On 10 November 1942, the hotel was commandeered by the American military. That same day, at noon in the hotel's Salon des Ambassadeurs, Admiral François Darlan signed a ceasefire agreement on behalf of Vichy France, despite formal orders from Vichy, using the fiction that Philippe Pétain was effectively prisoner of the German occupiers and thus unable to expressed his true will.[1]
The hotel was repeatedly bombed during World War II by German aviation. After the war's end it had to undergo heavy repair, and only reopened in 1948. It again closed for extensive remodeling in 1974, including two new wings designed by architect Fernand Pouillon, for which works lasted from 1978 to 1982. For its reopening on 23 August 1982, it was rebranded Hôtel El Djazaïr, for the Arabic name of both Algiers and Algeria.[3] The state-owned El-Djazaïr hotel group also has hotels in Timimoun, Béchar, and Bou Saâda.
^Jacques Attali (2019), L'année des dupes : Alger, 1943, Paris: Arthème Fayard, p. 176
^Mayo, Lida (1991) "The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront." Chapter IX, pp 152. In "United States Army in World War II: The Technical Services." Center of Military History, United States Army: Washington, D.C. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-60000. (First printed 1968) https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/Beachhd_Btlefrnt/ChapterIX.html