French Resistance hero and historian Marc Bloch enters France's Pantheon
French Resistance fighter and pioneering historian Marc Bloch entered France's Pantheon on Tuesday, becoming the first historian to receive one of the nation's highest honours. The ceremony comes amid renewed political debate over his anti-nationalist legacy less than a year before France's presidential election.
By FRANCE 24
One of Bloch's most widely cited works is "L'Etrange Défaite" ("Strange Defeat"), published posthumously, in which he analyses France's collapse to Nazi Germany and highlights the failures of its military leadership.
Bloch is buried in a village cemetery in central France and, in accordance with his family's wishes, his remains will not be moved.
His wife, Simonne Vidal, died in Lyon in 1944 and her body was never found.
'Forever relevant'
The Pantheon houses more than 80 national heroes, including writer Victor Hugo and French-American Resistance member Josephine Baker.
Bloch's family requested that far-right politicians be excluded from the ceremony, citing the historian's "deeply anti-nationalist" views.
While protocol requires parliamentary leaders to be invited, Le Pen – who leads the RN in the lower house – will not attend, a member of her team said.
Read moreFrance inducts Resistance fighter, soldier, historian Marc Bloch into its Panthéon of greats
The far-right party's leader Jordan Bardella nevertheless paid tribute to the historian.
"Marc Bloch will remain forever relevant, and the nation is grateful to him," he said on X.
Matis Bloch, the Resistance fighter's great-grandson and himself a historian, said the far right had been "constantly invoking" the scholar for the past two decades.
"There's something that seems entirely contradictory to us, and it deeply irritates us," he told the Franceinfo broadcaster.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)