On November 13, 2015, Paris was hit by jihadist attacks leaving 130 dead and 350 wounded outside the Stade de France, on terraces in the capital and in the Bataclan performance hall, located in the 11th arrondissement.
Six years later, justice plunges again, from September 8 and for nearly nine months, in the horror of these attacks, the most deadly perpetrated on French soil since the end of the Second World War.
If this night of November 13 upset the fate of the many wounded and relatives of the victims, these attacks also left traces among the Parisians met by France 24. They tell how they went forward.
Noam, police officer near Paris: "These tragic events made me realize how precious and fragile life is. […] I no longer want to work in the police."
Noam, former policeman in the intelligence department of the Prefecture of Police.
© DR / Noam
Noam had not planned to work on the evening of November 13, 2015. Installed at home in his sofa, the 45-year-old brigadier of the DRPP (intelligence directorate of the Prefecture of Police) watches the friendly match between France and Germany and throws every now and then a distracted eye on social media as he likes to do. Very quickly, he realizes that something is happening by checking his Twitter account. "It was starting to get carried away." His concerns are quickly confirmed by a phone call. "A colleague calls me to tell me that a bomb exploded near the Stade de France without knowing whether or not it was terrorism. As I was working on anti-terrorism, my colleagues asked me if I could lend them a hand. " Without hesitation, Noam gets on his scooter. During the journey, a second bomb explodes.Arriving at the scene, he heard a third explosion in front of McDonald's.
Next to the prefect, he enters the Events café and dazedly discovers the crime scene. "I was stunned, no one has ever seen this kind of scene before." What he first believes to be scraps of meat on restaurant tables are actually shreds of the suicide bomber's body. Shock. Always accompanied by the prefect who keeps his cool, he decides to model his attitude on his. "I told myself that now was not the time to let my emotions take hold. I blocked myself and did my job." Next to the restaurant, he finds the terrorist's Syrian passport, which later turns out to be a fake. He accompanies the prefect to ensure his safety and asks that the license plates of all the cars in the neighborhood be read.Then he begins to receive calls from people who wish to have information about their relatives who were at the Bataclan. "Listening to them, I found myself at a loss, I was really sorry." The policeman stops answering calls from numbers he does not know. "I didn't want to take on a heavy responsibility and have to deliver terrible news."
A few weeks after the events, anger and anger dominate. "I tell myself that we have missed out, that with material and financial means, the tragedy could have been avoided. The police tools are ineffective and obsolete." His bitterness grew even more when he discovered that he himself had written the file for Samy Amimour, one of the perpetrators of the attacks. "He was just under judicial supervision when he should have been jailed." At that time, there was still "too much stress to take stock". But since then, the policeman has ended up healing the wounds of that night of horror. "These tragic events made me realize how precious and fragile life is. I understood that I no longer wanted to work in the police:Unfortunately, being a civil servant in the DGSI is of little use other than being a target. "
The police officer also felt a fracture to operate in some colleagues after the attacks.
"Some of them told me that they no longer trusted me because I was a Muslim. I have always been loyal, a patriot but I no longer wanted to have to justify myself, so I preferred leave the police. "
Since then, Noam has taken some time to think.
He now wants to devote himself to teaching to pass on what he has learned.
He recently turned to the CLSPD, the local Security and Crime Prevention Council, to use his knowledge on terrorism.
His aspirations also lead him to writing.
He is also working on writing a new book on security issues.
"Now I want to live a peaceful life."
Célia, surgeon: "It's something that will always be a part of my life. I know that I can be of help in these cases."
Célia, former head of clinic and vascular surgeon at Bichat hospital in Paris.
© DR / Célia
That evening, Célia, a few months pregnant, is installed in pajamas alongside her companion in front of a good movie. Very quickly, the young woman is alerted by incessant text messages from her family and she becomes aware of what is happening. At 33, vascular surgeon, she was then head of clinic in Bichat. Neither one nor two, she calls her colleagues to come and treat the wounded. All she asks is to be taken safely to the hospital, for the killing continues outside at the Bataclan and the patio shooters are on the run. "A police car came to escort my taxi, just like you do when transporting lungs for a transplant." What awaits him at Saint-Louis hospital, where many wounded are sent that night, is unimaginable. "A real war scene",she remembers.
The gunshot wounds she already knows. Her job is to repair blood vessels, so she has to intervene in very serious trauma. But what most affects the surgeon is the "silence" that reigns in the intensive care unit and the "blank gaze" of her patients. "They said nothing more, they were in shock, they had just been attacked with incredible violence at a time when they had not considered it at all, a drink in hand with their friends on the terrace. remember a young woman with major wounds who seemed as if detached from her body, as if she had nothing more to lose or as if she had already lost it. "
All night long, Cécile works very hard.
In the morning, she leaves the hospital stunned and consoles herself by watching the sun rise.
Six months later, scenes return to her during her maternity leave.
"I had a lot of nightmares," she says.
“I think, in hindsight, that I absorbed a lot of things and I think I had post-traumatic stress disorder,” she says.
Célia writes to get it all out.
Of the patients treated that night, she remembers a high-level athlete whose career was shattered by the bullet that perforated his lung.
"He wrote a book, I bought it, it allowed me to hear from him."
"It's something that will always be part of my life. (...) I know that I can be useful in these cases", she repeats, thinking back to that interminable night, proud to have been able to help by "keeping your cool".
Today, she works in Savoie, far from Paris.
She, who was destined before this tragedy for a career in humanitarian aid, in war zones, changed her mind after having experienced "horror".
Even if she does not exclude putting her knowledge at the service of others if it happens again.
"If I had to do it again, I would do it again in a heartbeat."
>> Find the testimonials of Bart, director of La Bellequipe, Jean-Baptiste, teacher in Paris, and Nicolas, real estate agent.
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