May 8 French Massacre of Algerians

On this day, May 8, 1945, the French massacred 45,000 Muslim children, women, and civilian men who were celebrating the end of world war II. In the cities of Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata, hundreds of thousands of Algerian Muslims flooded the streets to celebrate the Allies victory over Germany on May 7, 1945.

Background: France had forcibly recruited 240,000 Algerians to fight its wars. They were promised independence and rights if the Allies won. As the Algerians took to the streets to celebrate the end of World War II, the French army opened fire on children, women, and civilian men, killing 45,000 Algerians. In retaliation, the Algerians killed 100-200 settlers. At that moment, the Algerians realized that the only path to independence was through Jihad. Nine years later, on November 1, 1954, the Algerian Revolution against the French forced France to start accepting defeat, which it did in 1962.