Ten years on, survivors of the Paris attacks struggle to address the trauma as France prepares to pay tribute Thursday to the victims of the assaults that left greater than 130 people dead and greater than 400 injured.
“The tenth anniversary is here and emotions and tension are in every single place for us survivors,” said 39-year-old Arthur Denouveaux, president of victims’ association Life for Paris. “That sort of shields us from the world in a way, because we’re so focused on the grief and on remembering those that lost their lives.”
On Nov. 13, 2015, nine Islamic State group gunmen and suicide bombers struck inside minutes of each other at several locations within the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II.
They targeted fans on the Stade de France stadium and cafe-goers and ending with a bloodbath within the Bataclan, killing 130 people. Two survivors who later took their very own life as consequence of the physical and mental trauma even have been recognized as victims.
Denouveaux was on the concert of the Californian rock band Eagles of Death Metal on the Bataclan. Since then, he has made a degree of telling his story, talking to the media and writing books to maintain what happened from being forgotten.
“The toughest part is Nov. 14 when you’ve to get back to normal life by some means and the grief continues to be here, however the bond is just a little more distant,” Denouveaux told The Associated Press.
Coping with post-traumatic stress
At 9:47 p.m., three gunmen burst into the Bataclan, firing indiscriminately and killing 90 people.
Denouveaux escaped when he heard the primary gun shots by crawling toward the closest emergency exit door.
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“I remember crawling on top of bodies. I imagine most people were pretending to be dead and weren’t dead, but still. And I remember a number of faces or at the very least a number of facial expressions of people that were necessarily dead due to angle of the neck, due to color of the skin,” he said.
Out on the street, he helped bewildered Eagles of Death Metal‘s members get in a taxi.
A father of three girls, aged 2, 4 and 6, Denouveaux says it took him a yr and a variety of medicines to beat essentially the most critical phases of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“But since 2017 I might say, I’ve had no panic attack, I’ve had nothing of that sort,” he said. “But I’m very cautious because I’m undecided you heal from PTSD.”
Memorial garden opens near Paris City Hall
Thursday’s predominant ceremony is to happen at a newly created memorial garden by the Paris City Hall within the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, survivors and families of victims.
Macron also will lay wreaths on the sites of the attacks before the garden event. Parisians are invited to place candles, flowers and written notes on town’s Republic Plaza and the Eiffel Tower will likely be lit in the colours of the French flag at night.
“The nation will gather to honor the memory of those that lost their lives, show its unwavering support for his or her family members, express its gratitude to all those that intervened (that night), and reaffirm its ongoing commitment to the fight against terrorism,” Macron’s office said in an announcement.
The brand new memorial garden, designed with the contributions of survivors and relatives of people that died within the attacks, evokes the six sites of the attacks with the names of the victims engraved on steles.
Denouveaux, who was involved from the start, said the project goals to create “a spot that remembers the dead but additionally a spot of life, a spot that is gorgeous, that’s serene.”
The French soccer federation will honor the victims Thursday as France’s national team hosts Ukraine in a men’s World Cup qualifier. The match will likely be on the Parc des Princes in Paris relatively than the Stade de France within the nearby suburb of Saint-Denis with a minute’s silence before kickoff.
Survivors seek a brand new path
Nov. 13, 2015, became a crucial milestone in France’s history, traumatizing a complete nation and shaking the country’s sense of security.
Survivors had to search out a brand new path in life following the attacks, Denouveaux explained.
“While you survive a terrorist attack … you change into disconnected from the remainder of the world,” Denouveaux said. “There are three mourning phases to be done: the mourning for many who died, the mourning for the person you were … and the mourning of the image people have of you.”
A monthslong trial in 2021-2022 led to the conviction of the lone surviving member of the team that carried out the attacks, Salah Abdeslam, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The special terrorism court also convicted 19 other men involved.
“Ten years later, after I tell someone who doesn’t know: ‘Well, I used to be on the Bataclan,’ the person’s perception of me changes immediately,” Denouveaux said. “There’s the emotion they felt that day, but additionally, I believe, the fear of wondering ‘Is he OK? Can I talk over with him about it? How can we do this?’ And that, in fact, puts you out of phase.”
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