Laure Dautriche 7:48 p.m., October 15, 2021

Hundreds of people came, alongside the families of former resistance fighters, members of the government and Emmanuel Macron, to greet Friday afternoon at the Invalides "the ultimate hero" of the Companions of the Liberation, Hubert Germain, who died Tuesday at the age of 101.

REPORTING

They were 1,038 companions of the Liberation.

The last of them, Hubert Germain, was entitled to a national tribute on Friday afternoon at Les Invalides, three days after his death at the age of 101.

The man was a great resistance who had joined General de Gaulle in 1940. Emmanuel Macron's tribute took place in "his" house: Hubert Germain had lived for several years in the Hôtel des Invalides, where he was a boarder as a companion of the Liberation.

"Undisciplined in everything"

It was to the sound of a traditional song from the Foreign Legion that the coffin was placed on the pavement, in the center of the courtyard of the Invalides. The President of the Republic focused on the youth of Hubert Germain, a "rebellious youth". Hubert Germain was excluded from the various Parisian high schools through which he went, "undisciplined in everything". And this fierce insubordination, the resistant has preserved it all his life, underlined Emmanuel Macron.

"While Pétain has just signed the armistice, he passes the competitive examination for the Naval School and while he composes on the examination table, a revelation: to succeed would lead him to serve an army under the orders of Nazi Germany ", recounted the head of state.

"So here he gets up, refuses to finish his job and says 'I'm going to war'."

And it was there that he joined General de Gaulle, with whom he participated in the Liberation of France from the Nazi yoke.

Buried at Mont Valérien

It is on November 11 that Hubert Germain will be buried at Mont Valérien.

For years, there has been a place and a vault here to bury especially the very last of the companions of the Liberation, in the crypt of this particular place, the main place of execution of resistance fighters during the Second World War.