REPORTING. In parallel with the trial, a study focuses on the memory of November 13: “There is not a Batacl – franceinfo

It is 1 p.m. on Monday, September 20. In the heart of Paris, in the courthouse located on the Île de la Cité, the November 13 trial will soon resume. The special assize court must continue its hearings of investigators, who deliver to the bar their chilling and emotional findings of the scenes of attacks. About twenty kilometers away, in the town of Bry-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), other people are preparing to testify. But their account of the attacks will not resonate in the courtroom.

The National Audiovisual Institute (INA), guardian of the memory of French television and radio, has been recording another part of history since 2016. Its buildings with their architecture seventies host the actors of the “1000 study” of the Program 13-November. This vast research co-piloted by the CNRS, Inserm and Hesam (Hautes écoles-Sorbonne-Arts et Métiers) probes the memory around these attacks. A thousand survivors, witnesses, bereaved relatives, interveners (law enforcement, firefighters, caregivers, etc.) and residents share their memories six months, three years, six years, then eleven years after the trauma. A project of unprecedented scale, which calls for filmed recordings.

It is a coincidence that phase 3 of the study began five days after the opening of the trial, on September 13: the Covid-19 pandemic aligned judicial time with that of research. In the labyrinth of INA corridors, signs show the way to the waiting room. Blue chasuble on the back, mediators place a contract on the table to sign. Volunteers give up their rights to their testimony. “By agreeing to [le] entrust, you participate in the work of historical, educational, scientific and heritage construction for present and future generations “, we read on the document.

David *, 45, has been exercising since his first participation in 2018. A survivor of the Bataclan, he belongs to circle 1, that of people directly affected by the attacks. Circles 2, 3 and 4 bring together the inhabitants of the targeted areas – the 10th and 11th arrondissements of the capital and Saint-Denis -, those from the rest of the Parisian metropolis, then from three provincial towns (Caen, Metz and Montpellier).

“I have no sensory memory of the evening. I am one of the people for whom the process of collective memory very quickly took its place. This is why I wanted to participate in the study.”

David *, survivor of the Bataclan

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At the back of the room, a make-up artist activates. The videos produced may be reserved for research, this step is essential. “We put this in place so that the volunteers are as confident as possible, that they are pampered”, explains Anne Louis, production manager at INA. The eyes close under the softness of the brushes, the blush blushes the cheeks, the dark circles vanish.

The suite takes place behind the closed door of a recording studio. The investigator who sits behind a small desk is not a judicial police officer but a researcher in human and social sciences. Among them, that day, the historian and specialist in World War II Denis Peschanski, co-director of the program with the neuropsychologist Francis Eustache.

In the shadows, on each side, a sound engineer and a cameraman. The light falls on the interviewee. The interview can begin: “Tell us about your November 13, 2015.” The spontaneous story is punctuated by reminders. It lasts as long as necessary. Often “two hours and a half” for the volunteers of the first circle. An exchange then makes it possible to discuss the causes and consequences of the attacks. The session ends with a questionnaire to be completed, off camera.

Franck, sound technician, listens to these testimonies since 2016. The headphones screwed on the ears, he hears “the emotions, the voices that twist, the tears that come”. “The hardest part are the bereaved”, confides the young man, himself very marked by the attacks for having worked at the Bataclan. Denis Peschanski confirms: “These are tears that weigh tons.”

“The survivors have fractures everywhere, symbolic or real, but they are trying to rebuild themselves. The bereaved parents have a fracture in the middle of their heart. And this one …”

Denis Peschanski, co-director of the program

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Some of the heartbreaking stories gathered by the program will fail to come to justice. Because these people do not wish to testify at trial, or because they cannot. As recalled by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, witnesses who have not been targeted by terrorists cannot become civil parties, even if they have witnessed terrible scenes. People “passed completely under the radar” like that young girl who was “in front of the terraces” and a “seen everything”. She was “in a state of utter astonishment”, reports Denis Peschanski. “At the end of the first interview, I said to him: ‘You are not only a witness, you are also a victim’. It did him a lot of good. “

Survivors not physically injured who question their legitimacy, Sophie Boiré has heard a lot. Despite everything, this researcher from the study points to an evolution of the “status of psychically injured” after the attacks of November 13th. Their testimony is precious. “There is not a Bataclan, but Bataclans. I once interviewed two friends who were together [dans la salle de concert], they told two different stories “, she illustrates.

“What interests us is not the truth, it is the story. From individual memory a collective memory is built, which is the sum of all these voices.”

Sophie Boiré, investigator

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David * relies on this collective memory to remember. He did not hide it during his second interview. If he was able to quote schedules or factual elements of the evening at the Bataclan, it is because he had read the hearing reports and listened to the testimony of an investigator on the webradio accessible to the civil parties. The researchers know that they will have to take into account the impact of the trial in their conclusions.

“It’s tricky to complain about it, but not having memories is not easy to deal with. My brain protects me, as if it were an outside entity.”, discreetly analyzes David *. On the evening of the attacks, he remained in hiding for an hour and a half with his partner in storage boxes. His memory is limited to the sad symphony “the gradual triggering of [sonneries] mobile phones “. And “impressions” reactivated by “a cramp in the foot” Where “a heartbeat”. This is where the memory lodges “personal”, the story to “The first person”.

“The event itself is extremely collective, known, repeated, rehashed. It is Saturday November 14 and the following days that belong to us.”

David *, survivor of the Bataclan

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Hundreds of civil parties will come to testify about this “after” during the month of October at the trial. Michael is not going to testify at the bar. But he was able to measure the progress made, thanks to his participation in the study: “These years have been difficult, but I do not regret them because it is a journey.”

At the other end of the studio, in a small room reserved for INA staff, the filmed confessions are exported to secure computers, transcribed using software, then archived. Thousands of hours of testimonials, anonymized for security and confidentiality reasons. David * will soon be just a code name. Images and sound of his voice will remain only words, sifted through textometry, a statistical analysis of vocabulary.

Perhaps he will still be there to testify again during the fourth and final phase, scheduled for 2026. Eleven years after the attacks and five years after the trial, what will remain of this shared memory? “Are we going to end up with a large uniform narrative? Will circle 1 be different from all the others? Are there any other variables going to interfere?”, wonders Denis peschanski. The answers to these multiple questions will be known in 2028 when the results are published.

* The first name has been changed.