Manouchian at the Pantheon: football also in the spotlight with the resistance fighter Rino Della Negra

He will never have played an official match in the jersey of Etoile Rouge de Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) and yet, his status has no equivalent in the Bauer spans. Rino Della Negra has a name that catches the eye and a story that still stands out 80 years later. On February 21, 1944, the strikingly fast attacker fell to the bullets of the Nazi army at the age of 20.

A life sacrificed in the name of anti-fascism and universal values ​​as for 22 of his comrades from the “Manouchian group”, a collective of foreign workers at the forefront of the fight against the German enemy. All will be honored this Wednesday on the occasion of the transfer of the ashes of Missak Manouchian and his wife Mélinée to the Pantheon. Their names will be inscribed on one of the walls surrounding vault number 13 where Joséphine Baker and Maurice Genevoix already rest.

A born sprinter, a resistance fighter from the start

In accordance with the alphabetical order, Rino Della Negra will appear in fifth position. The child from Argenteuil (Val-d’Oise) joined the ranks of the Audon club at the end of the 1942-1943 season. He is then considered a great football prospect. A born sprinter – he was eleven seconds behind in the 100m – he has just worked wonders from his right wing on the lawns of Île-de-France then under the colors of the Paris selection.

The time has come for him to shine in one of the biggest teams of the moment. His dream will in fact clash with other priorities. The collaboration of the Vichy regime intensified, and while he had already refused the STO (compulsory labor service), he clandestinely joined a band of partisans led by the Armenian poet Missak Manouchian, where friends were waiting for him. Between May and November 1943, his name is associated with around fifteen armed operations.

Still fired from Red Star, a sort of cover, he became a figure of the internal resistance until his capture during an attack by German cash couriers in the Opera district. “We never talked about his activities because our coach was suspected of collaboration. We were silent but we respected him,” the captain at the time, Léon Foenkinos, told Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui-en-France in 2004.

Rino Della Negra was shot at Mont-Valérien on February 21, 1944. Red Star

Without ever having disappeared, the story of this man of the left came back in force in the early 2000s. Along the way, the historic stand at the Bauer Stadium now bears his surname. At least unofficially. A very strong identity marker for the kop, which can even rely since 2022 on a very complete biography written by two historians, Jean Vigreux and Dimitri Manessis, at Éditions Libertalia.

Italian origins and anti-fascist beliefs

In this week of commemoration, Chantal Della Negra, wife of one of the three nephews of the Argenteuil resistance fighter, has a moving thought for Anna, the mother of the resistance footballer. A lady who “fought for a long time, from 1944 to 1970, for him to be recognized as having died for France. She was still traumatized that her son was said to be a criminal. » A reference to the Red Poster, this Nazi propaganda document which criminalized 10 of the 23 condemned to death from the Manouchian group. Louis Aragon drew a poem from it in 1955, set to music by Léo Ferré a little later.

To understand Rino Della Negra’s commitment, one must, as with many others, delve into his family history. Born in Pas-de-Calais to transalpine parents, he moved at the age of three to the Mazagran district of Argenteuil, where 3,000 inhabitants from the north-east of Italy who fled Mussolini’s regime live. . It was in this environment that he forged his anti-fascist culture and beliefs.

A few hours before his execution at Mont-Valérien, Rino Della Negra had written a last letter to his loved ones. He spoke about it in the final of the Saint-Ouen club: “Hug everyone I knew. Sending hello and farewell to all of Red Star. » A sentence unearthed a little later said more or less the same thing but in cruder terms. “And everyone have a drink while thinking of me!” » The words of a 20-year-old young man with undiminished enthusiasm for life.

Learn more about Rino Della Negra