PARIS—France marked the anniversary of Islamic extremists’ coordinated attacks on Paris with a somber silence on Sunday that was broken only by voices reciting the names of the 130 slain, and the son of the first person to die stressing the importance of integration.
Michael Dias lauded the lessons his father Manuel, an immigrant from Portugal, taught him so youth can integrate instead of turning themselves into “cannon fodder.”
Under heavy security, President Francois Hollande unveiled a plaque outside the Stade de France “in memory of Manuel Dias,” pulling away a French flag covering it on a wall at one of the entrances to the French national stadium, where Dias was killed on Nov. 13, 2015, by a suicide bomber.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined the president six other sites where crowds ate, drank or reveled in music at the Bataclan concert hall. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks .
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Three teams of extremists coming from neighboring Belgium targeted six bars and eateries, turning scenes of Friday night fun into bloodbaths.
At the Stade de France, on the northern edge of Paris, Michael Dias said his father Manuel was “living proof that integration is possible, necessary” to end the madness of violence carried out by those who felt excluded.
Learning to live again after extremists killed his father was “a personal challenge, but it concerns us all,” Dias said, crediting his father, who came to France at 18, with life lessons like the need for education.
“It is by knowledge, by intelligence that the children of tomorrow can stop humiliating themselves as cannon fodder in the service of criminal, mafia-style interests ... as is the case today. (They are) incapable of reflection, thinking about the world and expressing the unease and social exclusion they feel.”
The final stop, the Bataclan concert hall—which reopened Saturday night with a concert by British pop star Sting—was the site of the bloodiest and longest attack. There, 90 people were killed by three attackers who also took a group of people hostage. The youngest and oldest victims of the night of horror were a 17-year-old and a 68 year-old—both killed at the Bataclan.
Families of victims, security and rescue forces and some still trying to heal were among those present at the ceremonies. Jesse Holmes of the Eagles of Death Metal, the California band whose concert that night ended in a bloodbath, paid respects at the Bataclan ceremony, placing his hand on his heart as he departed.
