On Wednesday, the Special Criminal Court where the Paris terror trial is taking place listened to the closing arguments of lawyers representing the survivors and the families of victims, and those who chose not to join the collective presentation organised last week by dozens of their colleagues.
They spoke on behalf of bereaved families, of orphans, of those who escaped physical injury but don't have the emotional resources to appear themselves.
They spoke with dignity and professionalism. All but one respected the time limit of 20 minutes.
They represented the parents and family of Anne-Laure, 36 years old when she was shot dead at the Belle Équipe bar; the mother of Élodie, 23, dead at the Bataclan; the family of Paul, 17 at the time, who survived the Bataclan attack in which his sister Suzon lost her life; the family of Germain, 36, the night he died, the father of a little girl who is now nearly 8 years old.
We heard of parents who have refused to change the room once occupied by a deceased child. Of grandchildren who invent stories in which a beloved grandfather, dead in the Bataclan, still plays a key role. We were reminded of the fact that the French language, despite its richness, has no word for a parent who lives to see her child die.
One lawyer quoted the observation of Georges Salins, who lost his daughter at the Bataclan, to the effect that "the question is not 'how' do you go on living after the death of a child, but 'why'?"
There were some harsh words for the perpetrators of the attacks.
'No forgiveness, ever'
Some lawyers voiced their clients' refusal to hate and their equal determination not to forgive. One specifically rejected the wish of surviving terrorist Salah Abdeslam that he be forgotten forever after this trial. "None of the accused will be forgotten, because each will be subject to our justice."
But a mother who lost her daughter had a different message for the surviving Abdeslam brother. When he asked for forgiveness, she told her lawyer, "I thought he was sincere. And that helped me."
Republican justice
There was praise for the tribunal, and notably for court president Jean-Louis Périès, a man of humour, compassion and humanity.
The trial has been "an institutional triumph" in which we can all take pride. It is one further proof of the way the French republic had stood up to the challenge of barbarism.
Most chose to emphasise the values of republican justice over the dark shroud of fundamentalist Islam.
"You have lost," the accused were told, "because Paris is still the City of Light, and you flounder in the darkness of your prison cells."
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And one lawyer called for severity in sentencing the so-called "secondary figures", those who supplied cars, false documents, who gave lifts, helped with this and that.
"Every one of those involved has to answer for his part in the overall crime. You can't break it up into small fragments and say this action was not a crucial link in the chain.
"They attacked our ordinary lives. We have a powerful investigative and judicial system, however flawed, to protect those lives.
"If we are to win, we must have the courage to go to the very end. The gravity of the crimes committed demands the full force of the law."
The trial continues.
