Can you tell us about “your” January 7, 2015?
Camille EMMANUELLE : “We had gone to a show the day before and woke up late. My husband, Luz, cartoonist at Charlie Hebdo, was scheduled to attend the editorial conference, but was no more in haste than that since he already had his schedule for the week. When he arrived in front of the newspaper’s premises, he saw the Kouachi brothers leaving the premises. I quickly learned what had happened and he quickly contacted me to tell me he was alive. He then went up to see the carnage. The first thing he said to me, speaking of Wolinski and other Cabu, is: They were good guys. I didn’t know them, apart from Charb, who was a witness at our wedding. At first it wasn’t my story, but it soon became. Indirectly. “
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How did you experience it?
“I started to have post-traumatic symptoms. I was scared. I was like what are you complaining about, your husband is not physically injured. I started to do research. There were many books on mourning and resilience, but nothing on the relatives of the victims of the attack. So I thought to myself that I had to investigate. I have met shrinks, lawyers and other victims indirectly. I didn’t even know that expression. Of course, we do not experience the same things as the direct victims, but it is enough to see the other suffer to suffer oneself, out of empathy. “
This is what you say in your book, Ricochets (Grasset editions), published on September 1st …
“It’s a mixture of storytelling and investigation of personal experience, but an experience that I believe is universal. It is also not a story about January 7, 2015, but about the years that followed. The first year, I didn’t have time to think about myself, it was not the priority, it was not the urgency. We moved several times and we were constantly under police surveillance. Difficult to cure your paranoid when you are surrounded by cops … In addition, my husband felt guilty for doing this to me. And me, I had the guilt of going bad when he started to get better. It took a toll on the couple, put them in danger. “
The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 is currently being held. Are you following it?
“Yes, daily. Especially the civil parties. It’s hard, it’s a very difficult, very courageous word, but it is essential to hear these testimonies. These are men and women who have a story. Terrorists attacked symbols, but especially human beings. Beside, Charlie’s trial was that of the balaclava knitters, the Kouachi brothers having been shot dead by the police … “
Interview with Camille Emmanuelle, Friday, October 15, at 7 p.m., at Puzzle. Health pass compulsory. Reservation recommended: http://bit.ly/DMDCamilleE
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