French Resistance heroes inducted into Pantheon in Paris Published duration 27 May 2015 Related Topics World War Two

image copyright EPA image caption French President Francois Hollande praised the spirit of Resistance fighters at a ceremony in the Pantheon

France has honoured four members of the French Resistance with a ceremony at the Pantheon mausoleum in Paris.

Coffins representing two men and two women who resisted the Nazis in World War Two were carried through the French capital before being interred.

The coffins contained only soil from the fighters' graves as their relatives did not want their bodies disturbed.

French President Francois Hollande said the group "embodied the spirit of the Resistance".

A ceremony was held at the Pantheon alongside the coffins of Germaine Tillion, Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Pierre Brossolette and Jean Zay.

image copyright AFP/Getty Images image caption The coffins were carried through the streets of Paris before arriving at the Pantheon

image copyright Reuters image caption Mr Hollande said the four fighters 'said no - immediately, firmly, clearly'

image copyright AFP image caption The ceremony honoured (from top left) Genevieve de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion, Jean Zay and Pierre Brossolette

Tillion, who died in 2008, and de Gaulle-Anthonioz, a niece of former French leader Charles de Gaulle who died in 2002, were caught and deported to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany.

Brossolette, a radio journalist who broadcast on the BBC during the war, committed suicide after being arrested and tortured in 1944.

Zay, who was minister of education before the war, was killed in 1944, having tried to set up a government-in-exile in north Africa.

"Faced with the occupation, with submission, they gave the same response," Mr Hollande said. "They said 'no', immediately, firmly, clearly."

Mr Hollande drew parallels with those who marched in French cities on January 11 this year, days after terror attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket.

The induction now sees three women interred at the Pantheon, after the scientist Marie Curie. There are now 74 men interred at the mausoleum, the first being the writer Victor Hugo.