“I will never let you go”: Samuel Paty’s sister delivers a poignant testimony in “Sept à Huit”

There are some birthdays we would never wish for. This October 16, it will be four years since Samuel Paty, professor of history and geography at the Bois d’Aulne college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, was stabbed and beheaded by a young radicalized Islamist. That day, his sister Mickaëlle, a nurse anesthetist at the hospital, was “in the operating room” when “shortly after 8 p.m.”his mother texted him. A terrible message that she never deleted, and which she shows on camera. It is written: “Samuel may have just been killed in front of his school”. “Ce ‘maybe’ was a bit surreal. We rarely say the word ‘maybe’ in front of the word ‘kill’. So, at that time, I wasn’t sure if he was killed or just injured.” she remembers to Audrey Crespo-Mara, during the interview which can be found above.

Awaken critical thinking

Despite the doubt, which she desperately wants to cling to, Mickaëlle must make up her mind to the worst. “Before hanging up, my mother said to me: ‘They cut off his head’. I immediately realize what this sentence means (…) We were invited to go see his body at the mortuary chamber of the Medico-legal Institute (…) A white sheet was deliberately pulled up to the root from his neck to hide the mark of his decapitation. I didn’t recognize him there. He had sores all over his face. And then, I didn’t want to recognize him in fact (…) Until the end, I tried to push the last chance that it wasn’t him.” she admits.

Today, Mickaëlle has only one obsession: to keep the memory of her older brother alive. Because ultimately, apart from a single photo, what do we really know about Samuel Paty? The young woman then attempts to sketch a portrait drawing on her childhood memories. “We were always debating, it must be said that Samuel particularly liked that. And I liked arguing with him because he always had more arguments than me, which made me angry.”she remembers. And to continue: “He was a fairly introverted person, focused on literary subjects (…) He also loved chess games and he won all the time. But sometimes, he played his role of big brother and left me earn”she laughs.

Mickaëlle also describes a man who became a father late in life, “unable to say no”calling it “daddy hen”. As for his job as a teacher, “he chose it”, she assures, adding that he had a preference “for middle school students”. “He saw clearly that this was the age where we are in full formation and for which we can contribute the most to awaken their critical spirit. He held a lot of debates because he knew that by doing that, he was encouraging them to think about. He derived great satisfaction from it”, she asserts, specifying that “he was not someone who tried to hammer and he had this faith in the school anchored to his body”.

Today, I have to manage to keep him alive by all means.

Mickaëlle Paty

So that her memory does not disappear, Mickaëlle made a promise to her brother at the crematorium: “I will never let you go”she whispered to him. And so far, she’s keeping her promise. “I haven’t attacked the grieving process. I’m not sure I’ll ever attack it. Today, I have to manage to keep it alive by all means”. And this notably involves the publication of a book: “Le cours de monsieur Paty” (Ed. Albin Michel), in which she leads the investigation into the 11 days of the infernal spiral which preceded the tragedy. By first going through the minutes that have been drawn up, then by having access to his course. “I then arranged to be in contact with the principal of the establishment and to get in touch with certain teachers on site”she explains.

The young woman also immerses herself in the notebook where Samuel Paty annotated everything, and particularly the famous lesson of October 5, 2020, devoted to freedom of expression, which he had given to his fourth grade students and for which he died . “To support his lesson, he will offer to watch three caricatures from Charlie Hebdo, and beforehand, he makes it clear that those who do not want to watch can go out for a few moments,” explains Mickaëlle. Despite everything, it is the beginning of the spiral since one of his students, excluded for “his behavioral problems”will lie and explain to her parents that she was there by the will of her history teacher, because she did not want to see these caricatures. “His father will express his dissatisfaction loud and clear and he will disclose the identity of my brother and the location of the college (…) He will symbolically demand the head of my brother, asking that there be sentences that quickly fell against him”, she emphasizes.

Threats follow until the fatal day. “I think he was convinced that things were being put in place for him, for his safety, because he was told (…) They lied too”assures Samuel Paty’s sister.

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After the murder of Samuel Paty, an administrative investigation was immediately requested by Jean-Michel Blanquer, the Minister of Education at the time. The conclusion is that “no one has failed”, which repulses Mickaëlle. “What was most difficult for me was that overall it made my brother look like someone naive, which he absolutely was not. And that he was somewhat responsible for the events,” she protests. Which forces him to attack the State, “in the absence of responses from the State”she wants to clarify.

Next month, another stage awaits, with the trial of the eight adults accused of being involved in the assassination of Samuel Paty. Among them, the father of the student who ignited the incident and the Islamist activist who accompanied him. They will be tried for “criminal terrorist association”. “I don’t expect much from the accused. What I fear most is that at the time of the trial, the Islamist’s lawyers adopt a victimhood posture and that it becomes the trial of an Islamophobic state “she fears.

Waiting for, “to continue what Samuel was doing”, Mickaëlle now goes to schools. “He created citizens, that’s when I understood that I had to be one. I replaced him a little”she says. This Monday, October 14, a tribute to Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard (57-year-old associate professor of modern literature, murdered on October 13, 2023) will be paid and a minute of silence respected in the names of the murdered teachers. An imperative for Samuel’s sister. He who said during his lifetime: “I would like my life and my death to serve a purpose.”