Mémorial de la France Combattante

Mémorial de la France combattante

View of the Mémorial de la France Combattante
Location in France
Coordinates	48°52′18″N 2°12′50″E / 48.8716°N 2.2139°E / 48.8716; 2.2139Coordinates: 48°52′18″N 2°12′50″E / 48.8716°N 2.2139°E / 48.8716; 2.2139
Location	Fort Mont-Valérien, Suresnes
Designer	Félix Brunau
Type	War memorial
Material	Stone
Length	100 metres (330 ft)
Height	12 metres (39 ft)
Beginning date	11 November 1945
Completion date	18 June 1960
Dedicated to	French World War II fighters

The Mémorial de la France combattante (Memorial of Fighting France) is the most important memorial to French fighters of World War II (1939–45). It is situated below Fort Mont-Valérien in Suresnes, in the western suburbs of Paris. It commemorates members of the armed forces from France and the colonies, and members of the French Resistance. Fifteen representative French fighters were buried here in an elaborate ceremony on 11 November 1945. The present memorial was opened on 18 June 1960. It has a wall in which are set sixteen bronze reliefs that represent in allegorical terms the different phases, places and participants in the struggle.

At first the memorial made no reference to the victims who had been executed at the Fort Mont-Valérien, which had been frequently used by German forces to execute resistance fighters and hostages. Later a remembrance path was opened linking the crypt to the nearby clearing where the shootings occurred. The memorial is often the site of ceremonies related to World War II.

Mont-Valérien was the site of a medieval hermitage and a popular place of pilgrimage from the 17th to 19th centuries. Fort Mont-Valérien was built in the mid-19th century, one of the forts guarding the perimeter of Paris. It is located in Suresnes on top of Mont Valérien. During World War II the Germans used Fort Mont-Valérien as a place where they executed members of the resistance and hostages. The condemned were brought by truck, locked in a disused chapel, then taken to a clearing about 100 metres (330 ft) below where they were shot. The bodies of the fusillés were then dispersed in the cemeteries of Paris. More than a thousand victims have been identified.

On 1 November 1944 General Charles de Gaulle paid tribute to the members of the Resistance who had died. He first visited the clearing at Mont-Valérien, then visited Fort Neuf de Vincennes, another location where prisoners were shot in Paris, and finally visited the cemetery of Ivry-sur-Seine, the main place where the victims of shooting in the Ile-de-France were buried. In 1945 de Gaulle decided to make a memorial to World War II at Mont-Valérien. The monument was not to be a tribute to the victims of war, but to honor those who had refused to yield, the war heroes. It was to present the members of the resistance as members of the armed forces, as representatives of the eternal France, and not as factional revolutionaries from marginal groups.