It is 1:15 p.m. on August 9, 1982. About fifty people are present in the kosher restaurant Jo Goldenberg, located in a very busy little street in the old Jewish quarter of Paris.
A commando of three to five men arrives rue des Rosiers (IVe), in two groups.
The first group throws a grenade in the direction of the restaurant.
The second enters the establishment and opens fire.
Moments later, the assailants ran up the street.
They fire on panicked passers-by, who desperately seek refuge and run in all directions screaming.
In total, this attack, which lasted three minutes, killed six people and injured 22.
“A recognition of our suffering”
It will have traumatized Paris and France.
This Tuesday, August 9, precisely 40 years later, the victims will receive for the first time a tribute chaired by a member of the government, Éric Dupond-Moretti.
This ceremony is "a recognition of our suffering", reacts to the Parisian Yohann Taïeb, spokesperson for Jacqueline Niego, whose husband was assassinated during the attack on rue des Rosiers.
At 82, this Holocaust survivor is due to speak during the commemoration ceremony, which will begin at 1 p.m. in front of the former Jo Goldenberg restaurant.
A long work of associations
The tribute, delayed several times because of the health crisis, the war in Ukraine and the presidential election, finally arrives on D-Day of this dark fortieth anniversary.
The date is important for the relatives of the victims, but the official tribute is not self-evident.
“It is the culmination of two years of work with the Élysée”, explains Yohann Taïeb.
With the associations of the families of the victims, the latter worked to obtain this "tribute from the Nation".
A somewhat tarnished pride, he confides, by the absence of Emmanuel Macron that the associations hoped for.
Only one suspect incarcerated
This Tuesday's ceremony brings to the fore a drama that has aged with its gray areas.
"This moment of meditation will also be an opportunity to recall that three identified suspects are still in the West Bank and Jordan, countries which do not authorize their extradition", slips Yohann Taïeb.
Abou Zayed, the only suspect imprisoned – in France since 2020, after extradition by Norway – proclaims his innocence for his part.
In a column relayed by our colleagues from the JDD this weekend, masters Ariel Goldmann, Alain Jakubowicz, David Père and Francis Szpiner, lawyers for civil parties, recall that "the President of the Republic reiterated on July 17 in Pithiviers his determination to fight against anti-Semitism.
The trial of the assassins in the rue des Rosiers is one of them”.
They consider “also essential that the victims of this attack can be recognized in their status as victims of an act of terrorism”.