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Witness History

Algeria’s Milk Bar Bomber

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Zohra Drif was 21 years old when she planted a bomb that exploded at a busy ice-cream parlour in Algiers. The Algerian student targeted the venue in 1956 during her country’s war of independence with France, because she knew it would be frequented by European settlers. Dozens of civilians were maimed by the blast, which marked the start of a new phase of urban conflict known as the Battle of Algiers. Nick Holland hears from Zohra Drif about what happened that day, and from Danielle Chich, who was enjoying a cold treat at the café when the bomb went off.

PHOTO: Zohra Drif after her arrest in 1957 (AFP/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

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searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Cladie Aide.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:24.9

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds.

0:30.9

Your list You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Nick Holland.

0:39.0

We're going back to an infamous moment during Algeria's War of Independence from France, a moment when a

0:45.5

civilian population was targeted by an act of terror, one some say was justified as part of

0:52.1

their struggle for freedom.

0:54.0

It's a hot summer's afternoon in the city of Algiers on the the day before school started after summer vacation and my grandmother took me to the milk bar

1:15.8

which was the biggest ice cream parlor in Algiers where all families went.

1:21.4

Daniel Sheesh, the daughter of a French family living in Algeria, was one of the customers

1:26.3

there that day enjoying a cold treat.

1:29.6

She was five years old.

1:31.2

It was crowded on that day, of course, because it was, you know, it was a

1:35.0

a Sunday and it was warm and nice.

1:37.0

But also at the Milk Bar was a young woman in her 20s

1:41.0

who when she finished her ice cream looked at her watch

1:44.5

paid the bill and walked out deliberately leaving behind a bag a bag hiding a bomb

...

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