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Europe|How France Remembers the November 2015 Terrorist Attacks in Paris
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/world/europe/france-paris-terrorist-attacks-anniversary.html
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For Djamel Cheboub, memories of the terrorist attacks in and around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, are painfully vivid.
He was at La Belle Équipe, a cafe in the 11th Arrondissement, when men with assault rifles sprayed the terrace with gunfire, killing a friend who was with him. Mr. Cheboub was hospitalized for a year and a half. His right foot was blown away by a bullet and replaced with a prosthesis. His left arm was shattered, and he had to undergo major reconstructive surgery.
But even as many survivors and families of the victims remember the attacks with agonizing clarity, the country’s collective memory has grown fuzzier.
A series of surveys conducted since 2015 have revealed a sharp decline in the number of people who know the three sites where the attacks occurred: an area outside the national soccer stadium, the Bataclan concert hall, and cafes and restaurants in central Paris. Last year, 31 percent could not identify them, compared with just 3 percent in 2016, when the first survey was conducted.
“After 10 years, people don’t talk about it so much,” Mr. Cheboub said. He is not bitter, but his own mind won’t let him forget. “The memories often come back,” he said. “That will never change.”
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