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Algeria and France have divergent treatments of the past of the Algerian independence war. The two countries have opted for internal stakes of the past. In France its treatment is part of a pattern of public polemics based on the model of the interpretation of the past of the Vichy regime; in Algeria its management has been taken in charge by the authorities that draw from it a source of legitimacy. A common management is considered unthinkable. The comparison with the Franco-German case provides the reasons, to be sought in the past and present relations that the two countries have. It is difficult to apply the reference points that would enable a management policy of the past taking into account the legitimate interests of the victims. Their claims inevitably lead to replaying the war. At the moment of a renewed cooperation, couldn’t Algeria and France think of a common management?