Arthur de Laborde / Photo credits: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
The stateless and resistant poet Missak Manouchian and 23 of his comrades in arms enter the Pantheon this Wednesday, 80 years after their death. A sign of ultimate recognition for these long-forgotten shadow fighters.
80 years to the day after his execution by the Nazis, communist resistance fighter Missak Manouchian will enter the Pantheon this Wednesday, accompanied by his wife Mélinée Manouchian, during a ceremony chaired by Emmanuel Macron. Who was he ?
At the head of the Francs-tireurs and partisans – Immigrant workforce
Born in the Ottoman Empire, Missak Manouchian survived the Armenian genocide of 1915. He was then sent to a French orphanage in Lebanon then emigrated to France in 1924. A worker, he also took courses at the Sorbonne and began to write poems . He then became involved in politics by joining the French Communist Party.
During the Second World War, he took charge of a resistance organization in Paris called Les Francs-tireurs et partisans – Immigrant Labor Force. “All these fighters find themselves together in the resistance, coming from very different backgrounds and that poses absolutely no problem because they share the matrix of values inherited from the French Revolution,” explains historian Denis Peschanski.
“I am sure that the French people […] will honor our memory with dignity”
A few hours before being shot by the Nazis in November 1944, with all his comrades in arms, Missak Manouchian had written these words in his letter to his wife Mélinée: “I am sure that the French people and all the fighters of the Liberty will honor our memory with dignity.”
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella will be present at this pantheonization against the advice of the President of the Republic and certain descendants of resistance fighters.