Friday, Jean-Pierre Sakoun, the president of the committee which supports the pantheonization of the resistant of Armenian origin Missak Manouchian, had declared that Emmanuel Macron, was “extremely favorable” to it. “He will give his answer on Sunday”, on the occasion of the 83rd anniversary of the Appeal of June 18, he added.
And his answer should be positive, as reported this Saturday evening France Inter, quoting an adviser to the president. Missak Manouchian should be accompanied by his wife Mélinée, also resistant.
Hundreds of operations
A refugee in France after the Armenian genocide, Missak Manouchian formed the “Manouchian group”, one of the most active armed movements of the Resistance. This group of foreign resistance fighters close to the French Communist Party (PCF) was made up of about sixty men and women of the Francs-tireurs et partisans de la Main-d’oeuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI).
During the summer and autumn of 1943, he carried out nearly a hundred armed and sabotage operations in the Paris region, including the execution in Paris of SS General Julius Ritter, head of the Compulsory Labor Service (STO). It was dismantled in November 1943 and 22 of its members, including Missak Manouchian, were shot at Mont-Valérien, in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine), on February 21, 1944.
“Happiness to those who will survive us”
The German authorities tried to discredit them in the Red Poster, a German propaganda poster massively plastered in France during the Occupation, by castigating an “army of crime” in the hands of foreigners.
Just before being executed, Missak Manouchian wrote to his wife Mélinée: “Happiness to those who will survive us and taste the sweetness of freedom and peace of tomorrow. I am sure that the French people and all freedom fighters will be able to honor our memory with dignity”.
The symbol of Mont-Valérien
An entry into the Pantheon of this figure of the resistance was ardently supported by the French left, in particular the socialist mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, whose city is home to a large Armenian community, and the PCF.
Emmanuel Macron will go to the Glade of the shot at Mont-Valérien on Sunday, in the presence of Robert Bierenbaum, former FTP-MOI resistance fighter, whom he will decorate. Mont-Valérien was the main place of execution of resistance fighters and hostages by the German army during the Second World War. Charles de Gaulle inaugurated the Memorial of Fighting France there in 1960.