A hero of the stateless French resistance will enter the Pantheon. Emmanuel Macron will formalize this Sunday, during his traditional speech for the June 18 appeal at Mont Valérien, the pantheonization of Missak Manouchian. A survivor of the Armenian genocide, a refugee in France, he is one of the most important figures of the French resistance to the German occupation. He became the first foreign and communist resistant to enter the temple of the great figures of the Republic, alongside Voltaire, Victor Hugo or Marie Curie. “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”, declared the presidency in a press release.
Arrived on the territory in 1925, he had engaged in the communist fight in 1935 then joined the resistance in 1941. From 1943, he led the armed struggle in the capital, as a member then military commissioner of the Francs tireurs and labor supporter of immigrant workers (FTP-MOI), a very active network, before being shot by the Germans on February 21, 1944. Executive of the Communist International and director of the newspaper Zangou (he had a special taste for writing and satire) published by the French section of the Relief Committee for Armenia, he had also become director of the Franco-Armenian Popular Union, relay of the organization Main-d’oeuvre immigrée (MOI ) of the CGTU to the community of Armenian workers.
Entrance to the Pantheon on February 21
After the murder of his father in the Armenian genocide and the death of his mother during the deportation, the young Armenian was taken care of by an orphanage in French Lebanon. The president, who salutes the “bravery” and “quiet heroism” of Missak Manouchian, also pays tribute, through him, to all his foreign comrades in arms, Spaniards, Italians or Jews from Central Europe. “The blood shed for France has the same color for all”, underlines the Elysée. He will enter the Pantheon on February 21, 2024, just 80 years after his death.
The resistant will enter the pantheon “accompanied by Mélinée”, his wife of Armenian origin, resistant like him, who survived him 45 years and rests at his side in the cemetery of Ivry-sur-Seine in Val-de-Marne. The Manouchian couple thus remains united in death, but Mélinée is not pantheonized herself, as was the case for Simone Veil and her husband Antoine, who entered the Panthéon in 2018.
Foreign resistance fighters recognized as “dead for France”
This announcement coincides with the 83rd anniversary of the Appeal of June 18, which the President will commemorate 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. “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. At the same time, 91 resistance fighters and foreign hostages shot like him at Mont Valérien are also recognized as “dead for France”. Celebrated by Aragon and Léo Ferré, Missak Manouchian also entered the collective memory with the “Red Poster”, posted 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 which immortalized the history of the Manouchian group on screen.