A recognition of the anti-fascist resistance
Eighty years after the Mounchain Group, made up of 23 members of the resistance against the Nazis in France, was shot, the French State pays tribute to them by opening the doors of the Pantheon in Paris. The names of the 23 anti-fascists have been inscribed in the Pantheon and thus Celestino Alfonso, communist and member of the group, becomes the first Spaniard to receive this honor and recognition.
The Manouchian Group and its fight against the Nazis
The group to which Alfonso belonged was named after its leader: Missak Manouchian. Taking advantage of the 80th anniversary of the whole group, the coffins of Manouchian, a poet of Armenian origin, and of his wife Melinée, have been placed at the heart of the monument in which France honors symbols of its history, and also ‘write the names of the rest of the resisters.
Who was Celestino Alfonso?
Alfonso was a member of a special group directed by Manouchian that carried out urban guerrilla actions against important figures of the German Army. The Spaniard, with the pseudonym ‘Pierrot’ and the secret identification number 10,608, integrated this special group of executors together with the Pole Marcel Rajman and the German anti-Nazi Leo Kneler.
The legacy of the Manouchian Group
The Manouchian Group was made up of foreign communists, many Jews, integrated into the organization FTP-MOI (Franc Tiradors Partisans-Mà d’Obra Immigrada). During 1943 it was the most active unit of the resistance in Paris, with attacks on Nazi officers and train derailments. They were all arrested in the autumn of 1943 during a series of major raids by the collaborationist French police, and sentenced to death after a mock trial. All 22 men were shot in February 1944 at the Mont Valérien fortress in Suresnes, outside Paris, while the only woman, Olga Bancic, was sent to Germany to be beheaded.
The last words to his family
Before being executed, the condemned were allowed to give a last message to their families. The Resistance Museum keeps the letter that Alfonso wrote to his family: parents, wife, son and sisters. ‘I am only a soldier who dies for France. I ask you to have a lot of courage, as I have, my hand does not tremble, I know why I die and I am very proud.’
The impact of the anti-fascist resistance
After the execution of these 23 members of the resistance, the Nazi occupation forces tried to use the case to make propaganda against any kind of opposition. However, the effect was the opposite. The Nazis published the so-called ‘Afiche Rojo’, a famous propaganda poster in France that shows ten members of the group, whom they identify as foreigners, communists and Jews in an attempt to discredit the resistance. The population put flowers at the feet of the posters stuck in the street or wrote about them to honor them. The French ‘considered them heroes’.
