May 1945: Living and Civic Memory

Eighty-one years ago, the world celebrated victory over Nazism. In Algeria, however, May 8, 1945, remains etched in our national memory as a day of profound tragedy, a stark illustration of the brutal reality of French colonialism. While Europe rejoiced, the French colonial army unleashed a wave of violence upon Algerian civilians in Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata, simply for daring to demand their freedom. This was not an isolated incident but the brutal culmination of a colonial system built on violence, dehumanization, and the suppression of dignity.

“

On May 8, 1945, while Europe was celebrating the capitulation of Nazi Germany, in Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata, Algerians, who dared to demand their freedom, were mown down by the bullets of the French colonial army.

These massacres, among the least acknowledged crimes of the 20th century, were not spontaneous. They were the logical endpoint of a long history of colonial brutality, including the infamous enfumades of 1845, land seizures, and engineered famines. The colonial administration feared precisely what was growing in the spring of 1945: a unified and determined Algerian national consciousness. This consciousness had deep roots, tracing back to the founding of the Étoile Nord-Africaine (ENA) in Paris in 1926 by Algerian immigrant workers, the first political movement to explicitly advocate for independence.

“

This massacre did not arise from a vacuum. It is part of a long chain of colonial violence, whose links are named the enfumades of 1845, razzias, land spoliation, organized famines.

The ENA's flame, ignited decades prior, could not be extinguished by dissolutions or persecution. As historian Benjamin Stora noted at a recent international congress at the University of Béjaïa commemorating the ENA's centenary, its birth was a confluence of authentic anti-colonial activism and international political currents. This movement, born among migrant workers, crossed the Mediterranean to take root in Algeria, becoming the crucible of modern national consciousness.

“

The birth of the ENA was less the result of a single influence than the meeting between authentic anticolonial militancy and the major international political currents of the time.

Commemorating May 8, 1945, means confronting this truth directly. Tens of thousands of Algerians—women, men, and children—were murdered for aspiring to freedom. This truth does not age; it demands clarity, not vengeance or hatred. The memory of the martyrs of Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata serves as our compass, guiding our daily efforts to build a sovereign and dignified Algeria. From our vantage point at El Watan, understanding this history is not merely an academic exercise; it is fundamental to our national identity and our ongoing struggle for true self-determination, a struggle often misunderstood or minimized by Western narratives that prefer to sanitize the colonial past.

“

Commemorating May 8, 1945, means first and foremost naming the crime with precision and without detour. Tens of thousands of women, men, children, killed for wanting to be free.