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serves a purpose. I didn’t have time to embrace Jean. I embraced my two brothers Roger and Rino (1). As for my real brother, I cannot embrace him, alas! I hope all my clothes will be sent back to you. They might be of use to Serge, I trust he will be proud to wear them one day. To you, my Daddy to whom I have given many worries, as well as to my Mummy, I say goodbye for the last time. Know that I did my best to follow the path that you laid out for me. A last adieu to all my friends, to my brother whom I love very much. May he study hard to become a man later on. Seventeen and a half years, my life has been short, I have no regrets, if only that of leaving you all. I am going to die with Tintin, Michels. Mummy, what I ask you, what I want you to promise me, is to be brave and to overcome your sorrow. I cannot put any more. I am leaving you all, Mummy, Serge, Daddy, I embrace you with all my child’s heart. Be brave! Your Guy who loves you.
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of texts: Guy Môquet's last letter to his family, letters of young condemned men or other texts demonstrating the participation of young people during those dark years in Europe. These readings were "left to the discretion of each ". However, on 19 October 2009, the
Ministry of Education clarified in the media that the later circular had not been intended to make reading the letter optional. It controversially said that the teaching profession did not have a free hand in teaching what it wanted but were civil servants who must follow directives.
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A 2009 circular to lycées from the
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My darling Mummy, my adored brother, my much loved Daddy, I am going to die! What I ask of you, especially you Mummy, is to be brave. I am, and I want to be, as brave as all those who have gone before me. Of course, I would have preferred to live. But what I wish with all my heart is that my death
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party, was seen by many as the exact embodiment of the values Guy Môquet had been fighting at the cost of his life. The same commentators argued this was a very cynical attempt by
Sarkozy to move his political agenda forward, and to use the legacy of his direct political enemies (the
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Guy Môquet was arrested in 1940 distributing propaganda against the war. This policy reversed after resistance appeared as the only way to fight Nazism directly inside France, and after resistance movements started gaining strength (about the same time as
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Before being shot, Môquet had written a letter to his parents. This letter has become famous (see section "Legacy" below), especially when it is put in relation with his political activism.
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Facsimile of his famous last words: "Les copains qui restez, soyez dignes de nous! Les 27 qui vont mourir." or "Friends who remain, be worthy of us! The 27 who are going to die"
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requested Moquet's final letter to be read in every high school in France on the anniversary of his death. This raised controversy for two distinct reasons :
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Administrative reasons: During his mandate, president
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in Paris were named after him in 1946. Many other place names across France also bear his name and Châteaubriant dedicated a high school to him.
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Guy Môquet was portrayed in a short film in French, La lettre ("The letter"), released in 2007, with the title role played by
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His younger brother, Serge – 12 years old at the time – was traumatised by Guy's death and survived him only by a few days.
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Two days later, the 27 prisoners at Châteaubriant were shot in three groups. They refused blindfolds, and died crying out "
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Note sent to the
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contrejournal.blogs.liberation.fr, Karl Laske, "La contre lettre de Guy Môquet", 20 October 2007.
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is commonly referred to as the "party of the 75,000 executed people". A street and a
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On 20 October 1941, the commanding officer of the German occupation forces in
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offered itself as the leader of French resistance to German occupation and
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and interfering in domains that were normally not those of the
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Guy
Prosper Eustache Môquet was born on 26 April 1924 in the
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the 2007 circular from the
Ministry of Education to lycées
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Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français
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by three police officers of the French Anti-Communist
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Celui qui croyait au Ciel / Celui qui n’y croyait pas
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dedicated to him, along with three other resistants (
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Following the release of the film, French
President
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18:French Resistance hero and communist militant
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274:. Unsourced material may be challenged and
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294:Learn how and when to remove this message
630:"Guy Moquet's last letter to his family"
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508:Lettres des fusillés de Châteaubriant
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670:"Action urgent on EU, says Sarkozy"
576:Crumley, Bruce (23 October 2007).
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578:"A French Debate over Guy Môquet"
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696:(in French). 22 October 2009
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146:Pour instaurer le socialisme
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45:[ɡipʁɔspɛʁøstaʃmokɛ]
632:(in French). Archived from
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173:To kill capitalism"
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401:Ideological
362:Calm at Sea
347:Gilbert Dru
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661:Biography
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