France honors victims 10 years after attacks at Bataclan concert hall, cafes and national stadium

PARIS (AP) — Ten years later, survivors of the Paris attacks are struggling to cope with the trauma as France prepares to pay tribute Thursday to the victims of the attacks that left more than 130 dead and more than 400 injured.

“The 10th anniversary is here and the emotion and tension are everywhere for us survivors,” said Arthur Denouveaux, 39, president of the victims association Life for Paris. “It shields us from the world in a way, because we are so focused on grief and remembering those who lost their lives.”

On November 13, 2015, nine gunmen and suicide bombers from the Islamic State group struck within minutes of each other in several locations, in the deadliest violence to hit France since World War II.

They targeted Stade de France supporters and cafe patrons and ended in a bloodbath at the Bataclan, killing 130 people. Two survivors who committed suicide as a result of the physical and mental trauma were also recognized as victims.

Denouveaux was present at the concert of the Californian rock band Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan. Since then, he has made a point of telling his story, speaking to the media and writing books so that what happened is not forgotten.

“The hardest part is November 14, when you have to go back to normal life somehow and the grief is still there, but the connection is a little more distant,” Denouveaux told the Associated Press.

Dealing with post-traumatic stress

At 9:47 p.m., three armed men burst into the Bataclan, shooting indiscriminately and killing 90 people.

Denouveaux fled as soon as he heard the first shots, crawling towards the nearest emergency exit door.

“I remember crawling over dead bodies. I think most people were pretending to be dead and weren’t dead, but still. And I remember a few faces or at least some facial expressions of people who were necessarily dead because of the angle of the neck, because of the color of the skin,” he said.

On the street, he helped the bewildered members of the Eagles of Death Metal into a taxi.

Father of three daughters aged 2, 4 and 6, Denouveaux says it took him a year and a lot of medication to overcome the most critical phases of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

“But since 2017, I would say I haven’t had any panic attacks, I haven’t had anything like that,” he said. “But I’m very cautious because I’m not sure there’s a cure for PTSD.”

A memorial garden inaugurated near Paris City Hall

The main ceremony on Thursday will take place in a memorial garden newly created by Paris City Hall in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, survivors and the victims’ families.

Macron will also lay wreaths at the sites of the attacks before the garden event. Parisians are invited to leave candles, flowers and written notes on Place de la République and the Eiffel Tower will be illuminated in the colors of the French flag at night.

“The nation will come together to honor the memory of those who lost their lives, show its unwavering support for their loved ones, express its gratitude to all those who intervened (that night) and reaffirm its continued commitment to the fight against terrorism,” Macron’s office said in a statement.

The new memorial garden, designed with the contribution of survivors and relatives of those who died in the attacks, evokes the six sites of the attacks with the names of the victims engraved on steles.

Denouveaux, involved from the start, declared that the project aims to create “a place which remembers the dead but also a place of life, a beautiful, serene place”.

The French football federation will pay tribute to the victims on Thursday as the French national team hosts Ukraine in a men’s World Cup qualifier. The match will take place at the Parc des Princes in Paris rather than the Stade de France in the neighboring suburb of Saint-Denis with a minute’s silence before kick-off.

Survivors seek a new path

November 13, 2015 became an important milestone in French history, traumatizing an entire nation and shaking the country’s sense of security.

Survivors had to find a new path in life after the attacks, Denouveaux said.

“When you survive a terrorist attack… you are disconnected from the rest of the world,” Denouveaux said. “There are three stages of grieving: grieving the dead, grieving the person you were… and grieving the image people have of you.”

A trial that lasted several months in 2021-2022 resulted in the conviction of the only surviving member of the team that carried out the attacks, Salah Abdeslam, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The special anti-terrorism court also convicted 19 other men involved.

“Ten years later, when I say to someone who doesn’t know, ‘Well, I was at the Bataclan,’ their perception of me immediately changes,” Denouveaux said. “There’s the emotion that they felt that day, but also, I think, the fear of wondering, ‘Is he okay? Can I talk to him about this? How do we do that?’ And that, of course, puts you out of step.