May 8, 1945
Algeria cannot forget the hundreds of massacres committed as well as the numerous fires which took the lives of thousands of Algerians in abominable conditions. Neither children, nor women, nor old people escaped the horror.
Ovens were even installed across the country, the most famous of which was that of Mount Dahra, the work of the executioners Bugeaud and Pélissier. Such practices multiplied, particularly during the second half of the 19th century. The occupation trampled on human dignity and committed the unspeakable against fundamental human rights and adopted the path of extermination and genocide which was tirelessly repeated during its disastrous reign in our country. The perpetrators of the massacres committed in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata executed citizens by the hundreds and thousands in public squares, stadiums and other bushes.
The bodies were lying on the ground, without burial. Who does not remember the ovens of shame installed by the occupier in the region of Guelma, at a place called El-Hadj Mebarek, which became a place of meditation? These ovens were identical to the crematorium ovens of sad memory. The Algerians believed they saw the end of a devastating World War as an opportunity not to be missed to assert their right to freedom and dignity and to shout it to the world.
Colonial France, aware that the demonstrations of the Algerians on this significant day in the history of humanity would reveal the abject and ignoble image of colonialism, decided to repress them bloodily in order to stifle the demand for independence. But it will be wasted effort, the massacres having only reinforced the feeling of injustice and strengthened the will of the Algerian people to put an end to colonialism once and for all.
Ovens were even installed across the country, the most famous of which was that of Mount Dahra, the work of the executioners Bugeaud and Pélissier. Such practices multiplied, particularly during the second half of the 19th century. The occupation trampled on human dignity and committed the unspeakable against fundamental human rights and adopted the path of extermination and genocide which was tirelessly repeated during its disastrous reign in our country. The perpetrators of the massacres committed in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata executed citizens by the hundreds and thousands in public squares, stadiums and other bushes.
The bodies were lying on the ground, without burial. Who does not remember the ovens of shame installed by the occupier in the region of Guelma, at a place called El-Hadj Mebarek, which became a place of meditation? These ovens were identical to the crematorium ovens of sad memory. The Algerians believed they saw the end of a devastating World War as an opportunity not to be missed to assert their right to freedom and dignity and to shout it to the world.
Colonial France, aware that the demonstrations of the Algerians on this significant day in the history of humanity would reveal the abject and ignoble image of colonialism, decided to repress them bloodily in order to stifle the demand for independence. But it will be wasted effort, the massacres having only reinforced the feeling of injustice and strengthened the will of the Algerian people to put an end to colonialism once and for all.