Verdun, Bar-le-Duc… From the evening of January 7, 2015, a few hours after the attack on the editorial staff of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the people of Meus felt the need to go out, to express their sorrow, to gather, to unite and this in an almost spontaneous way. “We could not remain without doing anything in the face of this absolute horror,” reacted Véronique Harel, then director of the Meuse memory sites.
Coming together, showing that we are against what had just happened, this is the feeling that animated the Meuse people. On January 7 at 7 p.m., some 300 people met at the bottom of the steps of the A La Victoire monument in Verdun. Everyone was there to (re)affirm with one voice their attachment to the Republic and freedom of expression. Among the participants, there was Alex, a Verdunoise for whom not being present would have been inconceivable “because freedom, equality, fraternity are essential values. We must not gag ourselves in the face of extremism.”
Almost everywhere in the crowd, A4 and A3 sheets on which “Je suis Charlie” was printed were brandished.
In Bar-le-Duc, if no gathering had been organized on the day of the attack, the city had made up for it the next day, with social networks already showing their capacity to mobilize quickly. By midday, as the bells rang, some 400 people had converged on the city hall park. In the evening, more than 700 citizens gathered in Reggio Square and even marched in front of the police station to say “thank you” to the police. At the Poincaré high school in Bar-le-Duc, and at the Margueritte high school in Verdun, the students also massively expressed their sadness.
Thursday, January 8, a day of national mourning, more than 600 people united their sadness by meeting at the World Peace Center in Verdun.
