هذه فرنسا الاستعمارية.. ذاكرة آلاف الجرائم التي ارتُكبت باسم الجمهورية

#### On February 25, 2025, a single sentence uttered by Jean-Michel Avati on the radio ignited a political and media earthquake: France “committed hundreds of massacres [in Algeria].” * This is the starting point of this book, in which the political world unearths a repressed memory: the memory of the crimes committed in the name of the Republic in its colonies. These colonial massacres, far from being accidents or “mistakes,” were a deliberate policy. On February 25, 2025, journalist Jean-Michel Avati announced, on RTL radio, that France had committed numerous massacres similar to the colonial Oradour massacre in Algeria. Immediately, Republicans, the far right, and the propaganda media created a scandal, claiming it was a crime against the nation. As the eldest daughter of the Enlightenment and Revolution, it is impossible for France to commit such acts. Distortion and euphemism are the basis of this defense of the republican imperial narrative, which obscures many precedents. After 1945 and during the recent Algerian War, many figures denounced the Gestapo and French massacres similar to the Oradour massacre, which were linked to the excessive violence of the counter-revolutionary war. Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison analyzes these atrocities and reconsiders their origins: the total war waged by General Beaujou from the 1840s onwards, with its resulting massacres of civilians, smoke-choking, recurring genocides, and devastating raids. Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison teaches political science and philosophy at the Université Evry Paris-Saclay. He has published numerous works on colonialism, past and present racism, and Islamophobia.