The French historian and Jewish resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Panthéon on 23 June 2026, eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo during the Second World War.
The announcement was confirmed by sources close to French President Emmanuel Macron speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The ceremony had initially been scheduled for 16 June, the anniversary of Bloch’s execution in 1944, but was postponed due to the G7 summit taking place in Évian-les-Bains from 15 to 17 June.
President Macron first announced Bloch’s panthéonisation in November 2024 during a speech in Strasbourg marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Alsatian capital. At the time, the President paid tribute to Bloch’s intellectual legacy, teaching, and personal courage, praising his “searing lucidity”, the “boldness of his ideas”, and his commitment to France until his death at the hands of the Gestapo.
Born into a Jewish family from Alsace, Marc Bloch was a leading figure in twentieth-century historiography. A professor of medieval history at the University of Strasbourg between 1919 and 1936, he profoundly reshaped historical research by integrating approaches from sociology, geography, psychology, and economics. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the Annales School.
A decorated First World War officer awarded the Croix de Guerre, Bloch was mobilised again in 1939. From 1942 onwards, he became actively involved in the French Resistance. He was arrested in Lyon on 8 March 1944, imprisoned and tortured at Montluc prison, and executed by firing squad on 16 June 1944 alongside 29 fellow resistance members.
Bloch is also the author of Strange Defeat, written in 1940 and published after the war, a seminal reflection on France’s collapse in the face of Nazi Germany.
Ahead of the ceremony, Bloch’s family has formally requested that far-right groups be excluded from any participation. In a letter addressed to the President of the Republic and seen by AFP, the family called for “the far right, in all its forms” to be barred from the event.
Marc Bloch’s entry into the Panthéon places him among France’s most revered figures, recognising both his enduring intellectual contributions and his sacrifice in the fight against Nazi occupation.
