President Emmanuel Macron will bring Missak Manouchian, a Resistance figure of Armenian origin, into the Pantheon, thus saluting his “bravery” and his “quiet heroism”, the Elysée Palace announced in a press release on Sunday. “Missak Manouchian carries a part of our greatness”, he “embodies the universal values” of freedom, equality, fraternity in the name of which he “defended the Republic”, declares the Presidency of the Republic.
Military leader of a group of foreign resistance fighters in the Paris region, this survivor of the Armenian genocide was arrested in November 1943 and shot by the German army, at the age of 37, on February 21, 1944 at Mont-Valérien. He becomes the first foreign and communist resistant to enter the Pantheon. Since 2017, Emmanuel Macron has already pantheonized Simone Veil, Maurice Genevoix and Joséphine Baker.
Missak will enter the Pantheon “accompanied by Mélinée”, his wife, of Armenian origin and resistant like him, who survived him forty-five years and rests at his side in the cemetery of Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) , said the presidency. It was the wish of the family, as for Simone Veil and her husband, Antoine, who entered the Pantheon in 2018. The Manouchian couple thus remain united in death, even if Mélinée is not herself pantheonized.
83? anniversary of the appeal of June 18
This announcement coincides with the 83rd anniversary of the appeal of June 18, which the president will celebrate as every year in the morning at Mont-Valérien, near Paris, where a thousand resistance fighters and hostages, including Missak Manouchian, were executed by the German Army during the Occupation.
A survivor of the Armenian genocide, a stateless person, a refugee in France in 1925, Missak Manouchian joined the communist resistance in 1943 where he distinguished himself at the head of a very active network, before being arrested and shot by the Germans on February 21, 1944. Celebrated by Louis Aragon and Léo Ferré, Missak Manouchian also entered the collective memory with the “Red Poster”, plastered all over Paris by Nazi propaganda during his trial to designate his group for vindictiveness. The Red Poster is also the title of a film released in 1976 that immortalized the history of the Manouchian Group on screen.
Before him, eight members of the Resistance have already been honored since the transfer of Jean Moulin’s ashes in 1964, including four – Pierre Brossolette, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion and Jean Zay – under François Hollande in 2015.
“I am sure that the French people and all freedom fighters will know how to honor our memory with dignity”, wrote Missak to Mélinée, just before dying, also proclaiming to have “no hatred against the German people”.
The pantheonization of Missak Manouchian was ardently desired by the French left, in particular the Communist Party.
“For us, the main thing is that it is a foreigner who died for France who enters the Pantheon”, underlines the communist senator Pierre Ouzoulias, whose grandfather, Albert, was the leader of Missak Manouchian in the Resistance. “It says a lot about what the French nation is”, it is a “strong message of integration for today’s young people”, he told AFP.
92 resistance fighters and foreign hostages “died for France”
At the same time, 91 resistance fighters and foreign hostages shot like him at Mont-Valérien were also recognized as “dead for France”. At Mont-Valérien, the Head of State must gather in the middle of the morning in the clearing of the shot, where resistance fighters and hostages were executed.
He will decorate a former resistance fighter, Robert Birenbaum, who, like Missak Manouchian, came from the group Francs-tireurs et partisans de la main-d’œuvre immigré (FTP-MOI). Georges Duffau-Epstein, son of resistance fighter Joseph Epstein who was arrested with Missak Manouchian during a clandestine meeting, will also be present.
The president will be accompanied by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, the Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, and the Chief of the Defense Staff, Thierry Burkhard.
The Head of State will then hear the appeal of June 18 and Le Chant des partisans before a time of meditation in the crypt of Mont-Valérien, where sixteen members of the Resistance, officers and soldiers who died for France in 1939-1945 are buried. as well as Hubert Germain, last companion of the Liberation.
The tribute paid on Sunday is part of a long memorial sequence around the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War which will continue in 2024 with the Normandy landings and the Liberation of Paris.
