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This article examines commemorative practices related to World War I (repatriation of the dead, cult of names, war memorials, ceremonials) within the Algerian colonial context of the 1920s and 1930s. It argues that the formula of “Sacred Union” ( Union Sacrée) took on a specific political meaning in interwar Algeria, marked by the fierce debates surrounding the “conscription of natives” and the contribution of the colonized population to the war effort. Analyzing the specific struggles that evolved from the different elements of the World War commemoration and the antagonistic interactions between different groups of actors (French and Algerian), the article reveals that these symbolic forms constituted an important arena in which the renegotiation of colonial rule in interwar Algeria took place.