France marks 10 years after Paris Bataclan terrorist assaults : NPR

People lay flowers and light candles in tribute to the victims of the 2015 Paris terror attacks at a temporary memorial at Place de la Republique, in Paris, on November 12, 2025.

Folks lay flowers and lightweight candles in tribute to the victims of the 2015 Paris assaults at a short lived memorial at Place de la République in Paris on Wednesday.

Ludovic Marin/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

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Ludovic Marin/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

PARIS — Arthur Dénouveaux’s recollections of Nov. 13, 2015, aren’t precisely hazy. Nor are they good.

“What I keep in mind from that night time are just a few very clear footage,” he says.

Dénouveaux was one in all round 1,500 folks contained in the Bataclan live performance corridor to see the American rock band Eagles of Demise Metallic, when gunmen linked to the Islamic State opened hearth.

What he remembers subsequent are fragments.

There was the muzzle flash popping out of the gunmen’s Kalashnikovs. Being pushed to the ground as the group scrambled. A lady “fully misplaced,” staring towards the shooters earlier than others pulled her down.

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Then Dénouveaux remembers crawling exterior.

“Discovering myself below the night time sky in Paris,” he says, “and saying to myself, ‘Hey, I am free once more.'”

Throughout Paris that night time, 130 folks have been killed at cafés, the nationwide soccer stadium and the Bataclan. Ten years later, France remains to be wrestling with tips on how to keep in mind the deadliest assault on its soil in fashionable historical past and tips on how to reside with it.

The nation has constructed an in depth system of remembrance. There have been books, documentaries, plaques and memorials throughout the town. A landmark 10-month terrorism trial resulted in 2022 with the conviction of 20 males, together with the one surviving member of the group that carried out the assaults.

Arthur Dénouveaux is the president of Life for Paris, a support group for victims of the Nov. 13, 2015 attacks. He says the group plans to disband after the 10th anniversary.

Arthur Dénouveaux is the president of Life for Paris, a assist group for victims of the Nov. 13, 2015, assaults. He says the group plans to disband after the tenth anniversary.

Rebecca Rosman for NPR

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Rebecca Rosman for NPR

On Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron visited every of the assault websites earlier than inaugurating a brand new memorial backyard behind Paris Metropolis Corridor. On the Place de la République this week, folks positioned flowers and lit candles at a makeshift memorial.

For some, like Paris resident Anaelle Baheux, who lives simply steps from one of many cafés attacked that night time, these rituals nonetheless matter.

“It is reassuring to see that folks did not overlook what occurred,” she says.

However even because the rituals deepen, new analysis reveals the small print of that night time are already fading from collective reminiscence — and a research is providing insights into why some folks recuperate from post-traumatic stress dysfunction, or PTSD, extra simply than others.

Denis Peschanski, a historian, has been co-leading a 12-year research analyzing how the Nov. 13 assaults are remembered throughout French society. The challenge has adopted practically 1,000 folks — survivors, victims’ households, first responders and abnormal residents — interviewing them at common intervals to trace how their recollections change over time.

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“It is an fascinating query, why did folks overlook,” Peschanski says.

He says one sample stands out: Whereas most individuals nonetheless keep in mind the Bataclan vividly, their recollections of what occurred on the cafés and the nationwide stadium are “foggier,” if not forgotten altogether.

For survivors from these websites, Peschanski calls this a “double peine” — a double punishment. They reside not solely with trauma, but in addition with the sensation that their a part of the story has pale from public reminiscence.

Alongside the nationwide reminiscence research, a team of neuroscientists has spent the previous decade finding out trauma on a person stage, monitoring about 200 survivors by way of common MRI scans and psychological assessments.

Pierre Gagnepain, one of many lead researchers, says early remedy approaches typically discouraged the thought of deliberately attempting to suppress traumatic recollections.

“For a very long time, folks thought that suppression was not good, that attempting to dam reminiscence made issues even worse,” Gagnepain says. “Folks used to say it could trigger much more intrusive recollections.”

However their preliminary findings counsel the other: suppression can, in actual fact, be a part of restoration.

“What’s vital to know is that forgetting — or suppression — does not imply you do not keep in mind what occurred to you,” Gagnepain says. “It is about making the reminiscence much less current, much less vivid, much less accessible. Folks can nonetheless describe what they went by way of. It is simply that the reminiscence turns into much less intrusive, much less invading.”

The science means that reminiscence blurs not as a result of folks do not care, however as a result of the thoughts adapts.

MRI findings from this research present that when reminiscence management networks start to recuperate — which means when sure neural connections are strengthened and the mind’s capacity to inhibit intrusive ideas is restored — survivors of traumatic occasions are much less more likely to endure persistent intrusive signs of PTSD.