Police violence at the Charonne metro station in 1962
On February 8, 1962 came at a demonstration in Paris against the war in Algeria by police violence at the metro station Charonne nine people killed.
prehistory
On the evening of February 7, 1962, the Confédération générale du travail , the Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens , the teachers' union Fédération de l'Education Nationale , the student union Union nationale des étudiants de France and the Parti communiste français called for a demonstration against the Actions of the Organization de l'armée secrète (OAS) and against the Algerian War for February 8, 1962. The demonstration was banned by the police.
The massacre
The demonstration took place anyway. Maurice Papon , the then police prefect of Paris, had given the order , in agreement with Interior Minister Roger Frey and President Charles de Gaulle , to prevent the demonstration and, if necessary, to break it up.
There were several demonstrations. The aim of the various demonstrations was the Place de la Bastille , where they were supposed to meet. However, some trains disbanded peacefully before this goal, others were attacked by the police.
There were about 4,000 people at the intersection of Rue de Charonne and Boulevard Voltaire when the police began to force them apart, but at the same time partially surrounded the demonstrators. To escape the advancing police, several demonstrators fled to the nearby Charonne metro station . Several people fell on the front steps and were crushed by the crowd, while others were struck by metal bars thrown by the police. Other victims had fatal skull fractures which, judging by the injuries, were likely to have come from rubber truncheons.
Victim
The massacre claimed a total of nine lives, between the ages of 16 and 58. Eight victims died of serious injuries on site, and a ninth victim died later in hospital.
Commemoration
A plaque commemorates the dead in the metro station. The intersection of Rue de Charonne and Boulevard Voltaire was renamed Place du 8 Février 1962 on the 45th anniversary on February 8, 2007 in commemoration . The square was inaugurated by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë .
See also
literature
- Jean-Paul Brunet : "8 février 1962: révélations sur le drame de Charonne", in L'Histoire , no. 236, March 2002, pp. 75-81
- Jean-Paul Brunet : “Charonne. Lumières sur une tragédie “, Paris, Flammarion Verlag, 2003, p. 336 ff.
- Christian Chevandier: “Policiers dans la ville. Une histoire des gardiens de la paix ”, Paris, Gallimard Verlag, 2012.
- Alain Dewerpe: “Charonne, 8 février 1962. Anthropologie historique d'un massacre d'État”, Gallimard Verlag, in the collection “Folio histoire”, 2006
- Brigitte Gaïti: “Les ratés de l'histoire. Une manifestation sans suites: le 17 octobre 1961 à Paris “, in Sociétés contemporaines, no. 20, 1994, pp. 11–37
- Jim House and Neil MacMaster: "Paris 1961: Les Algériens, la terreur d'État et la mémoire", Tallandier Verlag, 2008, p. 538 f.
- Frédéric Ocqueteau: "Raconter l'histoire d'une violence policière traumatique permet-il de disserter sur la violence intrinsèque de l'État?"
- Désirée and Alain Frappier: “Dans l'ombre de Charonne” comic story, Mauconduit Verlag, January 2012
