VIDEOS. Tributes to Hubert Germain: four sequences to remember from the burial of the last Companion of the Libé – Franceinfo

“Would we be here without Hubert Germain?” Emmanuel Macron chaired, Thursday, November 11, a last tribute of the nation to the last Companion of the Liberation, To the occasion of the 103rd anniversary of the armistice of 1918. Two ceremonies took place: at the Arc de Triomphe then at Mont-Valérien (Hauts-de-Seine), the main place of execution of resistance fighters during the Second World War . Franceinfo has selected four sequences from this day.

>> Death of Hubert Germain: who was this Companion of the Liberation to whom homage is paid at Mont-Valérien?

Hubert Germain’s coffin escorted to the Arc de Triomphe

The coffin of the last Companion of the Liberation was transferred Thursday morning from the Invalides to the Arc de Triomphe aboard an AMX-10 armored tank called “Bir Hakeim”. The funeral convoy then stopped at the foot of the Champs-Elysées for a time of meditation in front of the statue of General de Gaulle, as Hubert Germain himself had requested. The coffin of the illustrious resistant was then placed under the Arc de Triomphe, next to the unknown soldier, for the traditional ceremony of commemoration of November 11.

Emmanuel Macron’s speech under the Arc de Triomphe

“At barely 20, he left everything. His Drôme lands, his family, his friends, to go to London. And soon, with honor and fidelity, he covered himself with glory at Bir Hakeim“Said Emmanuel Macron Thursday morning, facing Hubert Germain’s coffin, placed under the Arc de Triomphe. “Would we be here without them?”, asked the Head of State, referring to the 1,038 people, including six women, who received the title of Companion of the Liberation. “France is freedom, France is transmission. She lives, survives and overcomes her trials because, from generation to generation, women and men pass on the torch of the ideal”, added the President of the Republic.

The arrival of the coffin at Mont-Valérien and the tears of Emmanuel Macron

Emmanuel Macron wiped away a few tears listening to the choir who sang The Song of the Partisans. “My father had great admiration for the president [Emmanuel Macron] and I think it was mutual “, commented on France 2 Patrick Germain, the son of the Companion of the Liberation who died on October 12, at the end of the ceremony. “I had the opportunity to meet the president during the ceremonies at the Invalides and I knew the very deep bonds which united the president to my father.”

The cross of Lorraine carved in the wood of the framework of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral

The coffin of Hubert Germain entered, at 3 p.m., in the crypt of the memorial of combatant France, at Mont-Valérien, to rest there definitively in the middle of 16 other combatants of the Second World War. In the crypt, Emmanuel Macron prayed alone in front of the coffin, on which he placed a cross of Lorraine carved in the wood of the framework of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, as Hubert Germain had wished.