Attacks of November 13: a symbolic commemoration, in full trial – archyde

Six years after the deadliest terrorist attack ever committed in France, the commemoration of November 13th organized, Saturday, in Paris and Saint-Denis, is more symbolic than ever, at a time when the historic trial is testing the victims and shapes the collective memory of these attacks.

“The trial brought us all together and there is a very strong desire to meet in a commemorative setting”, entrusts to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Arthur Dénouveaux, the president of the association of victims Life for Paris. “The commemoration will crystallize a strengthening of the links between the victims. “

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The pandemic had prevented victims from assembling in 2020, with a ceremony reduced to a minimum during containment. Accompanied in particular by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the prime minister, Jean Castex, began this day of tributes with a wreath laying, followed by a minute of silence in front of the Stade de France around 9.15 a.m.

They then took the direction of the café terraces and the Bataclan in Paris, where commandos from the Islamic State (IS) organization had killed 130 people and left more than 350 injured in 2015, sowing terror in the country. In front of the Bataclan, the survivors and relatives of the victims listened to the name of each of the 90 people who perished in the concert hall resonate under the grayness.

This series of tributes will end with a minute of silence just before the France-Kazakhstan football match, at 8:45 p.m., at the Parc des Princes.

Shortly after noon, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, placed a bouquet of white flowers in front of the terrace of the bar Le Carillon. Accompanied by her husband, Doug Emhoff, M^me Harris, who is completing a four-day visit to France on Saturday, reflected for a few moments in front of the plaque that pays tribute to the victims of the shootings on the terraces of the Carillon bars and the Petit Cambodge restaurant (10^e arrondissement). She then crossed the street to briefly enter the Carillon bar.

“Need to be together”

It comes barely two weeks after the end of the first phase of the trial, where more than 350 civil parties have recounted the course of this apocalyptic evening at the helm. Post-traumatic stress, guilt of the survivor, persistent gap with the rest of society … To face the rest of the hearing, which must continue until the end of May, “People feel that we have to stick together”, summarizes Mr. Dénouveaux.

“Sharing all these experiences at the helm also increased the feeling of belonging to a meaningful community. “

Hence an even stronger need to participate in commemorations, “The only time when a collective catharsis can take place”, adds this survivor of the Bataclan. This year, his association registers about fifty additional participants in the ceremony it organizes at the town hall of 11^e arrondissement, after the various tributes.

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“It will do us good to find each other and to do a little “calinotherapy” “, advances Stéphanie Zarev, another survivor of the Bataclan. “The trial undoubtedly reinforced the need to be together”, confirms Philippe Duperron, president of the other association of victims, 13onze15 brotherhood and truth.

“In the courtroom, there were looks, outstretched hands, we felt a lot of solidarity. “ Her organization also has more registrants than usual for the lunch it is organizing after the official ceremony.

A terrorist threat that remains high

This year, “The commemoration is a marker of the great shared story that is currently being constructed during the trial”, observes the historian Denis Peschanski, co-responsible for the 13-Novembre program, a vast research project which studies the evolution of the memory of the attacks over ten years.

The hearing and its transcription in the press “Influence the collective memory of the French” and allowed “To complete the puzzle with pieces that we did not yet know”, he notes.

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His research, carried out with a representative sample of the French population, shows that beyond the carnage of the Bataclan, the trial notably “Brings back the places of November 13th in their entirety”, thanks to the testimonies of the victims of the Stade de France and the terraces, that the general public gradually tended to forget.

Six years after these attacks, the terrorist threat remains very high in France, but is now taking new forms. As shown by the assassinations of the police officer Stéphanie Monclosed in April in Rambouillet (Yvelines), or teacher Samuel Paty in October 2020, it is now carried by assailants more “Autonomous”, whose link with terrorist organizations – which no longer systematically claim their actions – has largely weakened.

The World with AFP