For the first time, foreign resistance fighters enter the Pantheon. Eighty years after being shot by Nazi Germany, Missak Manouchian enters the temple of the nation’s greats, accompanied by his wife Mélinée and their brothers in arms, communist resistance fighters during the Second World War.
5 mins
“ I die on the verge of victory “. Eighty years to the day after his execution by the Nazis, the resistance fighter Missak Manouchian, communist, poet and stateless person of Armenian origin, joined the Pantheon this Wednesday evening, for a final recognition of the Nation. Side by side with his wife, Mélinée, resistance fighter and survivor like him of the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, he began his final procession over a few hundred meters to the temple of the great men of the Republic.
By the end of the afternoon, the public was already present along rue Soufflot, which leads to the Pantheon. The ceremony in their honor began at 6:30 p.m., and ended around 8 p.m. The two coffins, draped in the colors of France and carried by soldiers of the Foreign Legion, were carried by soldiers of the Foreign Legion towards the monument, inside which President Emmanuel Macron paid them a final tribute before before they reach the crypt.
The black and white portrait of the pantheonized communist was projected on the facade of a Pantheon illuminated with the colors of French flag – blue, white, red – especially for the occasion. The coffins of the resistance couple stopped three times, to mark the three key moments in Missak Manouchian’s life: the Armenian genocide, her arrival in France, and finally, her commitment to the French resistance, says our special correspondent, Baptiste Coulon.
“ My dear Mélinée, in a few hours, I will no longer be in this world »
At the first stop, 90 children from the choir of the popular mastery of the comic opera of Paris performed “They fell,” a song by Franco-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour, whose main theme is the Armenian genocide. At the second stop, four actors read extracts from texts from Missak Manouchian’s notebooks in which he recounts his love of France, its culture and its language.
Finally, at the third stop, it was Missak Manouchian the resistance fighter who was mentioned. “The Song of the Partisans” is sung by the choir of the French army: the interpretation of “L’Affiche rouge” by the group Feu Chatterton, a cover of music by Léo Ferré, which takes up the last words of Missak Manouchian addressed to his wife in a final letter a few hours before being shot. “ My dear Mélinée, my beloved little orphan. In a few hours, I will no longer be in this world »: the first words of his letter to his beloved, read by Patrick Bruel, pierced the silence, at nightfall, in a gripping moment of emotion.
The names of the 23 comrades-in-arms engraved
At the foot of these coffins, a black and white photo of Missak and Mélinée Manouchian. Giant screens then broadcast a visual representing the 23 members of the Manouchian group, whose names were listed one by one, in a very solemn manner. Like the Manouchian couple, most were not French. They were Polish, Hungarian, but also Romanian, Spanish and even Italian… Shot with Missak Manouchian on February 21, 1944 at Mont-Valérien, these 23 companions entered the Pantheon in a more symbolic form: their names will be engraved in the vault where the Manouchians are going to rest.
Read alsoMissak and Mélinée Manouchian, symbols of foreign resistance in France
“ Tribute to 23 foreigners, our brothers nonetheless “, exclaimed the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, arriving in the rain for the tribute. “ Finally the communist resistance enters the Pantheon “, he said, thanking Emmanuel Macron for this gesture. They thus joined Jean Moulin and the Gaullist resistance, pantheonized since the 1960s.
A ” French preferably »
“ Is this how men live? », insisted Emmanuel Macron around 7:45 p.m., inside the building, during a speech and tribute paid to the freedom fighter, invoking the words of Léo Ferré’s song and the title of Louis Aragon’s poem of the same name. “ Missak Manouchian, you enter here still drunk on your dreams, Armenia delivered from sorrow, fraternal Europe, the communist ideal, Justice, dignity, humanity. French dream, universal dream. Missak Manouchian, you enter here with Mélinée as a poet of happy love », Declaimed the President of the Republic, in front of a large part of the French political class, as well as the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian, accompanied by his wife, received earlier in the day by the Elysée.
The latter also saluted the memory of a “ French preferably ”, to whom France owes “ acknowledgement “. Because Missak Manouchian, born into an Armenian family, died stateless after having applied twice and unsuccessfully for French nationality. Honoring him, his wife and his comrades, is for the Head of State, according to the Élysée, a way of showing that being French is not due to origin or religion, but to will.
Eighty years after his farewell letter in which Missak Manouchian said he was certain that “ the French people and all Freedom fighters [sauraient] honor our memory with dignity “, it’s done. The Head of State signs his fourth pantheonization there, after those of the writer Maurice Genevoix, Simone Veil and the music hall star Joséphine Baker. He also announced that of Robert Badinter, who died on February 9.
Special edition 6:30 p.m.-7 p.m. – Induction ceremony of Missak Manouchian into the Pantheon
(And with AFP)