Hubert Germain, the last survivor of the over 1,000 people who were awarded the highest order of bravery by Charles de Gaulle for their role in French Resistance forces during World War II has died at the age of 101, France’s defense minister announces.
“I want to inform you that Hubert Germain, the last surviving member of the Order of Liberation, has died,” Defense Minister Florence Parly tells French lawmakers.
“It’s an important moment in our history,” she adds.
AFP reported that Germain was born in Paris on August 6, 1920, the son of a general officer who had served with France’s colonial forces.
After graduating from high school, he was preparing for the entrance exam to the naval academy at the Lycée Michel Montaigne in Bordeaux when war was declared in September 1939.
Months later, after May 1940 and the Fall of France, he decided to continue the fight.
The WWII Resistance fighter and the last "Compagnon de la Liberation" was last seen in public on June 18, 2021 when he attended a ceremony to mark the 81st anniversary of Charles de Gaulle's resistance call from London at the Mont Valerien, in Suresnes, near Paris.
He will be buried outside Paris at Mont Valérien, where many resistance fighters and hostages were executed by the Germans during World War II. Today it is home to the Memorial to Fighting France, inaugurated by De Gaulle in 1960.
French President Emmanuel Macron will preside over Germain's burial on November 11.