Katia Guiragossian, Recipient of Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award 2024

Filmmaker Katia Guiragossian from France was honored with the Armin T.
Wegner Humanitarian Award at the 27th Arpa International Film Festival for her
documentary film, Missak and Mélinée Manouchian. The film honors her
great-uncle and  grand-aunt, iconic figures of the French Resistance. The award
ceremony took place at the Harmony Gold Theatre in Hollywood, California, on October 27, 2024.

Missak and Mélinée Manouchian played a significant role in the French
Resistance during World War II. Both were Armenian refugees who survived the
Armenian Genocide and later settled in France. Missak was a poet, writer and
resistance fighter who became a key figure in the French anti-fascist movement.

He was the leader of a group of foreign resistance fighters, known as the “Manouchian
Group”. Mélinée, on the other hand, was a secretary, accountant, and resistance
fighter who worked closely with her husband. In 1944, Missak was arrested, tried, and
executed by the Nazis along with 21 other members of the “Manouchian Group.”
Mélinée escaped, went into hiding, and continued her resistance work.
Thanks to Katia Guiragossian’s research and advocacy, Missak and Mélinée
Manouchian were posthumously inducted into the French Panthéon in 2024, a great
honor in France.
The dedication at the movie’s end reads: “To all the freedom fighters.”