Two ceremonies pay tribute this Thursday to Hubert Germain, the last of the companions of the Liberation, who died on October 12.
France commemorates the armistice of 1918 and pays tribute to the last French fighter of the Second World War decorated by General De Gaulle, who died at the age of 101, a month ago. Hubert Germain was to be buried Thursday in a high place in the memory of the Resistance, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron.
Two ceremonies were to follow one another, at the Arc de Triomphe then at Mont-Valérien, which was the main place of execution of resistance fighters during the Second World War, where the body of the eminent resistance member, who died on October 12 in the age 101, will be buried in the crypt of the French combatant memorial.
Read also:Hubert Germain, last interview with the last of the companions
In June 1960, by inaugurating this memorial in Suresnes (in the Paris region), Charles de Gaulle had expressed the wish that the vault n ° 9 of the crypt be reserved for the last of the members of the Order of the Liberation, which he had created to “reward the persons or the military and civil communities which will have distinguished themselves in the work of liberation of France and its empire”.
Only 1,038 people, including six women, received the title of Companion of the Liberation in France. Hubert Germain was the last of them.
The Order of the Liberation “will live”, promises Macron
“France is freedom, France is transmission. She lives, survives and overcomes her trials because, from generation to generation, women and men pass on the torch of the ideal ”, declared the President of the Republic in a tribute to Hubert Germain pronounced under the Arc de triumph during the ceremony commemorating the armistice of November 11, 1918.
The eighteen combat units of the Free French Forces, including nine from the Army, six from the Air Force and three from the Navy, will continue to wear the emblem of the Order of the Liberation. , “Black fodder for mourning, green for hope”, while the Cross of Lorraine “will still adorn the coats of arms of the Compagnons communes” that are Nantes, Grenoble, Paris, Vassieux-en-Vercors, and Ile-de -Sein, detailed the Head of State.
Created in February 1996 at the initiative of Jacques Chirac, the fodder of the Order of the Liberation is intended to perpetuate the Order of the Liberation and to preserve from oblivion the memory of the Companions of the Liberation.
Since 2011, the crew of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier have also been entitled to wear this fodder, since 2018 the military personnel of the DGSE and since 2019 the first-year cadets of the Air School.
“The Order especially will live,” added Emmanuel Macron.
“Protected by the Head of State, guardian of the memory of these women and men who, one day, rose above themselves for the freedom of all, he will make the Companions of Freedom an eternal source of inspiration for all the children of France, always united ”, declared the president.
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