Tortured and then executed on February 21, 1944, along with 22 other members of his Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) group, the poet, worker, and communist activist Missak Manouchian, a member of the FTP-MOI (Francs-Tireurs et Partisans – Immigrant Workers’ Movement), became a symbol of the French Resistance. A martyr whom the oppressed people would never forget.

This execution, heavily publicized by the Germans through the infamous Red Poster, served as Nazi propaganda to destabilize and discredit the Resistance in the eyes of the French people.
This extraordinary destiny takes on a new dimension in February 2024 with the interment of Missak and his wife, Mélinée, in the Panthéon.