French Resistance hero and historian Marc Bloch enters France's Pantheon

French Resistance fighter Marc Bloch, who was tortured and executed by the Gestapo in 1944, entered the Pantheon on Tuesday, becoming the first historian to receive the honour bestowed on exceptional figures in politics, culture and science.

Soldiers carried in two symbolic caskets representing Marc Bloch and his wife Simonne into the former church in the French capital's Latin Quarter.

The caskets contained his medals and photographs, as well as letters from her to their children, according to the historian's granddaughter Suzette Bloch.

"It's a tremendous recognition," the former AFP journalist said ahead of the ceremony on Tuesday evening at France's secular temple of national memory.

President Emmanuel Macron has described the historian of Jewish heritage as a "man of the Enlightenment in the army of the shadows" – a reference to the French Resistance.

He is to be honoured for "his work, his teaching and his courage".

Bloch's induction carries political significance less than a year before France heads to the polls to elect a successor to Macron, with Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) party eyeing its best chance of seizing power.

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Born into a Jewish family from Alsace, Bloch was a renowned specialist of the Middle Ages. He revolutionised the study of history by incorporating anthropology, economics and sociology.

He fought in World War I and was decorated for bravery, receiving the Legion of Honour among other awards.

The 53-year-old father of six was mobilised again as World War II began in 1939.

Despite his standing, he was stripped of his rights as a Jewish academic in 1940, and his apartment was requisitioned.

Tortured under 'Butcher of Lyon'

After the Nazis occupied all of France, Bloch joined the French Resistance in 1943.

Captured by the Vichy police in 1944, he was tortured under the authority of Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, who was nicknamed the "Butcher of Lyon" for his cruelty and sadism.

On June 16, 1944, 10 days after Allied forces landed in Normandy, Bloch was executed by the Nazis alongside other Resistance fighters.

He cried "Vive la France!" ("Long live France!") as he was shot.

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One of Bloch's most widely cited works is "L'Etrange Défaite" ("Strange Defeat"), published posthumously, in which he analyses France's collapse to Nazi Germany and highlights the failures of its military leadership.

Bloch is buried in a village cemetery in central France and, in accordance with his family's wishes, his remains will not be moved.

His wife, Simonne Vidal, died in Lyon in 1944 and her body was never found.

'Forever relevant'

The Pantheon houses more than 80 national heroes, including writer Victor Hugo and French-American Resistance member Josephine Baker.

Bloch's family requested that far-right politicians be excluded from the ceremony, citing the historian's "deeply anti-nationalist" views.

While protocol requires parliamentary leaders to be invited, Le Pen – who leads the RN in the lower house – will not attend, a member of her team said.

Read moreFrance inducts Resistance fighter, soldier, historian Marc Bloch into its Panthéon of greats

The far-right party's leader Jordan Bardella nevertheless paid tribute to the historian.

"Marc Bloch will remain forever relevant, and the nation is grateful to him," he said on X.

Matis Bloch, the Resistance fighter's great-grandson and himself a historian, said the far right had been "constantly invoking" the scholar for the past two decades.

"There's something that seems entirely contradictory to us, and it deeply irritates us," he told the Franceinfo broadcaster.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)