Mélinée Manouchian (born Melina Assadourian or Soukémian; hy, Մելինէ Մանուշեան; 1913 - 1989) was a French-Armenian ''résistante'' and the widow of
Missak Manouchian
Missak Manouchian (Western hy, Միսաք Մանուշեան; , 1 September 1906 – 21 February 1944) was a French-Armenian poet and communist activist. An Armenian genocide survivor, he moved to France from an orphanage in Lebanon in 1925. H ...
.
Biography
She was born in 1913 in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
as Melina Assadourian (or Soukémian). During the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
she lost her parents and was taken, along with her elder sister, to a Protestant orphanage in
Smyrne. Then she moved to
Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
. After 1926 she lived in
Marseilles
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, where she learned French and studied accounting. She met her future husband
Missak Manouchian
Missak Manouchian (Western hy, Միսաք Մանուշեան; , 1 September 1906 – 21 February 1944) was a French-Armenian poet and communist activist. An Armenian genocide survivor, he moved to France from an orphanage in Lebanon in 1925. H ...
in 1934. In 1935 she became secretary of the Armenian Relief Committee. She was in close contact with
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...
's family. According to Aida Aznavour, the Manouchians "during the long years — and what years! — played an outstanding role in the life of our family". During the
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
she became a heroic companion to her husband. She "posed incognito at the scene of a guerilla attack to observe carefully the movements of each actor and note the results of the operation and the reaction of the public". From the early 1940s she regularly made, copied and distributed forbidden anti-fascist literature. When Missak was arrested for the first time, she asked Micha Aznavourian to take her to the camp at
Compiègne
Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''.
Administration
Compiègne is the seat of two cantons:
* Compiègne-1 (with 19 c ...
on his bicycle. She succeeded in passing some food to her husband (prisoner number 351) and even visited him for a second.
After the last arrest of Missak, she was sentenced to death in absentia, but was hidden and saved by the Aznavourians. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
she lived and worked in
Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...
, then in the 1960s she returned to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. In 1954 she wrote her memoirs about Missak.
In her interview in the 1985 documentary ''
Des terroristes à la retraite'' Manouchian implied strongly that the individuals who betrayed the Manouchian Group could be found in the leadership of the
Communist Party of France
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...
.
[American film, Volume 11, American Film Institute, 1985, p. 34] In particular, Manouchian accused
Boris Holban
Boris Holban (20 April 1908 – 27 June 2004) was a Russian-born Franco-Romanian communist known for his role in the French Resistance as the leader of FTP-MOI group in Paris and for ''l’Affaire Manouchian'' controversy of the 1980s.
Communist a ...
of being the man responsible for her husband's arrest, claiming that he refused her husband's request to locate the FTP-MOI group out of Paris and threatened to have him shot as a deserter if did leave Paris. The American scholar Brett Bowles noted that Mosco Boucault,, the film's director, went out of his way to portray Manouchian in the most favorable light possible. Bowles noted that in the film: "Visually, Mélinée’s appearance, body language, and the interview site all suggest generosity, candor, and truthfulness. Wearing a brown long sleeve sweater and flowered blouse open at the neck, she sits comfortably in the living room of her modest apartment on an overstuffed chair with legs uncrossed and looks directly into the camera as she speaks, occasionally pumping her hands for emphasis". Furthermore, Boucault shot a series of close-ups of Manouchian's face and was very sympathetic in his questions to her, in marked contrast to the accusatory tone he took in his interview with Holban. She launched a public debate by stating that comrades of the victims had done nothing to prevent their capture and execution.
The last letter
In 1955, on the occasion of the dedication of a street in the
20th arrondissement of Paris named for the Manouchian group,
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...
wrote a poem, "Strophes pour se souvenir", loosely inspired by the last letter that Missak Manouchian wrote to his wife Mélinée:
Mélinée oh my love my orphaned one,
I tell you to live and bear children.
After the execution of Missak, Mélinée never remarried, nor had children.
See also
*
The Army of Crime
''The Army of Crime'' (french: L'Armée du crime) is a 2009 French drama-war film directed by Robert Guédiguian and based on a story by Serge Le Péron, who is also one of three credited for the screenplay. It received a wide release in France o ...
Articles
*
References
External links
BiographyLivre Mélinée Manouchian "Manouchian" in the catalogue of the national library of France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manouchian, Melinee
1913 births
1989 deaths
French people of Armenian descent
Armenians from the Ottoman Empire
French Resistance members
FTP-MOI
Armenian genocide survivors
Affiche Rouge
Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Greece
Greek emigrants to France
People from Istanbul