"The life of Hubert Germain is an anthology of commitment and courage", launches Emmanuel Macron, when the coffin of Hubert Germain, last companion of the Release.

A national tribute was paid to him, Friday, October 15, in the form of "a military ceremony called funeral honors", according to what had been indicated by the Elysee after the announcement of the death, at the age of 101, of the last member of the Order created by General de Gaulle in 1940.

"With the 1,037 companions of the Liberation who raised France from the abyss, he formed a fraternal order, a phalanx of the ideal", continues the Head of State, in a eulogy delivered in silence on more absolute.

"At dawn as at dusk, he was the last to surrender".

The military honors were rendered to him by the soldiers of his former unit, the 13th demi-brigade de Légion Etrangère (13th DBLE) who, wearing the white legionaries' kepi, carried his medals and his coffin draped in blue-white-red in the courtyard of the Hôtel des Invalides.

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National tribute to Hubert Germain.https: //t.co/y337BxVL9g

- Élysée (@Elysee) October 15, 2021

"A fierce insubordination"

With the disappearance of Hubert Germain, a page in history is turned.

"Resistance from the start", former Gaullist deputy and Minister of Georges Pompidou, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, his exceptional destiny made him a true symbol.

"It all started in the spring of 1940, when Pétain had just signed the armistice", relates Emmanuel Macron, after having drawn the portrait of a teenager "undisciplined in everything, of a fierce insubordination". "He passes the competitive examination for the Naval Academy, 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. So here he stands, refuses to complete this work and declares: 'I am going to war' ".

Hubert Germain passed away on Tuesday at the age of 101.

After this national tribute, Emmanuel Macron will preside over the burial ceremony, scheduled for November 11 at the Arc de Triomphe and Mont-Valérien, the main place of execution of resistance fighters during World War II, where Hubert Germain's body will rest in the crypt of the French combatant memorial.

#Homage to Lieutenant Hubert Germain.

Immense admiration in front of this fighter of Free France, Companion of the Liberation, whose course, commitment, courage and determination should inspire us.

https://t.co/cs2HNjMFac pic.twitter.com/AAZ2SP3tmO

- Chief of Defense Staff (@CEMA_FR) October 15, 2021

"With his brothers in arms, he had defended freedom. With his soul brothers, all those who recognize themselves as such, he was going to rebuild fraternity", also declared the head of state, who had appointed Hubert Germain Chancellor of Honor of the Order of the Liberation in November 2020.

"Our task will be to continue this fight with the same ardor. We will do it," promises Emmanuel Macron.

A promise supported by the Minister for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, on Twitter.

"Let us remember and do not let the flame of the Resistance go out. Let us carry the transmission of the memory of the Second World War, it is our common memory," she wrote.

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"Faithful to the values ​​embodied by General de Gaulle

If Hubert Germain is above all recognized as a symbol of resistance during the Second World War, he is also recognized for his political commitment.

"He is the one who remained faithful to General de Gaulle and Gaullism until the end," recalls Bruno Daroux, international columnist for France 24. "He chaired a Gaullist organization at the end of the 1960s and became minister under Pompidou. from 1972 to 1974, but still in the Gaullist orbit ", he continues.

Indeed, demobilized at the end of the war, Hubert Germain then went into 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 post-war France and to rebuild the Republic which he had set to liberate his country", had greeted the Elysee in a press release released Tuesday on the announcement of his death.

"It will have been his alpha and his omega", adds Bruno Daroux.

"From a very young age until his death, he remained faithful to the values ​​embodied by General de Gaulle".

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With Reuters

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