surrender.
At the time, Algeria was a part of France and
was known as French Algeria. During the war, many Algerians

(00:46):
served with the French army, but unrest had been brewing
in Algeria for months. The French responded to anti French
and anti colonial sentiment with political, economic, and cultural pressures.
This inten culminated on May eighth, nineteen forty five with
an independence march in Satife that turned into a massacre

(01:07):
of Algerian people by the French army. At the time,
the massacre was described as troubles in North Constantine, but
thousands of Algerian people were killed during the weeks long
period that the violence persisted. Before World War Two, nationalists
had begun organizing around mess Ei Hajj and fair. Hot

(01:27):
A bos Hajj was an Algerian nationalist who founded the
Algerian People's Party or p p A, a nationalist organization
and a boss created a manifesto that called for Muslims
equal rights in Algeria, as well as an Algerian constitution
and autonomous state federated with France. A Boss organized the

(01:49):
Friends of the Manifesto and of Liberty or a m
L in the nineteen forties to publicize the manifesto. Dissatisfaction
with the colonial regime, now ftionalism and a desire for
independence grew in Algeria. At the beginning of the Second
World War. The Germans occupied Algeria for a short time,
but Algerians fought in the war on the French side,

(02:11):
anticipating independence when the war was over. But as the
French Fourth Republic was gearing up, members of the band
p p A and the closely monitored a m L
planned anti colonial demonstrations. In the weeks leading up to
the massacre, protests with thousands of people had taken place
in cities around Algeria like Mustagnum. On May eighth, nineteen

(02:34):
forty five, somewhere around four thousand or five thousand protesters
marched and Satife, a town in northern Algeria, to demand
independence from the French administration. But around nine fifteen in
the morning, the demonstration and Satife turned into a riot
when the police tried to seize the Algerian flags, which

(02:55):
were banned at the time, and nationalist signs that the
protesters were holding. It's not clear who fired the first shot,
but demonstrators and police were killed. Algerian Muslims killed, French civilians.
French commander General Duval ordered troops to fire on the crowds,
which were mostly unarmed solid boosted. A boy who carried

(03:17):
the Algerian flag was among the first people to be
shot and killed, and he became a martyr in the movement.
Violence spread to surrounding areas. That afternoon. In Guelma, a
nearby town, people from the p p A carried out
a peaceful demonstration waiving the Algerian flag. One demonstrator was
killed and no French people died that day, but violence escalated.

(03:41):
Twelve pie Noirs are Europeans who lived in Algeria during
French rule, were killed over the next couple of days.
In Guelma, European civilians and authorities killed up to two
thousand Algerians in the area around Gelma. In the weeks
after May eighth, the air force dropped bombs over a
tief Gilma and nearby villages. Martial law was declared in Satif.

(04:05):
Algerian Muslims were forbidden to leave their houses without an
arm band indicating that they were going to work, and
those without armed bands were killed. The Foreign Legion and
Synecalese soldiers pillaged, burned down houses and raped people. The
French army carried out summary executions of Algerian Muslims in
rural areas and lynched people suspected of participating in the riots.

(04:29):
The massacres continued throughout May and until late June. The
exact number of people killed in the massacre is unknown.
The number the French gave shortly after the massacre was
one thousand and twenty Algerian deaths, while Radio Cairo claimed
forty five thousand people were killed. Others have estimated that
the real death toll is anywhere between six thousand and

(04:51):
twenty thousand people. One hundred and two French cologns or
colonists were killed in attacks following the riots. But the
official death toll of Algerians remains contentious. Nine years after
the massacre, on November one, nineteen fifty four, the Algerian
War of Independence began when the Algerian National Liberation Front

(05:13):
launched armed revolts throughout the country and called for a
sovereign Algerian state. By nineteen sixty two, Algeria had achieved
independence from France. May eighth is now an official day
of morning in Algeria. In February of two thousand five, Francis,
ambassador to Algeria, formally apologized for the massacre, saying that

(05:34):
it was a quote inexcusable tragedy. I'm Eves Defco and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
you did yesterday. If you feel like correcting my pronunciation
or my accent on anything that I've said in the show,
feel free to leave a very kind comment on Twitter,
Instagram or Facebook. At t d I h C podcast,

(05:59):
Thanks for joining me on this trip through time. See
you here in the exact same spot tomorrow. For more
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