Today, the weather is getting better with Lassana Bathily. "I do not have nightmares and I dare again just across the street," he says. His life is put in the year 2015 completely revolutionized.
On January 9, does the 25-year-old Malian Bathily in the warehouse in the basement of the Jewish supermarket Hyper Cacher, on the east side of Paris.
Around noon, people running in panic down on the ground because the terrorist Coulibaly shooting the supermarket has invaded. "Everybody was scared, people asked me where the emergency exit was" Bathily recalls. But in the basement has no emergency exit.
Cold room
The only way to reach the emergency exit, is by making use of the goods lift. But if Bathily presenting to his companions, none of them wants to try. Bathily urges the hostages then to sit in the cold store. He cites the power off and closing the door.
Bathily does take the freight elevator and barely manages to escape. "Coulibaly must have heard me, because I heard him running toward me. He did not shoot, but he barricaded called the emergency exit."
Once outside Bathily is first stopped by the police. "They did not know that a black man was working in the Jewish grocery store," he says dryly.
After he had convinced of his good intentions, he gives the police useful information about the layout of the store. A few hours after that Coulibaly slain during a raid by the police.
French passport
The French authorities have been impressed by Bathily's story. Although some hostages dispute what exactly was his role, the young man from Mali remains sober: "I'm no hero, I did something that is very common in our culture to help people.".
It was Bathily's great desire to acquire French nationality. Thanks to an emergency procedure within ten days he received a French paspoort.Hij will not work in Jewish supermarket. Bathily was hired by the city of Paris and studying to become a teacher.
Bataclan
On November 13 he is again confronted with terror in his area. He lives in an apartment next to the Bataclan venue.
At the time of the bloody attack, he was out on the street with some friends. "I'm half an hour earlier just a long run. We thought it was fireworks," says Bathily. But soon it appears that once again terrorists are active in Paris. Bathily unharmed.
He craves a quieter 2016, but also realizes that he nothing to say on this: "I accept my fate, I can do nothing against so I resigned myself to it, what will happen to me will happen to me..."
© NOS.nl/ Ron Linker
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