Massacre du 17 octobre 1961
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Paris massacre of 1961 Memorial

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Overview: The Paris massacre of 1961 (also called the 17 October 1961 massacre in France) was the mass killing of Algerians who were living in Paris by the French National Police. It occurred on 17 October 1961, during the Algerian War (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the National Police attacked a demonstration by 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians. After 37 years of denial and censorship of the press, in 1998 the government finally acknowledged

Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, April 17, 2024

2. Massacre du 17 octobre 1961 / Paris massacre of 1961 Memorial - wide view, looking south

October 17, 1961: That day, Algerian women and men, many of whom lived in Saint-Denis, wanted to demonstrate peacefully against a discriminatory curfew which prevented them from moving freely. This in the context of the Algerian war and the legitimate demand for independence for an entire people. That day, hundreds of people were victims of terrible repression ordered at the highest level of the State: shot, thrown into the Seine, trampled in the metro, parked at the Palais des Sports at the Porte de Versailles, at the Coubertin stadium, at the Vincennes internment camp. To the horror of the crime was added the ignominy of silence. It is precisely to help break down this wall of oblivion and indifference that the city of Saint-Denis decided to give the central station square the name “Place of the victims of October 17, 1961” in 2006. The city perpetuates the tribute to the victims each year by gathering with the relatives of the victims, on this square of the victims of October 17, 1961, in front of the Saint-Denis station and calls for the official recognition of this state crime . In 2011, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary, the City of Saint-Denis perpetuates the tribute to the victims and calls for official recognition of this state crime, through a archive video and testimonials. A few hundred meters from the station, in the heart of the new Confluence district, a square was named Square Fatima-Bedar, named after the youngest victim of October 17, 1961, a schoolgirl in Saint-Denis whose body was found at lock no. 3 of the Saint-Denis canal. - Municpalité de Saint-Denis

40 deaths, while some historians estimate that between 200 and 300 Algerians died. Death was due to heavy-handed beating by the police, as well as mass drownings, as police officers threw demonstrators into the river Seine.