Emmanuel Macron presided on Friday a national tribute ceremony in Hubert Germain, last of the 1,038 companions of the Liberation, died Tuesday at the age of 101.
Le Monde with Reuters
“At dawn as at dusk, Hubert Germain was the last to make arms.” Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic, welcomed, Friday, October 15, Hubert Germain “The ultimate hero” of 1 038 Companions of Liberation, at a national tribute in the court of the invalids, in Paris.
The military honors were returned to him by the soldiers of his former unity, the e half-brigade foreign legion (13 e dble), which, capped From the white kepi of the Legionaries, have worn its medals and its coffin draped blue, white, red in the courtyard of the invalids.
“The life of Hubert Germain is an anthology of engagement and courage,” summed up the head of state before the coffin of the last deceased liberation companion on Tuesday at the age of 101. “At dawn as at dusk, Hubert Germain was the last to render up arms,” Macron recalled, asking too the “passion” and the “determination” of this “resistant of the first hour”, became with the Time “The even incarnation of all [his] companions”.
Continue the memorial work
The head of state has once again welcomed the companions of liberation, “this circle that raised France of the abyss”, of which Hubert was part of 1944, in a speech of recognition and tenderness .
Emmanuel Macron, who commemored alongside Hubert Germain the 81 e Anniversary of the call of June 18, 1940, also made the “oath” to continue the work memorial, so dear to this companion of liberation, who loved to testify especially in schools.
The President praised the “tireless quests of a life of resistance and hope” of the veteran of France free, to join the general of Gaulle in London in June 1940 while he was preparing the contest of the Naval School. “With his brothers of arms, he had defended freedom. With his brothers of souls, all those who recognize themselves as such, he was going to rebuild the fraternity,” said the head of state, who had appointed Hubert Germain Chancellor of the Order of Liberation in November 2020.
“Last chancellor of honor of the order of liberation, he attacked the ardent embers until his last breath, they will not go out with him,” promised Emmanuel Macron, in front of several relatives of Families of Liberation Companions and Government Members including Prime Minister Jean Castex.
“Our task will be to continue with the same ardor this fight,” said Macron. “The millennium silence of the spirit of resistance and French fierce accompanies you,” he continued.
After this national tribute, Emmanuel Macron will also chair the burning ceremony of Hubert Germain on November 11 at the Arc de Triomphe and Mont-Valerian, the main place of resistance during the Second World War, where His body will rest in the encryption of the fighter france memorial.
A life of combat
After the death of Daniel Cordier last year, Hubert Germain was the last companion of Liberation still alive, on the 1,038 – including six women – whom this order was created by General de Gaulle in November 1940 for The first French to respond to the call of June 18th.
Son of a general of the colonial troops who had rallied with Marshal Petain and the Vichy regime, he had been illustrated with the e dble at Bir-Hakeim battle, In Libya, in 1942. Seriously injured in May 1944 in Italy where he had landed, he was decorated with the Cross of Liberation by General de Gaulle, before landing in Provence in August, to release France from the Nazi occupation. .
Demobilized at the end of the war, Hubert Germain had launched politics, becoming mayor of Saint-Chéron (Essonne), then in the 1960s deputy and vice-president of the UDR group, the Gaullist movement, and finally Minister of the Government of Pierre Messmer.
He had put “the same ardor to rebuild the post-war France and to refound the Republic he had put to liberate his country,” had welcomed the Elysee in a statement broadcast on Tuesday to the announcement of his death.