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The Panthéon: An Iconic Paris Monument
Constructed between 1758 and 1790, the Panthéon is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Paris. Its massive domed roof and limestone columns are modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. The purpose of the structure has changed many times over the centuries. Originally built to honor the patron saint of Paris, the monument has transitioned from a place of worship to a national memorial over time. Today, it houses the remains (both physically and symbolically) of some of France’s most famous names. Some of the people honored at the Panthéon include Voltaire, Marie and Pierre Curie and Louis Braille.
The interior of the Panthéon resembles a great cathedral, to match its original purpose. However, instead of exclusively religious iconography, visitors will find marble sculptures and art work depicting both religious and secular themes. There are also great works of art depicting elements from the French Revolution, a critical turning point in the history of France.
The lower level of the monument houses the crypts. This is where some of the most famous people in all of French history are honored, including several French Resistance fighters (more on that below).
The monument is open from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm. Adult tickets are €16 and should be purchased in advance. For more information on planning a visit, check out the official website.
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Understanding the French Resistance
The history of the French Resistance in WWII stretches back to the fall of France following the German invasion in 1940. Various groups began forming independently around the country. They were eventually unified into a more cohesive resistance movement under the leadership of Jean Moulin (described below). The French Resistance included both men and women as well as people of every age, nationality and religious background.
The resistance movement worked tirelessly throughout the war to combat the oppression of German occupation. They published secret newspapers, passed along encrypted messages and helped hide and transport Jews and other people attempting to escape Nazi persecution. As the Allies prepared for their invasion in Normandy, members of the French Resistance were on hand to sabotage the German attempts to repel the landings. They cut phone lines, dismantled railroad tracks and did anything within their power to give the Allies any advantage.
Many members of the French Resistance were captured, tortured and killed. Anyone who was viewed to be aiding the enemy or interfering with the Nazi cause could be executed. It was an incredibly dangerous mission, but one that nearly 400,000 people participated in throughout the war. By the end of the fighting, an estimated 30,000 members of the resistance had been killed. These brave men and women risked everything in the hopes of seeing their nation experience the joys of freedom once more.
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Honoring French Resistance Fighters at the Panthéon
Prominent French figures have been interred in the Panthéon since it was completed. The crypt has continuously been filled with new French heroes ever since. The first member of the French Resistance to be honored with a tomb in the Panthéon was Jean Moulin in 1964. An additional seven French Resistance fighters were interred between 2015 and 2026. By placing members of the French Resistance in the Panthéon, the nation of France is making one thing very clear. These brave men and women deserve a place of honor among the very best our country has to offer.
I have included a short description of the current French Resistance fighters interred at the Panthéon below.
Jean Moulin (1899-1943)
Jean Moulin remains one of the most important and well-known members of the French Resistance movement, largely because he helped create it. Following the German occupation of France in 1940, several resistance groups began to spring up across the country. After a clandestine meeting in England with the exiled leader of the Free French, Charles de Gaulle, Moulin returned to France with the mission of uniting these various groups into a unified resistance network. He set up and chaired the National Council of the Resistance beginning in May 1943. One of the primary goals of the council was to ensure the French people were able to assist in the inevitable Allied invasion of Europe.
Moulin traveled across the country extensively, gathering support as well as information to send back to England. Unfortunately, Moulin was betrayed and captured in June 1943 outside of the city of Lyon. He was subjected to weeks of torture yet never betrayed a single secret of the resistance network. Moulin succumbed to his wounds on a train journey to Germany. He was 44 years old.
Moulin’s ashes were transferred to the Panthéon in 1964. He was eulogized by fellow resistance fighter André Malraux. The speech given to honor Moulin on this day has become one of the most famous in all of France.
"Today, young people of France, may you think of this man as you would have reached out your hands to his poor, unrecognizable face on that last day, to those lips that never let fall a word of betrayal: on that day, his was the face of France."
Geneviève de Gaulle (1920-2002)
The niece of famed leader Charles de Gaulle, Geneviève joined the French Resistance in the early days of the German occupation. She was arrested for involvement in the group in July of 1943 and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. She was kept alive in the camp due to the intervention of SS leader Heinrich Himmler who believed she could prove valuable in a prisoner exchange.
Ravensbrück was liberated in April 1945 and she was set free. Following the end of the war, de Gaulle was appalled at the lack of awareness of the true suffering experienced in the concentration camps, even among Allied nations. She devoted the rest of her life to championing the cause for the victims of Nazi atrocities, including standing witness on the trial of the “Butcher of Lyon,” Niklaus Barbie.
De Gaulle married a fellow concentration camp survivor. The couple had four children together. She lived to the age of 81. De Gaulle was symbolically interred in the Panthéon in 2015. Her family requested that her actual remains were not moved, but soil from her gravesite was placed in the monument.
Germaine Tillion (1907-2008)
Germaine Tillion became involved in the French Resistance shortly after Germany’s invasion of France when she gave a Jewish family her papers in order for them to avoid detection by the Nazis. From there she became heavily involved in various resistance efforts including escape assistance and intelligence gathering.
Tillion was betrayed by a priest in 1942 and deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she met fellow resistance member Geneviève de Gaulle. Tillion’s mother, who also worked with the resistance was sent to the camp in 1944. After failing to perform her work duties, Tillion’s mother was sent to the gas chamber in March 1945.
In the years before the war, Tillion had worked as an ethnologist. She continued her work in the years after her imprisonment in an attempt to understand how civilization had reached such a low point. She continued to fight against the use of torture as well as the rights of women throughout her life.
Tillion lived to be 100 years old. She was symbolically interred along with several of her fellow resistance fighters in the Panthéon in 2015.
Pierre Brossolette (1903-1944)
Pierre Brossolette was a French journalist and early denouncer of the Nazis. He fought in the French army during the German invasion. Following France’s defeat, Brossolette and his wife opened a bookstore which served as a hub for resistance activities. He worked closely with Charles de Gaulle after being summoned to meet him in London in 1942.
Over the next several years, Brossolette was sent back to France several times after his initial departure to England. His missions required him to link up various resistance networks and help rally civilians in occupied zones of the country. After the capture of Jean Moulin in 1943, Brossolette was appointed as the head of the National Council of the Resistance.
After his third clandestine trip to France, Brossolette was attempting to return to England by boat when his craft was shipwrecked by a storm. He was captured shortly after. After suffering days of intense torture, Brossolette chose to throw himself from a sixth floor window rather than risk implicating his fellow resistance fighters. He died shortly later as a result of his wounds. He was 40 years old. His ashes were transferred to the Panthéon in 2015.
Simone Veil (1927-2017)
Simone Veil was born into a Jewish family in the south of France. Following the German occupation of France, the family was able to avoid deportation for several years. When Veil was 16 years old she was apprehended by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. The rest of her family was also arrested and sent to various concentration camps and occupied zones. Her mother, father and brother all perished within the camps. Only Simone and her sisters survived and were later reunited.
After the war, Veil became a prominent activist for women’s rights, focusing primarily on reproductive rights and family planning. In 1979 she became the first female president of the European Parliament. She continued to fight for human rights throughout her life, vowing to ensure the horrors she experienced would never be repeated. She was honored with humanitarian awards from over a dozen nations around the world.
Veil died at the age of 89. Her funeral was attended by several politicians, the president of France and many of her fellow Holocaust survivors. Simone and her husband Antoine were moved to the Panthéon in 2018.
Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
Born in America, Josephine Baker traveled to Paris in 1925 to continue her pursuit of a successful career in entertainment. She found success in Paris and became a well-known singer, dancer and actress. Before long, Baker was one of the biggest stars in all of Europe, starring in major motion pictures shown across the continent.
When France fell to the Nazis, Baker was able to use her fame to enter a new field, espionage. Baker’s prominence ensured that Germans stationed in occupied France were eager to take a seat in her shows. While performing for the enemy, Baker kept a keen ear out for any helpful information she could pass along to the French resistance movement. She also passed secret messages along through her song lyrics, completely unbeknownst to her audience.
In addition to her role in intelligence gathering, Baker assisted in the hiding and transport of Jews and resistance fighters. Her Château in the south of France served as a safe house where she could provide refugees with food, documents and supplies to allow them to continue on their journey to safety.
After the war, Baker returned to America and used her prominence to fight for equality in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. She adopted twelve children of different backgrounds and ethnicities and raised them as her own. Baker died at the age of 68 in Paris. She was symbolically interred in the Panthéon in 2021.
Missak (1906-1944) and Mélinée (1913-1989) Manouchian
Missak and Mélinée were both born in the former Ottoman Empire to Armenian families. They survived the Armenian Genocide but were both orphaned by the event. Both fled the conflict of their homelands and settled in France where they met and married. Despite already surviving such pain and suffering, greater hardships still lay before the young couple.
Missak became heavily involved in the French Resistance, taking leadership of a resistance group largely made up of immigrants. Mélinée took up the cause of the resistance alongside her husband. Missak was arrested along with several of his comrades in November 1943. His status as an immigrant was used against him as he was frequently portrayed as an “outsider” who was doing more harm than good to the people of France.
Missak was executed by firing squad in February 1944. He was 34 years old. His final words to Mélinée are immortalized in a letter he wrote to her in his final hours.
“I will soon die with 23 of my comrades, with the courage and the serenity of a man with a peaceful conscience; for, personally, I’ve done no one ill, and if I have, it was without hatred. Today is sunny. It’s in looking at the sun and the beauties of nature that I loved so much that I will say farewell to life and to all of you, my beloved wife, and my beloved friends.”
Mélinée did not remarry after Missak’s death. She spent her later years working to preserve her husband’s memory. She died at the age of 76. Missak and Mélinée were interred in the Panthéon in 2024.
Marc Bloch (1886-1944)
Marc Bloch was a French historian who served his country in both world wars. Due to his high standing in France, Bloch was initially given special accommodations during the German occupation despite the fact that he was Jewish. As the war intensified across Europe, it became clear to Bloch that his religion threatened his safety. He became involved with the French Resistance in 1943. Bloch used his role as a historian as well as his past army experience to assist in his resistance efforts.
Bloch was arrested in 1944 after being betrayed by a fellow resistance fighter. His capture was applauded by the Nazis due to his high standing in the resistance movement and the fact that he was Jewish. Bloch suffered intense torture but refused to give away any valuable information. During his time in prison, the Allies successfully landed in Normandy. The Nazis needed to quickly evacuate the area and chose to murder any prisoners located in the region. Bloch was one of these prisoners. He was 57 years old.
Bloch and his wife Simonne will be interred in the Panthéon in 2026.
Honoring the Righteous Among the Nations at the Panthéon
The Righteous Among the Nations is an honor presented to non-Jews by the State of Israel. It was created in 1953 in an effort to honor individuals who aided in the protection and rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, an act which placed the individual at great personal risk. Anyone who receives this honor also receives honorary citizenship to the State of Israel.
Over 4,000 French citizens have received this honor. French Jews had a 75 percent survival rate during the war due in large part to the actions of everyday French citizens who fought to hide and protect them from Nazi persecution. In 2007, the president of France Jacques Chirac honored these individuals with an inscription within the crypt of the Panthéon. The inscription states:
“Under the cloak of hatred and darkness that spread over France during the years of occupation, thousands of lights refused to be extinguished. Named as Righteous Among the Nations or remaining anonymous, women and men, of all backgrounds and social classes, saved Jews from anti-Semitic persecution and the extermination camps. Braving the risks involved, they embodied the honor of France, and its values of justice, tolerance and humanity.”
Additional WWII Sites in Paris
Paris is home to countless world-class sites and museums, including several additional WWII sites. If time permits, consider checking out a WWII tour while in Paris. You can also check out some additional tour options below.
Mémorial de la Shoah
The city’s Holocaust Memorial is located in the 4th arrondissement, a neighborhood which was home to a large Jewish population before the start of the war. The museum houses both permanent and temporary exhibits which help maintain the memory of those lost in the Holocaust.
For more information visit the memorial’s official website.
The Deportation Martyrs Memorial
This moving memorial honors the 200,000 people of France who were deported to concentration camps during the war. Its carefully planned design allows visitors to experience a sense of imprisonment inside the memorial. It is a thought-provoking space that should not be missed on a trip to Paris.
For more information check out The Deportation Martyrs Memorial: A Visit to a WWII Site in Paris.
Museum of the Liberation of Paris
This immersive museum covers everything from the fall of France, Nazi occupation and the liberation of Paris. It includes exhibits on several of the nation’s most important resistance fighters, life under occupation and the arrival of the Allied forces. It also houses rotating temporary exhibits which help bring additional aspects of the occupation and liberation of Paris to life.
Visit the museum’s official website for more information.
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