Two ceremonies will follow one another, at the Arc de Triomphe then at Mont-Valérien, 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 at the age of 101 years , will be buried in the crypt of the war memorial.

In June 1960, by inaugurating this memorial in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine), 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, that 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.

Hubert Germain was the last of them.

Thursday, "it is the last companion who will symbolically enter with his 1,037 companions to Mont Valérien", summarized General Christian Baptiste, national delegate of the Order of the Liberation.

Pending this final tribute, the French could meditate on Wednesday in front of his coffin covered with the blue-white-red flag under the dome of the Invalides.

Emmanuel Macron bows before the coffin of "the ultimate hero of the Companions of the Liberation", Hubert Germain, who died at the age of 101, during a national tribute at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, October 15, 2021 THOMAS COEX AFP

Thursday morning, the coffin will be hoisted on an AMX-10 tank and will go up the Champs-Élysées, accompanied by the escort of the Republican Guard, to participate in the traditional Armistice ceremony, which will be attended by the American Vice-President Kamala. Harris.

Emmanuel Macron must then deliver a speech in which he will pay tribute to Hubert Germain who, "at dawn as at dusk, was the last to surrender", according to the words he had made at the tribute ceremony Invalides on October 15.

He then praised the "ardor" and "determination" of this "resistance from the very beginning", who then became a Gaullist deputy and Minister of Georges Pompidou.

The president will announce what will become of the Order of Liberation created in November 1940. "The companions thought that their experience could serve as a source of inspiration for French youth," General Baptiste explained on Wednesday, indicating that the museum of The Order, located in Les Invalides, was to act as a "citizenship compass" for new generations.

Wood of Notre-Dame

At the end of the ceremony, the convoy will head to Mont-Valérien, for a final tribute at 2:30 p.m., in the presence of the Head of State.

The ceremony will take place "in the greatest sobriety and in silence" with the exception of a Marseillaise and the Partisan Song, according to the Élysée.

Emmanuel Macron will meditate alone in the crypt in front of the coffin, on which he will place a cross of Lorraine carved in the wood of the framework of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, as Hubert Germain had wished.

This ceremony is inspired by that desired by Charles de Gaulle during the celebration of November 11, 1945. That year, the bodies of 15 men and women, later joined by a sixteenth, symbolizing France in combat from 1939 to 1945 , had been welcomed on the hill of Mont-Valérien.

National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen hoped to attend the tribute to Hubert Germain on Thursday, according to Le Parisien.

The Élysée, however, opposed it to an end of inadmissibility, ensuring that no parliamentarian or party leader had been invited to this ceremony which is not open to the public.

Visiting Paris since Tuesday, Kamala Harris went, Wednesday afternoon with her husband Doug Emhoff to the American military cemetery of Suresnes, where 1,565 Americans are buried.

This place symbolizes in the eyes of the White House the "common values" of the two allied countries.

She was then received at the Elysee Palace by Emmanuel Macron who insisted on the "crucial" nature of Franco-American cooperation.

Thursday, at the end of the ceremony at Mont-Valérien, the Head of State and the Vice-President will meet at the Paris Peace Forum.

© 2021 AFP