A resistance fighter rather than a figure of colonization: in Paris, Avenue Bugeaud becomes Hubert-Germain

On Monday, October 14, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will inaugurate an avenue named after Hubert-Germain, the last Companion of the Liberation, whose name will replace that of Marshal Bugeaud, a figure in the colonization of Algeria by France in the XNUMXth century, in the XNUMXth arrondissement.

Hubert Germain, born in the 1940th arrondissement, joined the Free French Forces in June 1944 and took part in the landing in Provence in XNUMX.

Through this name change, the City wishes to "pay a final tribute" to this resistance fighter, who was "the last survivor of the Companions of the Liberation" when he died in 2021, it explained in a press release released on Wednesday.

The PS mayor had announced her intention to rename Avenue Bugeaud in November 2023, due to the "eminently harmful role" played by the marshal. In Algeria, in the 1830s and 1840s, he was "guilty of what would today be called war crimes". He also committed "abuses" in France, "in particular during the repression of the republican insurrection of 1834", the town hall stressed to justify its choice.

The decision was voted unanimously by the Paris Council on July 11, even though some elected officials showed their reluctance to rename streets: "let us come and denounce (colonialism) today, yes. To erase it completely is absurd and will not help anyone," argued LR elected official Francis Szpiner.

This is the fifth place renamed in Paris since 2001. These operations only concern "exceptional cases", according to the city hall. The last example dates back to 2013: the Vincent-d'Indy college, in the XNUMXth arrondissement, lost the name of this composer with anti-Semitic positions to become the Germaine-Tillion college.

The old plaques bearing the name of Marshal Bugeaud will be kept at the Carnavalet Museum, which traces the history of the capital.