Meline Manouchian's "Missak Manouchian: Through the Eyes of an Eyewitness" will be presented at FrancoFest 2024 (trailer)

Poet and translator Mark Deleuze recorded Meline’s memoirs about Missak Manouchian half a century ago. They first met at her apartment in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.

Meline's memoirs about Missak were originally published more than 50 years ago under the title "Manoushian." The newly republished edition by newmag includes new documents, facts, and discoveries about this Armenian national hero of France.

The book details how Missak Manouchian became a key figure in the resistance movement. This historical, investigative, and journalistic memoir narrates the lives of Missak and Meline during their time.

A freedom fighter with the spirit of a poet, Missak was one of the leaders of the French anti-fascist resistance during World War II. He survived the Genocide, arrived in France with his brother, and grew up in an orphanage. Missak Manouchian worked as a carpenter at the Citroën factory and later became a writer, founding magazines and penning articles.

In 1935, Missak met his future wife, Meline, who also survived the Genocide and was an orphan. Both were active members of the anti-fascist French Resistance Movement, as well as the French Communist Party and the Immigrant Labor Force.

Manouchian led a group of foreigners living in France within the underground "French Riflemen and Partisans" movement. He was arrested multiple times but escaped from prison and continued his fight. To discredit and disrupt them, the fascists printed the infamous "Red Poster," with 15,000 copies emphasizing that Manouchian and his group were foreigners.

On November 16, 1943, the French police arrested members of the Manouchian group. Meline managed to escape but was sentenced to death in absentia. On February 21, 1944, Manouchiann and 23 of his teammates were executed at Fort Mont-Valérien in the suburbs of Paris.

After the war, Meline fulfilled Missak's last wish by moving to Soviet Armenia. However, the Soviet government confined her to a small apartment in Yerevan, separating her from her family waiting for her in Paris.

Thirty years after Missak's death, Meline gathered all her memories and sorrows, which she poured into this book. In 2024, 35 years after Meline's death, her remains were reinterred alongside Missak at the Panthéon in Paris.

The presentation of "Missak Manouchian: Through the Eyes of an Eyewitness" will occur at FrancoFest2024 on October 12 at 4:00 PM. The book will be available for purchase at a discount that day.