Arpiar Aslanian
Arpiar Aslanian (Armenian: Արփիար Ասլանյան, December 16, 1895 – February 15, 1945) was a French anti-fascist of Armenian descent, communist, husband of the writer Louise Aslanian, and a prominent figure in the French Resistance.
Arpiar Aslanian | |
|---|---|
 Arpiar Aslanian, French-Armenian Resistance fighter | |
| Born | 16 December 1895 |
| Died | 15 February 1945 Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, Germany |
| 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 |
Early life
Arpiar Levonovich Aslanian was born on the 16th of 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, Arpen Tavitian, Ayk Dpirian, Shag Taturian and others.
Arrest, concentration camp, death
On July 26, 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 2nd of 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)