French-Armenian resistance hero Misak Manouchuan joins the Pantheon

Issuance of: 18/06/2023 – 13:01change: 2023/06/18 – 14:23

“The Manouches are part of our greatness,” Macron said in a statement, adding that the French-Armenian poet and communist championed French “universal values” of liberty, equality and fraternity. He added that he embodies

he is to be inducted into the Hall of Fame pantheon – The award already honors eight other heroes of the French Resistance. Jean Moulin – February 21, 2024.

“He’s not the only one to enter the Pantheon. It’s the flames of the entire Resistance,” said his great-niece Misaku Manuchian.

At the family’s request, his wife Meline, who is also a member of the resistance, will join the mausoleum, although she will not be “sanctified” by her husband.

stateless refugees

After arriving in France as a stateless refugee in 1925, Manusian led one of the most active armed groups against the Nazis.

of Manush group Most of the foreign resistance fighters consisted of about 60 men and women, including Jews, and were close to the French Communist Party (PCF).

Manusian carried out nearly 100 sabotage operations in the Paris area, including the September 1943 execution of SS General Julius Ritter, responsible for forced labor.

In 1944, 23 members were rounded up and sentenced to death by a German military court, and the group ceased its activities.

They were sentenced to death in 1944 and Manusian was shot by the Nazis on February 21, 1944.

By entering the Pantheon, Manuchian becomes the first resistance fighter, both foreign and communist, to earn this honor.

Other major French figures to be reburied at the Pantheon on the hills of Paris’ Left Bank include Victor Hugo, Voltaire and Marie Curie.