July 5, 1962, remains etched in the collective memory of the Algerian people, a day when a nation reclaimed its freedom after 132 years of brutal French colonial rule. It was not just the end of an occupation, but the triumph of dignity, sacrifice, and unyielding resistance.
As Algeria commemorates The 63rd anniversary of Independence and Youth Day, surviving freedom fighters and eyewitnesses to that historic day in Batna recalled the overwhelming emotions that swept the country.
“It was a day like no other,” said Saïssa Halis, a former member of a clandestine women’s resistance cell during the war of liberation. “Even today, I struggle to describe the joy we felt. The sun of that morning was different, it marked the end of colonial darkness that had suffocated our lives for over a century.”
Despite being 85 years old, Saïssa recalls with striking clarity the scenes of jubilation as crowds poured into the streets of Batna, waving Algerian flags and chanting for a free Algeria. “My husband and I joined the crowds in the city center. The whole country was alive. It was the kind of happiness that only comes with liberation,” she said.
For Naïma Maalem, a freedom fighter who took up arms in the Aurès mountains before being captured and subjected to horrific torture by the French, the first day of independence brought healing. “All the pain I endured in their prisons disappeared the moment I saw Algerians dancing in the streets. That day made it all worth it,” she said, fighting back tears.
Born in 1939, Maalem considers herself lucky to have lived to see a moment her fallen comrades only dreamed of. “It was their sacrifice that gave us that day. We owe them everything,” she said.
Echoing the sentiment, veteran fighter Abed Rahmani, now 83 and a regional leader of the National Organization of Mujahideen, described the day as “blessed,” but added that “the price we paid was enormous, millions of lives. That’s why our celebrations lasted for days.”
Fellow resistance member Cherifa Zeggar emphasized the spirit of solidarity that marked the celebrations. “Homes were open to everyone, fighters and citizens alike. We took care of each other. It was a national celebration in every sense.”
Eyewitness accounts from the time describe massive crowds converging on central Batna, gathering in front of what had been French military barracks, surrounded by barbed wire. They came armed not with weapons, but with flags and chants, signaling that a new chapter had begun, one without France.
Algerians had not only reclaimed their land, they had shattered the myth of French “civilization” and exposed the cruelty of colonialism to the world. July 5, 1962, will forever stand as the day Algeria rose from the ashes and proved that empires built on oppression are doomed to fall.
