The last surviving fighter of the French resistance, honored as a “companion of liberation” by General Charles de Gaulle, has died at the age of 101, DPA reported.
The Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parley, announced yesterday in the Senate the news of the death of Hubert Germain.
He was, according to President Emmanuel Macron, the last of the 1038 “liberation companions” honored by Fifth Republic founder Charles de Gaulle for his role in the fight against Nazi Germany. Macron paid tribute to Germain as the man who restored France’s freedom and restored it.
On June 18, 1940, after Nazi Germany struck France in a flash, de Gaulle called on the BBC from London to continue the struggle. Germain joined the French general in the British capital and then fought in Syria, Libya and Italy. He also played a role in the landing of French and American troops in Provence in 1944, and after World War II was active as a politician.
General de Gaulle established the Order of Liberation in November 1940, which was awarded until early 1946. People awarded this distinction were called “companions of liberation.”
The French president will honor the Resistance fighters with a memorial ceremony in the coming days, the Elysee Palace said.
On November 11, Macron plans to attend the funeral ceremony for Hubert Germain at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and the funeral at the Mont Valerian memorial complex, west of the capital, where the remains of many French resistance fighters are laid to rest.
