Missak Manouchian

Missak Manouchian
Manouchian in the 1930s
Born(1909-09-01)1 September 1909 (registered 1906)
Adıyaman, Ottoman Empire
Died21 February 1944(1944-02-21) (aged 34)
Fort Mont-Valérien, Suresnes, Occupied France
Cause of deathExecution by firing squad
Resting placeIvry Cemetery, Ivry-sur-Seine[1]
Other namesMichel Manouchian (francized)[2][3]
Occupation(s)Trade unionist, poet,[4] translator, political activist
OrganizationFTP-MOI
Political partyFrench Communist Party (from 1934)[5]
MovementLabour movement, Anti-fascism, French Resistance
SpouseMélinée (née Assadourian)
Signature
The "Affiche Rouge" showing the group members and their "crimes", published by the Nazi and French police.

Missak Manouchian (Armenian: Միսաք Մանուշեան; pronounced [misɑkʰ manuʃjɑn], 1 September 1909 – 21 February 1944) was an Armenian poet and communist activist. A survivor of the 1915–1916 Armenian genocide, he moved to France from an orphanage in Lebanon in 1925.[6] He was active in communist Armenian literary circles.[7] During World War II, he became the military commissioner of FTP-MOI, a group consisting of European immigrants, including many Jews,[8][9] in the Paris Region which carried out assassinations and bombings of Nazi targets.[8] According to one author, the Manouchian group was the most active one of the French Resistance.[10] Manouchian and many of his comrades were arrested in November 1943 and executed by the Nazis at Fort Mont-Valérien on 21 February 1944. He is considered a hero of the French Resistance and was entombed in the Panthéon in Paris.[11][12][13]

  1. ^ "Tombe Missak et Mélinée Manouchian". acam-france.org (in French). Association Culturelle Arménienne de Marne-la-Vallée.
  2. ^ Walter, Gérard [in French] (1960). Paris Under the Occupation. Orion Press. p. 209.
  3. ^ Maury, Pierre (2006). La résistance communiste en France, 1940–1945: mémorial aux martyrs communistes (in French). Temps des cerises. p. 240.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Graham was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Khaleyan 1946, p. 72.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mouradian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ter Minassian & Vidal-Naquet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Riding was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rancière was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Argyle, Ray (2014). The Paris Game: Charles de Gaulle, the Liberation of Paris, and the Gamble that Won France. Dundurn. p. 434. ISBN 9781459722873.
  11. ^ "Hommage au résistant Missak Manouchian". Le Parisien (in French). 15 November 2014. ...au héros de la résistance et militant communiste Missak Manouchian...
  12. ^ de Chabalier, Blaise (16 September 2009). "Stéphane Courtois : "Manouchian fut une erreur de casting"". Le Figaro (in French). Morts en héros, Missak Manouchian...
  13. ^ "EN DIRECT - Missak Manouchian et ses frères d'armes étrangers sont entrés au Panthéon". Le Figaro (in French). 21 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.