Arpiar Aslanian


Arpiar Aslanian was a French anti-fascist of Armenian descent, communist, husband of the writer Louise Aslanian, and a prominent figure in the French Resistance.

Early life

Arpiar Levonovich Aslanian was born on the 16th of December, 1895 in Etchmiadzin, in the family of Levon and Varvara Aslanians. He had an older brother, Derenik, and a sister — Arpik. His father, Levon, was a principal in a school and also worked in the Etchmiadzin monastery, where he was in charge of the library collections.
Aslanian gets a juridical education in Tsarist Russia and becomes a lawyer.
Aslanian was a member of the Dashnaktsutyun. He had to leave Armenia to avoid prosecution by Bolsheviks.
Aslanian travels to Tabriz, where in 1923 he marries Louise Grigorian, more than ten years younger than him.

Life in France

In 1923, the couple moved to Paris, taking with them Mania and Arshaluys. In Paris Louise wanted to continue her musical education playing piano. In order to let her do that, Aslanian, an educated lawyer, who is unable to practice in a foreign country, becomes a general laborer.
In 1940 Aslanian joins the French Communist Party.

French Resistance

After the Nazis occupied France, the Aslanians joined the French Resistance in 1940. The Aslanians worked in an underground publishing house and actively engaged in supplying fighters of the French Resistance with weapons.
Aslanians had connections with Resistance activists : Missak Manouchian, Mélinée Manouchian, Arpen Tavitian, Ayk Dpirian, Shag Taturian and others.

Arrest, concentration camp, death

On July 26, 1944 both Aslanians were arrested in France by the Nazis. Louise's diaries and manuscripts were captured and destroyed, in particular, «Histoire de la Resistance» and «La Chute de Paris».
On 15 August 1944, they were taken from Toulouse to Buchenwald. Arpiar was then transferred to the camp Dora-Mittelbau, while Louise was taken to Ravensbrück.
On 15 February 1945, Aslanian, was killed at camp Dora-Mittelbau.
Louise Aslanian was killed presumably in Ravensbrück after 2nd of February, 1945.