President Emmanuel Macron has announced the creation of a new museum dedicated to terrorism that would also be a research centre gathering data on attacks committed across the world.
Almost 400 French people have been killed in terrorist attacks since 1974, with more than half — 246 — taking place in the past four years alone.
“We can’t just commemorate once a year, but [we must] improve our approach,” Mr Macron said in a speech to terror victims associations.
“France has to remember its dead; it also has to carry out scientific and educational programmes that will allow everyone to understand all of the implications of what has repeatedly hit us.”
He added: “Understanding terrorism does not mean lessening its gravity. That is why I want a terrorism museum to be created and I want the project to start right away.”
The museum was the main proposal from a committee of historians, philosophers, ministry officials and victims’ groups who consulted religious leaders to decide how to commemorate terrorist attacks.
They visited several memorials, including a concentration camp and the Shoah Memorial in Paris.
March 11, the European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism, could be formally designated as an annual national day of commemoration to pay tribute to terrorism victims
But it is unclear if the museum will also invite young radicals in an effort to convince them to change their ideology, in the same way the Shoah Memorial has invited people convicted for antisemitic actions.
In similar style to the memorial’s wall, the new museum will name all French victims of terrorism and honour those who came to their rescue.
The committee said the data collected by historians at the site should be accessible to everyone.
The museum will also train students and professionals, like policemen, firemen, rescue workers, psychologists to better understand terrorism and its effects.
“The terrorism museum is a rare initiative,” the committee said in its report “because it aims to inform the greater public of a phenomenon of recent history which is still ongoing”.
