Dominique Bernard died a year ago today. The day before this painful anniversary, the wife of the French professor murdered in Arras spoke in the columns of Le Monde. She assures that her husband felt in danger.
It has been a year since Mohammed Mogouchkov assassinated Dominique Bernard in Arras. A painful anniversary which is also an opportunity to pay tribute to the French teacher. For the first time since the tragedy, Isabelle Bernard, his widow, spoke publicly to our colleagues of the World. She assures that she and her husband, an English teacher, were particularly affected by the death of Samuel Paty (assassinated on October 16, 2020 in an Islamist attack). The teaching couple was worried that the school had become a target and together wondered who would be next to be killed.
Concerning the one who murdered her husband, the couple was already aware of his dangerousness: “When Mohammed Mogouchkov was a student in college and Dominique had him in class, the management team did everything to point out the dangerous nature of this boy .” Isabelle Bernard also says that her husband came home in the evening and explained to her: “I have to be careful, I can’t say everything I want.” The French teacher would have added “another time in the year”: “I still said that I was a free person.”
Isabelle Bernard does not blame National Education
Two weeks before the assassination of her husband, Isabelle Bernard claims to have confided to a friend that Dominique could be in danger, the school underestimating the risk linked to terrorism. However, she does not blame National Education. “Everyone did their job,” she said, “we cannot blame anything” on National Education. Isabelle Bernard adds that “the police knew that he intended to act, but did not know when”, assuring that “someone who is determined to kill will kill”.
A literary prize
The widow of Dominique Bernard finally addresses the creation of a literary prize in tribute to her husband. It will be aimed at 4th and 3rd year middle school students as well as second year students from the schools of Arras, Dainville, Saint-Nicolas, Aubigny-en-Artois, Achicourt and Anzin-Saint-Aubin. As stated the rectorate“this competition seeks to encourage literary creation while promoting fundamental values, notably tolerance”. This year, participants will have to write about tolerance, by creating a short story of less than 2,500 characters, drawing inspiration from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s phrase: “If you differ from me, my brother, far from me wronged, you enrich me.” Several prizes will be awarded by Brigitte Macron: that of the best collective and individual short story, the prize of progress and that of the creative notebook.
A tribute ceremony on Sunday
In order to pay tribute to Dominique Bernard, stabbed to death by Mohammed Mogouchkov, 20 years old, on Friday October 13, 2023 around 11 a.m. at the entrance to the Gambetta-Carnot school campus during a terrorist attack, a ceremony was held place in Arras. Several ministers were present: Didier Migaud, Minister of Justice, Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior, Anne Genette, Minister of National Education, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, and Gabriel Attal, Prime Minister at the time of the events. Isabelle Bernard clarified in an interview with The Voice of the North that it was “out of the question” that there would be a political recovery of this tribute.
After the city’s sirens sounded at 11 a.m., several artistic performances took place at Place des Héros, with singing, dancing, readings of poems… The public was then able to place a rose at the foot of the plaque in tribute to the victims of terrorism.