French President Emmanuel Macron led a ceremony Wednesday honouring Missak Manouchian, a stateless poet of Armenian origin who died fighting the Nazi occupation during World War II. Manouchian’s induction in the Panthéon mausoleum in Paris alongside other French national heroes is seen as a tribute to all the foreign fighters who joined the Resistance.
At a solemn ceremony in the majestic Panthéon building on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the memory of Missak Manouchian and his wife, Mélinée, also a Resistance fighter, were interred in the mausoleum housing France’s national heroes.
The names of 23 of Manouchian’s fellow Resistance fighters, most of whom were shot with him on February 21, 1944, will be engraved in the vault where the couple was laid to rest.
"A grateful France welcomes you, Missak and Mélinée,” said Macron at a ceremony held exactly 80 years after they were killed. "The France of 2024 owes you this honour.”
The induction of Manouchian has been seen as long-overdue recognition of the bravery of foreign communists – many Jewish – who fought the Nazis alongside members of the French Resistance.
Members of the French foreign legion carried the coffins of Manouchian and his wife, draped in French flags into the secular temple.
The belated honour to Missak Manouchian has been seen as long overdue recognition of the bravery of foreign communists – many Jewish – who fought the Nazis alongside French resistants.
Read more‘He wanted to fight for France’: Manouchian honoured as symbol of foreign Resistance fighters
'Quiet heroism'
Under Macron, since 2017 three people have been awarded a place inside the Panthéon: writer Maurice Genevoix, women's rights icon Simone Veil, and US-born entertainer and French Resistance member Josephine Baker.
Baker – the first black woman to receive the honour – had been awarded French nationality before the war.
Last year the president said Manouchian would receive the honour too, paying tribute to his "bravery" and "quiet heroism".
At the time, parliament was debating a controversial immigration bill, which Macron eventually signed into law earlier this year.
He has also called for former French justice minister Robert Badinter, who in 1981 brought an end to capital punishment in France, to be "pantheonised" after he died earlier this month.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
