Faced with the high school students gathered before him, Simon Fieschi never stopped testifying. Despite physical fatigue, weariness or the sometimes suspicious behavior of the students, he continued to defend secularism, freedom of expression, the right to humor through caricature at all costs – these very subjects on which terrorists had attempted to silence him, by shooting him with a Kalashnikov, January 7, 2015. Webmaster of Charlie Hebdothe young man was the first person the Kouachi brothers shot upon entering the newspaper’s premises, almost ten years ago.
Despite very severe injuries and significant after-effects, Simon Fieschi survived. And go into battle. Like when he adapts his speech to a young student from a high school in Courbevoie in which he works, who asks him how he agreed to work for Charlie Hebdoa newspaper she found “so offensive.” “He replied that in the 19th century, coal miners brought a canary with them deep into the mines. If the air became too charged with gas, the bird would die, alerting the miners of the imminent danger. Charlie, c “was this canary: and if he died, it was because freedom of expression was in danger”, recalls Sophie Davieau, professor of history and geography at the establishment.
In front of students, at the bar of the courts or in the press, Simon Fieschi tirelessly recounted the concrete consequences of terrorism on a human body, pleaded for the urgency of safeguarding the right to freely exercise one’s opinions, to draw, to shock, question. “He wanted people to question the totally crazy reason why people responded with Kalashnikov bullets and pencil lines,” explains Gérard Biard, editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo. To those who still did not understand, Simon Fieschi responded with vigor, humor, or delicacy, depending on the situation.
On October 17, 2024, almost a decade after the Charlie attack, he was found dead in a hotel room in Paris – the exact circumstances of his death have not yet been clarified. While his funeral will take place soon, his loved ones want to remember the impact that their friend had, making the people he spoke to “grow up”, “in a world where the other is a wealth and humor is a right”, summarizes Sophie Davieau. “We still hear this voice that spoke of tolerance and freedom. And it tells us to continue the fight,” breathes the teacher.
Simon Fieschi during an intervention in a high school.
© / Chantal Anglade, AFVT
“It was a moment of grace”
Simon Fieschi’s commitments have had a lasting impact on those who knew and accompanied him. Within the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AFVT), which he joined around 2018, literature professor Chantal Anglade salutes the “absolutely exceptional relevance and intelligence” of her friend, which allowed him to maintain dialogue with students from different high schools “without wanting to be provocative and without imposing one’s positions”. “Obviously, young people frequently asked him terrible questions, like: ‘Why are you continuing, hasn’t it been enough for you?’ He simply replied that to abdicate once on these issues was to abdicate forever,” she recalls.
As part of a project called “gallery of objects” in which Simon Fieschi is participating in 2022 with the AFVT in a high school in Courbevoie, for which each student and each witness to an attack must choose an object which, according to them, represents the violence of terrorism, he brings his crutch, while a high school student takes the front page of Charlie Hebdo of January 14, 2015. The drawing caricatures Mohammed again, with the inscription “All is forgiven” – which the student does not understand. “He replied quite surprisingly that he didn’t understand either,” says Chantal Anglade. Who forgave whom, why? How to interpret this caricature? “Simon explained that the interest of this drawing was precisely its different possible interpretations. The aim was to set his mind in motion. At the end of the interview, they ended up discussing forgiveness, guilt, responsibility. It was a moment of grace, a real philosophical dialogue,” recalls the teacher.
Sometimes, to lighten the atmosphere or regain the attention of young people, Simon Fieschi does not hesitate to add a few unexpected reflections, with the irony and humor that characterize him. During an interview he conducts with Samuel Sadler in a class, he listens attentively to the anecdote of this father and grandfather of several victims of the 2012 attack against Jewish students at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse . The man says he felt, at the time, “very happy to be sitting next to a pretty blonde woman” on the plane that was taking him to Israel to bury his children. “We were talking about the return to life, the desire after such events. Simon then spoke again and said to the high school students: ‘You can’t imagine how after the attack, we all had sex. We didn’t stopped and we all had children. Then he spoke to them about the birth of his daughter, it was a moment that was both funny and moving,” says Chantal Anglade. “He always managed to find the right language to speak to the students, who sometimes did not spare him. Besides, Simon was not interested in discussing with students committed to his cause: he went off to fight, again and again again,” says Sophie Davieau.
“He didn’t accept ‘yes, but'”
Simon Fieschi shows this strength of character wherever he testifies. “What I remember is the great relevance of the reflections that he could provide on all subjects concerning the memory of victims of terrorism and the way of materializing it”, underlines Philippe Duperron, president of the Association 13onze15 Fraternité et Truth, in tribute to the victims of the attacks of November 13, 2015. This father, whose son was killed at the Bataclan, is part of the Orientation Observatory of the Memorial Museum of Terrorism (MMT), an establishment which should open its doors in 2027 and whose aim is to “retrace the history and consequences of terrorism in France for fifty years”. In such a context, the question of whether or not to exhibit the caricatures of Mohammed published by Charlie Hebdo in the museum “quickly became a subject”, he testifies. “Within the Observatory, of which Simon was a member, there were very lively debates on the subject. The question of security was raised a lot, but he really fought for these caricatures to be presented. For him, choosing to not exposing them was already a form of renunciation in the face of terrorism.”
The question arises in particular during the AFVT’s “object gallery” project in Courbevoie. When requested, the MMT chose to publish on its website photographs of the various objects chosen by the students and the victims or families of victims, representing, according to them, acts of terrorism. The sneakers of Aurore, survivor of the 2016 Nice attack which allowed her to start running to combat her trauma, are thus exposed, as is the camera which captured Cécile’s last moments before a bomb attack in Cairo in 2009, or the never-unpacked suitcase of Lamia, who died under bullets on the terrace on November 13, 2015. The photos on the front page of Charlie Hebdo “All is forgiven” and Simon Fieschi’s crutch will “never be put online”, according to Chantal Anglade. “The museum management raised security issues, which did not convince Simon. In general, he was very affected by the reluctance of certain institutions on these subjects: it gave him the feeling of being abandoned in his fight,” she regrets.
“Simon fought at all costs against the fear which paralyzes us, which means that certain subjects are no longer discussed in class, in the press, within certain institutions. He did not accept the “yes, but” on the subject of freedom of expression”, confirms Marika Bret, former director of human resources at Charlie Hebdo and companion of Charb, responsible for transmitting the memory of the designer. The former HR director also remembers the commitment “for justice” of Simon Fieschi, repeatedly re-elected staff delegate within the editorial staff of Charlie. “I can tell you that he did not need to raise his voice to be heard: he was very attached to the notions of justice and equality, and put forward very precise arguments on the subject,” he notes. -She. “The reluctance of all kinds of actors, who gave up on projects by justifying that ‘it could be controversial’, made him very angry… But that did not discourage him. Generally speaking, he never let himself be discouraged”, agrees Gérard Biard. This is evidenced by the young man’s desire to dance standing up at his wedding in the fall of 2015. “He stood with difficulty on his legs, but he did it. He had incredible strength,” emphasizes the editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo.
Fair compensation for victims of terrorism
For Simon Fieschi, the question of his physical state seems never to have been taboo. On the contrary: during his various testimonies before the courts or in the press, Charlie’s webmaster described the state of his injuries very precisely. “Sensation of burning, of needles inserted under the nails, of electric shocks, which were triggered at the slightest contact, at the slightest brush of a sheet”, he wrote for example in a long text published in the newspaper in October 2020. Through the accuracy of these descriptions, he fought for fair compensation for victims of terrorism.
“He constantly repeated that people, whether adults, children, politicians or ordinary citizens, should know the effect of a Kalashnikov bullet entering a body. He knew that in an era where everything is become so virtual, it was necessary to make this violence concrete,” explains Gérard Biard. A “necessary” commitment according to Philippe Duperron, who believes that despite “the good care” of victims of terrorism in France, the invisible damage and anxiety damage due to the loss of a loved one or inflicted by the injuries of a terrorist act “are still extremely difficult to quantify”. “Simon’s testimonies on the subject made it possible to always improve the support provided by the dedicated Fund, to discuss the scales, to make it evolve so that it best meets the expectations of the victims and their families”, indicates the president from 13Onze15 to L’Express.
Nine years after the attacks of Charlie Hebdothe Bataclan and the terraces, and almost four years to the day after the assassination of Samuel Paty, killed for having shown his students a caricature of Mohammed published in the satirical newspaper, Philippe Duperron salutes “the importance and the power ” of Simon Fieschi’s speeches, which will remain “a precious testimony to the tangible, visible and real damage of terrorism”. “He was someone deeply wounded in his flesh and in his soul, who was struggling to show that he had to stay standing. He could no longer give the finger, so he spoke. And he showed that the terrorists had not won,” he concludes.
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