Estimates of the casualties vary from a low of 900 ( 800 of whom were European)[1] to 1200 deaths in a report by a group of historians sent to the French government in 2006,[2] and have been utilised by right-wing parties.
However, the flight of French pieds-noirs and pro-French native Algerians began in April 1962, and by late May hundreds of thousands had emigrated from Algeria, chiefly to metropolitan France.
[7] The OAS similarly declared a "scorched earth" policy to deny French-built facilities and development to the future FLN government, a policy that reached its climax on 7 June 1962 when the OAS Delta Commando burned Algiers Library and its 60,000 volumes and blew up Oran's town hall, the municipal library, and four schools.
In the 1931 census, over 80% of the inhabitants were reportedly European, a proportion that increased drastically after 1939 when a new wave of Spaniards migrated there to flee the Spanish Civil War.
In the 1930s, Oran's bullring became the central arena for the campaign for reform of Algerian institutions; and in 1936 and 1937, was home to strikes that shook the city.
"[10] On the morning of 5 July 1962, the day Algeria became independent, seven katibas (companies) of FLN troops entered the city and were fired at by some Europeans.
[11] At the 1963 trial of Jean Bastien-Thiry, who attempted to assassinate President de Gaulle, defence lawyers referred to the Oran massacre.