monument Résistance et Déportation

Monument Résistance et Déportation stands in Menton, near the Italian border, as a memorial to wartime resistance and deportation. You see inscriptions honouring local fighters, deportees, and those who helped liberate the city during the Second World War. The central words, “Victorieuse et sereine la résistance sort de la clandestinité,” describe resistance emerging from secrecy.

The memorial was inaugurated in 1956 by General Koenig and local officials. Its plaques connect Menton’s wartime experience with the First Special Service Force, an American-Canadian unit involved in the liberation of southern France. Sixty-six soldiers died during those operations, while more than two hundred suffered serious wounds. Annual ceremonies bring officials, military representatives, associations, and residents together for speeches, wreaths, and songs including “Le Chant des Partisans” and “La Marseillaise.”

At the base, a metal plaque covers an urn containing ashes of deportees murdered in Nazi death camps. Another inscription honours resistance comrades from 1940 to 1945, keeping the site focused on both local memory and wider wartime sacrifice.