The Day Europe Celebrated While Algeria Burned - May 8, 1945

On May 8, 1945,  the morning Europe was celebrating VE Day,  French colonial forces massacred thousands of Algerian Muslims who had gathered in Sétif to mark the same Allied victory. The story of what happened, why it was suppressed for decades, and how it set the stage for Algeria's War of Independence is one of the most consequential chapters of the twentieth century,  and one of the least known. Rich explores the multiple truths that coexist in this story: liberation and colonial violence, a celebrated hero and an authorized massacre, a repression designed to prevent revolution that instead made it inevitable.