During the Algerian War of Independence ( 1954 – 1962 ) most French politicians came to accept the need to grant Algeria its independence . Only the Organisation armée secrète ( OAS ; Secret Armed Organization ) continued to resist independence . The Left called for a demonstration on 8 February 1962 to denounce the OAS and the Algerian war . The Paris Police , led by Maurice Papon , repressed this demonstration , as it had done on 17 October 1961 ( when between 32 and 200 , mainly Algerian people , are estimated to have been killed ) . Police blocked nearby streets at both ends before charging the crowd . Demonstrators tried to take refuge in the entry of the Charonne metro station , but police pursued the crowd into the station and hurled heavy iron plates ( used around the bases of trees and on metro vents ) down onto demonstrators in the stairwells . Eight people were crushed to death or died from skull fractures and a ninth died from wounds in hospital . All of the dead , except a sixteen-year-old boy , were Communist Party or union members . Police blamed the violence on the demonstrators . A massive funeral demonstration drew between a quarter and a half million participants . The dead are buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery near the '' Mur des Federes '' . A ceremony at a memorial plaque in the station is held each February 8
had done on 17 October 1961
Paris massacre of 1961
Charonne (Paris Métro)