Valerie Braham, who lost her husband, Philippe, in Friday’s terror siege at a Paris kosher market, told Israel’s Ch. 2 News on Sunday that her first inkling of the carnage taking place was when her cellphone text message to him went unanswered, moments after she learned of the attack.
“I started to worry, I sent him a message and I felt that something was wrong,” she recounted.
After taking the couple’s children to school, Philippe Braham, 40, headed over to the HyperCacher, arriving around the same time as Amedy Coulibaly, the Islamist terrorist who seized the market in a bid to assist the escape of Cherif and Said Kouachi, the brothers who were cornered by police in a simultaneous siege northeast of Paris, after they fled the scene of the massacre they carried out at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.
Valerie Braham explained that her husband had gone to the market to collect a few items for their Friday night meal.
“’Lehitraot’ – see you this evening,” were her last words to him.
A short time later, word quickly spread through the Jewish community of a hostage incident at the HyperCacher. As the minutes passed, her stomach knotted.
“At about 1:20, I was at the school to pick up my kids, and I heard about it, and I said, ‘Oh, I know that Philip had to do some shopping for me,’” she recounted.