Terrorism memorial museum: the project leaders still want to believe in it

Will the appointment of a new prime minister make it possible to reverse the decision? This is the hope of the Mission to prefigure the Memorial Museum of Terrorism which learned, during a meeting in Matignon on Friday December 6, the deletion of the budget line dedicated to the presidential project that it has been carrying since 2018 and which was to see the light of day in Suresnes in 2027. It brings together all of its authorities this Saturday, December 14 to share reactions and define the actions to be taken. Hoping that the new tenant of Matignon will take a different look at the work accomplished or that a presidential speech will put this place of memory and history desired at the highest summit of the State back on the agenda.

The abandonment of the Memorial Museum, motivated by budgetary reasons, is however accompanied by the maintenance of the Mission, now responsible for designing traveling and temporary exhibitions in locations proposed by the ministries involved in the project – Justice and Culture, but also the Armies and the Interior. The memorial will find its place in the Garden of Memory planned by the Paris town hall with victims’ associations. Life for Paris et 13eleven15 to pay tribute to the victims of the attacks of November 13, 2015.

The project consisted of bringing together in the same place a Memorial for the victims of attacks committed on French soil as well as those, French, who died abroad, as well as a Museum allowing us to understand what terrorism does to our societies and how they can respond. The journey was to begin in 1974, with the drugstore attack committed by Carlos, which opened the era of globalized terrorism according to the Mission. The place, unique in the world, with an exhibition space of 1000 m2, wanted to become a space for training, transmission and memory, located within an outdoor school erected in Suresnes in 1935, a historic monument awaiting restoration. .

A unique place in the world

The President of the Republic as well as the former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal have repeatedly called for their wishes during the national day of tribute to the victims of terrorism, March 11. Video projections even showed the progress of the preparatory work on several occasions. Very regular updates were carried out with the Ile-de-France prefecture and the ministries concerned. Hence the incomprehension of the Mission today, stunned at not having been invited to the interministerial meeting which preceded the government arbitration. Contacted by “la Croix”, the Elysée evokes “ a government decision » and abstains « no comments at this stage ”, adding that “ the next government will have to create a new budget “. The Ministry of Culture did not respond to our requests.

The planned budget was 95 million euros, spread over several years. “ Since 2020, we have had two imperatives constantly reminded by our interlocutors at the top of the State: to stay within this budgetary envelope – we had also made proposals to this effect – and to honor the appointment of an opening in 2027reacts Elisabeth Pelsez, magistrate and general director of the Mission. And we are always ready of course to examine ways of saving. » Ignorance of the scope of the project may, according to her, explain the decision. “ Voilàeverything we could have presented to the ministries if they had invited us to their meetinginsists the magistrate: the ambition of such a reference place, valuable in particular for younger generations, the route of the permanent exhibition nearing completion, as well as the Memorial project, at the call for tender stage, the 2,000 objects already collected… »

Victims’ associations at the center of the work

It is one of the specificities of the project to have, from the start, involved victims’ associations in the design of this double place, as well as in the collection of the objects which were to inhabit it. Judicial seals of closed cases, clothing of journalist Nicolas Hénin when he was in the hands of Daesh, objects made by child victims of the Nice attack or found, almost forty years earlier, in the debris of the Uta company’s DC10 , watercolors painted by Noëlle Herrenschmidt during the trial of the attacks of November 13… “ Donations continue to flow inadds Elisabeth Pelsez, they are stored in reserves that we rent and which meet the maximum conservation and security standards. »

Like the magistrate, victims’ associations are in shock. “ It’s a huge disappointmentbreathes Arthur Denouveaux, president of LifeforParis, this Memorial Museum was an important building block in the intellectual fight against terrorism. I was already part of the memorial committee which, in 2018, made a number of recommendations, including this project. We invited our members to make donations of objects, I myself donated my medal of recognition of my national medal to the victims of terrorism and the object that was given to me when I carried the flame for the Olympic Games… » Like the Mission, he says he is always ready to work on developments. as long as the initial intellectual requirement is maintained “. A requirement compromised by the prospect of traveling exhibitions.

As for the Memorial, Arthur Denouveaux does not hide his dizziness. “ We designed the garden of remembrance to commemorate the attack of November 13, there is no question of distorting it, or of causing this offense to the victims of other attacks. “. And when we ask him if the abandonment of the Memorial Museum has an impact on the victims, the answer bursts out: “ Huge !he says. This is the first major promise made to victims that the State does not keep, without explanation. This decision calls into question all other promises and plunges us back into doubt. You know, being the victim of an attack inevitably shakes your confidence in institutions and the State, and when you survive that, the problem is precisely to rebuild this confidence. »