63Patrick Bruel, member of the committee supporting the “pantheonization” of the resistance fighter Missak Manouchian, read, with emotion, the last words of the Armenian resistance fighter before being shot at Mont Valérien by the soldiers of Nazi Germany.
🔴 Entrance of Missak and Mélinée #Manouchian at the Pantheon
- LCI (@LCI) February 21, 2024
The singer @PatrickBruel reads the last letter from the resistance fighter to his “beloved little orphan”, Mélinée pic.twitter.com/Xk5rxt3gID
Wednesday February 21, Patrick Bruel opened the entrance ceremony of Missak et Mélinée Manouchian au Pantheon by reading the farewell letter that the resistance fighter wrote to his wife before dying.
My dear Mélinée, my beloved little orphan, in a few hours, I will no longer be in this world. We are going to be shot this afternoon at 15 p.m. This happens to me like an accident in my life, I don't believe it, but yet I know that I will never see you again.
I had joined the Liberation Army as a volunteer soldier and I died on the verge of Victory and the goal. 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 the Freedom Fighters will honor our memory with dignity.
At the moment of death, I proclaim that I have no hatred against the German people or against anyone, everyone will have what they deserve as punishment and as reward. The German people and all other peoples will live in peace and brotherhood after the war which will not last long. Happiness to all…
I have a deep regret for not having made you happy, I would have liked to have had a child with you, as you always wanted. So I beg you to marry after the war, without fail, and have a child for my happiness, and to fulfill my last wish, marry someone who can make you happy. All my property and all my belongings I leave to you, to your sister and to my nephews.
After the war you will be able to claim your right to a war pension as my wife, because I die as a regular soldier in the French army of liberation. With the help of friends who will honor me, you will publish my poems and my writings which are worth reading. You will bring my memories if possible to my parents in Armenia.
I will die with my 23 comrades later with the courage and serenity of a man who has a clear conscience, because personally, I have not harmed anyone and if I have, I will I did without hatred.
Today it's sunny. It is by looking at the sun and the beautiful nature that I loved so much that I will say goodbye to life and to all of you, my dear wife and my dear friends. I forgive all those who have harmed me or who wanted to harm me except the one who betrayed us to redeem his skin and those who sold us. I kiss you very much, as well as your sister and all the friends who know me from far or near, I hold you all close to my heart. Farewell. Your friend, your comrade, your husband.
