Ten years after the attack on Mohamed Merah, the emotion remains strong at the Ozar Hatorah school

Sunday March 13, Jonathan Chetrit agreed to return to his former school Ozar Hatorah in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) to evoke a traumatic memory. On March 19, 2012, the establishment was targeted by a terrorist attack. Mohamed Merah enters the school, heavily armed, and kills Professor Jonathan Sandler, his children Arié and Gabriel, aged five and three respectively, as well as Myriam Monsonégo, the school principal’s daughter, aged eight years.”I can’t help but think about it very often“, confides Jonathan Chetrit, very marked.

Senior Education Advisor at the time, Judith O. had her children present in school that day. Without knowing what was going on, she took students to safety, and tried to reassure them. Jonathan Chetrit gave mouth to mouth and a heart message to young Gabriel Sandler, in an attempt to resuscitate him.

After the attack, the school reinforced its security system, in particular by installing barbed wire and cameras. This important protection contrasts with the momentum of life that has returned to the interior of the establishment. Student in third, Nes always keeps in mind his comrade Arie, who disappeared that day. “We miss him but we have the impression that he is growing, that he is evolving with us. To feel him with us, it takes away a little the sadness of what happened.“, she confides.