How France remembers the November 2015 Paris attacks

(Representative Image)

Ten years after the coordinated terrorist attacks that devastated Paris, the memories remain searing for those who lived through them. For many others in France, the details have begun to blur. The contrast between personal trauma and national recollection has become one of the central themes of this anniversary, the New York Times reported.

For Djamel Cheboub, the events of November 13, 2015, are not just part of the past. He was seated at La Belle Équipe in the 11th Arrondissement when gunmen opened fire on the café’s terrace. A close friend beside him died. His own injuries required a year and a half in the hospital, the loss of a foot, major reconstructive surgeries and a complete reordering of his life. He says the memories surface often, uninvited and unrelenting.

His experience mirrors that of many survivors and the families of victims who gathered across Paris this week to mark the tenth anniversary. Their remembrance is as sharp as ever, even if much of the country’s attention has drifted.

A fading collective memory

Surveys conducted regularly since 2015 show that France’s awareness of the attacks has changed dramatically. In the immediate aftermath, almost everyone could name the three main sites: the Bataclan concert hall, the bars and restaurants of the 10th and 11th Arrondissements, and the area outside the national stadium. By last year, nearly one third of respondents could no longer identify them.

The erosion does not surprise researchers who study how societies retain traumatic events. The shock of that night, when militants linked to the Islamic State killed 130 people and injured more than 500, remains a defining moment for France. Yet the details have been absorbed into daily life, softened over time as the country has returned to routine.

This year’s commemorations brought a wave of documentaries, books and exhibitions, as well as memorial events across Paris. The mayor, Anne Hidalgo, told crowds that she remembers everything about that night. President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated a new memorial garden that symbolically maps the sites of the attacks along intersecting pathways.

The weight of history and the distance of time

For historians and psychologists studying how France has processed Nov. 13, the past decade shows a dual trend. People still see the attacks as a major historical event, but their recollection of specifics has faded. The Bataclan, where ninety people were killed, has become shorthand for the entire tragedy, frustrating survivors from other locations who feel eclipsed in public memory.

Researchers leading a twelve-year project on the attacks say this pattern is predictable. Collective memory tends to preserve what is most essential to the narrative while losing finer detail. More than eighty percent of respondents in one survey still remember where they were when they first heard the news. But fewer remember how the attacks unfolded across different neighbourhoods or how long the siege lasted.

The investigations show that the trauma extended far beyond the physical violence. The assailants were young men raised in France and Belgium, feeding debates about integration and

radicalization. Intelligence lapses led to sweeping counterterrorism laws. Armed troops patrolling public spaces became a permanent feature of life in French cities.

Survivors and the struggle to heal

For survivors, the tenth anniversary has brought both renewed attention and a deeper awareness of personal change. Some, like American survivor Mandy Palmucci, initially struggled with the idea that people were forgetting the scope of the attacks. She was at La Belle Équipe by chance that evening because a table at another restaurant was not ready. Nearly everyone around her was wounded or killed. She says therapy and time have made her more forgiving of others’ fading memory, even as her own remains sharp.

Others believe that forgetting is part of how societies move forward. Arthur Dénouveaux, president of Life for Paris, a victims’ association that will now disband, says he understands the instinct to turn the page. He, too, carries personal pain, and the suicide last year of a fellow Bataclan survivor made him question whether recovery is possible when the society around you still feels unsettled.

Studying trauma and remembrance

One of the largest research efforts to emerge from the attacks draws on thousands of hours of testimony from more than nine hundred people. The interviews, repeated every few years, include survivors, relatives, residents of affected neighbourhoods and people from other parts of France. The project, partly inspired by research after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, aims to understand how trauma evolves and why certain memories persist.

A separate study of two hundred volunteers examines the neurological dimensions of trauma. It seeks to explain why some survivors develop long-term post-traumatic stress while others do not, and what factors influence the intensity of intrusive memories. Researchers say knowledge of PTSD was limited in France ten years ago, and these studies have revealed how complex and individual the experience of trauma can be.

Lives rebuilt, but scars remain

For Djamel Cheboub, healing has been a slow process. Authorities helped him move into an accessible apartment. He and his partner welcomed a daughter. He travelled repeatedly to Iceland, where the vast landscape helped him regain a sense of perspective. He eventually started a business there renting glass-roofed cottages for people hoping to see the northern lights.

He describes the work as a form of therapy and hopes it can offer the same comfort to others. But he has not yet shared the full story of that night with his young daughter. He says he wants to wait until she is old enough to understand without fear.

Ten years on, France continues to honour the victims of Nov. 13 while balancing remembrance with the realities of time. For those who survived, the tragedy is not confined to history. For many others, it has become a chapter they acknowledge but may no longer feel. The divide between the two is part of how the country now reckons with one of the darkest nights in its modern history.