E-Newsletter 2024

Filmmaker Katia Guiragossian was honored with the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award at the 27th Arpa International Film Festival for her documentary film, Missak and Mélinée Manouchian. The film honors her great-uncle and grand-aunt, iconic figures of the French Resistance. The award ceremony took place at Harmony Gold Theatre on October 27, 2024.

Missak and Mélinée Manouchian played a significant role in the French Resistance during World War II. Both were Armenian refugees who survived the Armenian Genocide and later settled in France. Missak was a poet, writer and resistance fighter who became a key figure in the French anti-fascist movement. He was the leader of a group of foreign resistance fighters, known as the “Manouchian Group”. Mélinée, on the other hand, was a secretary, accountant, and resistance fighter who worked closely with her husband. In 1944, Missak was arrested, tried, and executed by the Nazis along with 21 other members of the “Manouchian Group.” Mélinée escaped, went into hiding, and continued her resistance work.

Thanks to Katia Guiragossian’s research and advocacy, Missak and Mélinée Manouchian were posthumously inducted into the French Panthéon in 2024, a great honor in France. The dedication at the movie’s end reads: “To all the freedom fighters.”