Missak Manouchian inducted into France’s Panthéon

The reburial ceremony of French resistance hero Missak Manouchian in Paris started with the reading of Manouchian’s letter to his wife Mélinée:

“My dear Mélinée! In a few hours, I will be gone from this world. We will be shot this afternoon at 3. I don’t believe it, and yet I know that I will never see you again. I do have deep regret that I did not make you happy. I would like to have a child with you, as you always wanted. So, I beg you to marry after the war and have a child to fulfill my last wish. Marry someone who can make you happy.”

Film director and actor Serge Avedikian then read out the names of the heroes of the Resistance. The coffins with the remains of Manouchian and his wife were carried out to the sound of Armenian duduk.

Manouchian was reburied next to such great French figures as Victor Hugo, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Marie and Pierre Curie, Émile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, and others.

Manouchian became the ninth Resistance hero since Jean Moulin in 1964 and also the first foreigner and communist to be inducted into Panthéon.

80 years ago, on February 21, 1944, Manouchian was executed at Fort Mont-Valérien along with his comrades, fighters against the Nazi occupation.