"Great men the grateful country."
The Pantheon, on the pediment of which this formula is engraved, should welcome the body of Robert Badinter, architect of the abolition of the death penalty who died on February 9.
“Your name must be inscribed in the Pantheon,” declared Emmanuel Macron during the national tribute in honor of the former Minister of Justice, Wednesday February 14 in Paris.
Since the French Revolution and the entry into the Pantheon of Mirabeau (who was ultimately excluded), Voltaire and Rousseau, the remains of 81 personalities have been transferred there, including a little more than half during the First Empire.
In the 21st century, nine big names have been honored, and soon 11, with the arrival on February 21 of the Manouchian couple.
Alexandre Dumas, writer (2002)
On November 30, 2002 at the end of the afternoon, the body of Alexandre Dumas marched down rue Soufflot surrounded by the four musketeers on horseback.
On the dais which covered the coffin, was inscribed the famous maxim of the king's soldiers:
"All for one, one for all"
.
Alain Decaux, honorary president of the Society of Friends of Alexandre Dumas, then the President of the Republic Jacques Chirac, gave a speech.
Alexandre Dumas.
Stefano Bianchetti / Bridgeman Images
Also readIn the making of the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Pierre Brossolette, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion and Jean Zay,
“the spirit of resistance”
(2015)
On May 27, 2015, National Resistance Day, Pierre Brossolette, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion and Jean Zay jointly entered the Pantheon.
They are all four
“great figures who evoke the spirit of resistance”
, indicated the President of the Republic François Hollande at the time.
Pierre Brossolette
was one of the main leaders and heroes of the French resistance during World War II.
Arrested and tortured by the SS, he committed suicide by throwing himself out of the window of the Gestapo headquarters.
Pierre Brossolette.
Bridgeman Images
Germaine Tillion
was an ethnologist and a resistance fighter.
She was deported to the Ravensbrück camp, from which she escaped, after leading a Parisian network that she had created with her mother Emilie.
After the war, Germaine Tillion investigated torture in Algeria.
Germaine Tillion.
Bridgeman Images
Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz
, niece of General de Gaulle, was a resistance fighter.
She carried out intelligence activities for the same network as Germaine Tillion, with whom she became friends at the Ravensbrück camp, where she was also deported.
After the war, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz campaigned for human rights and fought against poverty.
Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz Bridgeman Images
Jean Zay
is a former Minister of National Education.
Encouraged by Léon Blum, he had a dazzling political career before enlisting in the army at the start of the Second World War.
He was imprisoned by the Vichy regime and became the notorious target of an anti-Semitic campaign.
He was eventually taken from his prison and murdered by the Militia.
Jean Zay.
Bridgeman Images
Also read: Yves Meyer, smuggler of the memory of the Resistance
Simone and Antoine Veil, political couple (2018)
On July 1, 2018, Simone Veil entered the Pantheon alongside her husband Antoine.
“The decision to bring Simone Veil into the Pantheon was not only mine nor that of her family, but that of all French people
,” declared President Emmanuel Macron at the start of his speech.
Deported to Auschwitz at the age of 16, Simone Veil was at the origin of the law decriminalizing abortion in 1974, as Minister of Health.
She was also the first woman president of the European Parliament, before being elected to the French Academy.
Antoine and Simone Veil.
Bridgeman Images
More than the
“husband of Simone Veil”
, Antoine was a permanent support for his wife during their 67 years of life together.
He had a rich career in ministries and then as an entrepreneur.
Antoine Veil also actively participated privately in the development of the Veil law on abortion.
Maurice Genevoix, writer and poet (2020)
With Maurice Genevoix, it is all
“those of 14”
who enter the Pantheon on November 11, 2020, the high point of the commemorations of the centenary of the First World War.
With
Those of 14
, a collection of stories from the Great War collected in 1949, Maurice Genevoix
“fixed for posterity the faces and voices, the words and the feelings of 14-18”
, greeted the Élysée.
The writer joined the French Academy in 1946, before becoming its permanent secretary in 1958.
“You humanized the function wonderfully
,” regretted Joseph Kessel when Maurice Genevoix, eager for freedom to write, resigned in 1973.
Maurice Genevoix.
Louis Monier / Bridgeman Images
Also read: Maurice Genevoix and his Great War on stage
Joséphine Baker, singer and resistance fighter (2021)
“Incarnation of the French spirit”
, according to the Élysée, Joséphine Baker is the last personality to have entered the Pantheon.
And the sixth wife.
Icon of the Roaring Twenties, the singer, dancer and actress of American origin was also a resistance fighter and an
“honorable correspondent”
for the French secret services during the Second World War.
“War heroine.
Fighter.
Dancer.
A singer.
Black woman defending black people, but first and foremost a woman defending the human race.
American and French.
Joséphine Baker led so many battles with freedom, lightness, cheerfulness
,” Emmanuel Macron described her when she entered the Pantheon.
Josephine Baker.
Bridgeman Images