Arpiar Aslanian
Arpiar Aslanian | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 15 February 1945 Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, Germany | (aged 49)
Other names | Արփիար Ասլանյան |
Occupation | political activist, French Resistance fighter |
Organization | FTP-MOI |
Political party | French Communist Party (from 1940) |
Movement | French Resistance, Anti-fascism |
Spouse(s) | Louise Aslanian |
Arpiar Aslanian (Armenian: Արփիար Ասլանյան, 16 December 1895 – 15 February 1945) was a French anti-fascist of Armenian descent, communist, husband of the writer Louise Aslanian, and a prominent figure in the French Resistance.
Early life[]
Arpiar Levonovich Aslanian was born on 16 December 1895 in Etchmiadzin, (Russian Armenia) in the family of Levon and Varvara Aslanians. He had an older brother, Derenik, and a sister — Arpik. His father, Levon, was a principal in a school and also worked in the Etchmiadzin monastery, where he was in charge of the library collections.
Aslanian gets a juridical education in Tsarist Russia and becomes a lawyer.
Aslanian was a member of the Dashnaktsutyun. He had to leave Armenia to avoid prosecution by Bolsheviks. Aslanian travels to Tabriz, where in 1923 he marries Louise Grigorian, more than ten years younger than him.
Life in France[]
In 1923, the couple moved to Paris, taking with them Mania and Arshaluys (Louise's mother and sister, respectively). In Paris Louise wanted to continue her musical education playing piano. In order to let her do that, Aslanian, an educated lawyer, who is unable to practice in a foreign country, becomes a general laborer.
In 1940 Aslanian joins the French Communist Party.
French Resistance[]
After the Nazis occupied France, the Aslanians joined the French Resistance in 1940. The Aslanians worked in an underground publishing house and actively engaged in supplying fighters of the French Resistance with weapons.[1] Aslanians had connections with Resistance activists : Missak Manouchian, Mélinée Manouchian, , , and others.
Arrest, concentration camp, death[]
On 26 July 1944 both Aslanians were arrested in France by the Nazis. Louise's diaries and manuscripts were captured and destroyed, in particular, «Histoire de la Resistance» and «La Chute de Paris».[2]
On 15 August 1944, they were taken from Toulouse to Buchenwald. Arpiar was then transferred to the camp Dora-Mittelbau, while Louise was taken to Ravensbrück.[3]
On 15 February 1945, Aslanian, was killed at camp Dora-Mittelbau.[4] Louise Aslanian was killed presumably in Ravensbrück after 2 February 1945.
See also[]
References[]
- ^ «Résistance. l’Affiche rouge Henri Karayan: „Notre groupe était l’incarnation d’une Europe“» L’Humanité, 21 Février, 2004 (in French)
- ^ Vosgerichian D. "Memories of the Armenian franc tireur", Publishing house "G. Donikian & Fils", Beirut, 1974, p. 50-51 (in Armenian)
- ^ «Le LIVRE-MEMORIAL des déportés de France arrêtés par mesure de répression et dans certains cas par mesure de persécution 1940—1945», Tome I, Fondation pour la mémoire de la déportation, «Tirésias», Paris, 2004, p.105-108 (in French)
- ^ List of the memory Fund of the deported (in French)
External links[]
- 1895 births
- 1945 deaths
- Armenian communists
- Executed activists
- French people of Armenian descent
- Communist members of the French Resistance
- French Resistance members
- Armenian people of World War II
- Resistance members who died in Nazi concentration camps
- Armenian people executed by Nazi Germany
- French people executed by Nazi Germany
- People who died in Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
- French civilians killed in World War II