French resistance fighter and historian Marc Bloch was inducted into the Pantheon in Paris on Tuesday in a sombre ceremony, giving President Emmanuel Macron another chance to shape France’s national memory through one of the country’s most symbolic events.
Issued on 24/06/2026 -
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the Pantheon induction ceremony for the late historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch and his wife Simonne Bloch in Paris on June 23, 2026. AFP - ALICE SACCO
Bloch – who was tortured by the Gestapo and executed in 1944 – is the first historian inducted into the monument under the Fifth Republic. The Elysée Palace described him as “a man of the Enlightenment” and “the thinker of the century”.
“He was a man who reflected on the past in order to act in the present. He did not have a static view of history; for him, it had to serve action in the here and now,” the Elysée Palace said in a statement.
The ceremony was preceded by a vigil on Monday evening at the École normale supérieure in Paris, the university where Bloch studied from 1904 to 1908.
On Tuesday morning, the coffins of Bloch and his wife Simonne Vidal were carried in procession to the Pantheon. Vidal will accompany him at the family’s request but will not herself be honoured there.
“He was a man who reflected on the past in order to act in the present. He did not have a static view of history; for him, it had to serve action in the here and now,” the Elysée Palace said in a statement.
The ceremony was preceded by a vigil on Monday evening at the École normale supérieure in Paris, the university where Bloch studied from 1904 to 1908.
On Tuesday morning, the coffins of Bloch and his wife Simonne Vidal were carried in procession to the Pantheon. Vidal will accompany him at the family’s request but will not herself be honoured there.
A gravestone plaque bearing the name of French historian and Resistance fighter Marc Bloch at the cemetery of Le Bourg-d'Hem, central France on 1 June 2026. Bloch, born in Lyon on July 6, 1886, was executed by the Gestapo at Saint-Didier-de-Formans on 16 June 1944, and is set to be inducted into the Pantheon in Paris on 23 June 2026. AFP - PHILIPPE LOPEZ
Presidential choice
The coffins will not contain their bodies. Bloch’s descendants wanted his remains to stay in a village in the Creuse department, while Vidal’s body has not been found.
The coffins will instead hold symbolic objects, including medals, ferns representing the family home in the hamlet of Les Fougères, Bloch’s 1941 spiritual testament and photographs and letters from Vidal to their children.
As night falls, a giant portrait of Bloch will be shown between the columns of the Pantheon in a series of scenes telling his life story, before Macron gives a speech expected to last around 20 minutes.
The decision is the president’s alone, but it comes after debate among families, intellectuals, support committees and political leaders.
“There are always many great figures waiting in the wings to be inducted into the Pantheon. It’s a complex process. We reflect on it, we discuss it, we debate it. Then there comes a moment when the president of the Republic – since, following de Gaulle, the president alone makes the decision – says, ‘It’s obvious; we must do it’,” a source close to the head of state said.
The family had not sought the honour. Historians had approached Jacques Chirac in 2006, but were refused. “I received a call from the Elysee. The family was surprised. We began to discuss it. We were torn, fearing it might be exploited,” Bloch’s granddaughter Suzette Bloch said. “I consulted three historians. They all said, ‘Accept it; the man is greater than any attempt to exploit him’.”
Memory and politics
Bloch’s induction is Macron’s sixth Pantheon ceremony over two five-year terms, after Simone Veil, writer Maurice Genevoix, Joséphine Baker, Resistance fighter Missak Manouchian and Robert Badinter. François Hollande inducted four figures, Jacques Chirac two and François Mitterrand six.
The choices since 2017 have leaned towards resistance, diversity and greater representation of women. Five of the six people honoured represent minorities, including Jews, naturalised foreigners or stateless people, historian Avner Ben-Amos said.
The Bloch ceremony has also opened a political debate. The family asked for the far right to be “excluded”, citing Bloch’s “deeply anti-nationalist” commitment. Republican protocol means parliamentary group leaders must be invited, but the National Rally's Marine Le Pen will not attend. Sarah Knafo has confirmed she will attend on behalf of Reconquête.
“Marc Bloch echoes the legacy of the Enlightenment, a way of conceiving of humanity centred not on retreat into identity but on openness to others, on otherness,” the Elysee Palace said.
Bloch co-founded a history journal in 1929 and helped transform the study of history by opening it up to anthropology, economics and sociology.
A national temple
A veteran of the First World War and recipient of the Croix de Guerre, Bloch asked to be called up again in 1939 to fight Nazi Germany. Under the Vichy regime’s anti-Semitic laws, he was stripped of his civil rights and deprived of his flat and library because he was Jewish. He went underground in Lyon in 1943 with the Franc-Tireur movement.
Arrested on 8 March 1944, he was tortured by the Gestapo and executed on 16 June with other prisoners at the edge of a field, shouting “Vive la France”.
The family has opposed any “co-opting by a particular community” of Bloch, an atheist Jew who “had faith in only one idea: the Republic”, as they wrote in a letter to Macron.
The Pantheon itself became a national necropolis during the French Revolution, in 1791. It now honours 87 figures, including Marc Bloch and individual inscriptions such as those for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Aimé Césaire: 82 men and five women.
A final induction before the end of Macron’s term in May 2027 has not been ruled out, with Samuel Paty, George Sand, André Citroën and Gaston Monnerville among the names mentioned.
(With newswires)
The coffins will not contain their bodies. Bloch’s descendants wanted his remains to stay in a village in the Creuse department, while Vidal’s body has not been found.
The coffins will instead hold symbolic objects, including medals, ferns representing the family home in the hamlet of Les Fougères, Bloch’s 1941 spiritual testament and photographs and letters from Vidal to their children.
As night falls, a giant portrait of Bloch will be shown between the columns of the Pantheon in a series of scenes telling his life story, before Macron gives a speech expected to last around 20 minutes.
The decision is the president’s alone, but it comes after debate among families, intellectuals, support committees and political leaders.
“There are always many great figures waiting in the wings to be inducted into the Pantheon. It’s a complex process. We reflect on it, we discuss it, we debate it. Then there comes a moment when the president of the Republic – since, following de Gaulle, the president alone makes the decision – says, ‘It’s obvious; we must do it’,” a source close to the head of state said.
The family had not sought the honour. Historians had approached Jacques Chirac in 2006, but were refused. “I received a call from the Elysee. The family was surprised. We began to discuss it. We were torn, fearing it might be exploited,” Bloch’s granddaughter Suzette Bloch said. “I consulted three historians. They all said, ‘Accept it; the man is greater than any attempt to exploit him’.”
Memory and politics
Bloch’s induction is Macron’s sixth Pantheon ceremony over two five-year terms, after Simone Veil, writer Maurice Genevoix, Joséphine Baker, Resistance fighter Missak Manouchian and Robert Badinter. François Hollande inducted four figures, Jacques Chirac two and François Mitterrand six.
The choices since 2017 have leaned towards resistance, diversity and greater representation of women. Five of the six people honoured represent minorities, including Jews, naturalised foreigners or stateless people, historian Avner Ben-Amos said.
The Bloch ceremony has also opened a political debate. The family asked for the far right to be “excluded”, citing Bloch’s “deeply anti-nationalist” commitment. Republican protocol means parliamentary group leaders must be invited, but the National Rally's Marine Le Pen will not attend. Sarah Knafo has confirmed she will attend on behalf of Reconquête.
“Marc Bloch echoes the legacy of the Enlightenment, a way of conceiving of humanity centred not on retreat into identity but on openness to others, on otherness,” the Elysee Palace said.
Bloch co-founded a history journal in 1929 and helped transform the study of history by opening it up to anthropology, economics and sociology.
A national temple
A veteran of the First World War and recipient of the Croix de Guerre, Bloch asked to be called up again in 1939 to fight Nazi Germany. Under the Vichy regime’s anti-Semitic laws, he was stripped of his civil rights and deprived of his flat and library because he was Jewish. He went underground in Lyon in 1943 with the Franc-Tireur movement.
Arrested on 8 March 1944, he was tortured by the Gestapo and executed on 16 June with other prisoners at the edge of a field, shouting “Vive la France”.
The family has opposed any “co-opting by a particular community” of Bloch, an atheist Jew who “had faith in only one idea: the Republic”, as they wrote in a letter to Macron.
The Pantheon itself became a national necropolis during the French Revolution, in 1791. It now honours 87 figures, including Marc Bloch and individual inscriptions such as those for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Aimé Césaire: 82 men and five women.
A final induction before the end of Macron’s term in May 2027 has not been ruled out, with Samuel Paty, George Sand, André Citroën and Gaston Monnerville among the names mentioned.
(With newswires)
