November 13th in our collective memory: "To overcome trauma, one must construct a narrative."
Interview: Historian Denis Peschanski, head of the November 13th Program with neuropsychologist Francis Eustache, co-authors a book dedicated to the Paris and Saint-Denis attacks in the national memory.
Interview by Cécile Deffontaines
Gathering at Place de la République to mark the 10th anniversary of the Paris and Saint-Denis attacks, November 8, 2025. LAURENT CARON/HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
To go further
Denis Peschanski, historian and emeritus director at the CNRS, oversees the November 13th Program with neuropsychologist Francis Eustache. This extensive research aims to determine how the collective memory of the Paris and Saint-Denis attacks is formed. This ten-year project, still ongoing, is the subject of a book by Peschanski, "Facing the Challenge: The French and the November 13, 2015 Attacks," published in October by Flammarion.
How did you proceed with the November 13th Program?Denis Peschanski: We were working on the memory of the Second World War, which is my area of expertise as a historian, but also on 9/11 in connection with the future Ground Zero memorial museum [inaugurated in 2014 in New York City].
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