Fred Dewilde, designer and Bataclan survivor, ended his life

The cartoonist Fred Dewilde, survivor of the bloody Islamist attack at the Bataclan on November 13, 2015 which left 129 victims, ended his life. The news was communicated by the family to the victims' aid association Life for Paris, of which he was a member.

The designer, who had published three comic strips about his traumatic story, committed suicide “this weekend of May 5, devastated by the violence of his traumas against which he fought tirelessly with such courage, talent and of generosity,” his family wrote in the press release. “His immense appetite for life carried by the love that he gave as much as he received, his communicative energy, his caustic humor, his poignant works, his projects full of drawers were mowed down in one night by an insurmountable suicidal impulse on making us deaf to any future.”

Fred Dewilde “shared with so much authenticity his experience without taboos, his faith in tolerance and his refusal of all forms of hatred”, underline those close to him who say they are “devastated by the violence with which this sneaky poison spread by terrorists of November 13, 2015 hit him implacably after more than 9 years of fierce resistance. They killed him a second time, without any second chance of “survival”.”

“Fred will continue to show us the way forward,” the statement concluded. “How much attention to others heals wounds, how much speech liberates, how much respect for others resolves ills, how much fraternity creates strength.”