Remembering Sétif, the VE Day colonial massacres that ‘misplaced Algeria’ for France

Eighty years in the past this week, as jubilant crowds in Europe celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany, French forces launched a ferocious colonial crackdown in japanese Algeria the place demonstrators had dared to lift the Algerian flag. The Sétif massacres would lead Algerian nationalists to embrace armed battle, paving the way in which for the nation’s ugly struggle of independence. Lengthy forgotten in France, the tragedy nonetheless poisons relations between the 2 nations. 



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