Léon Landini

Léon Landini (; 9 April 1926 – 21 September 2025) was a French resistance fighter and political activist of the French Communist Party and the Pole of Communist Revival in France.

Biography Born in Saint-Raphaël on 9 April 1926, Landini's father, Aristide, immigrated to France from Tuscany to escape the Mussolini regime. Léon joined the Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d'œuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI), a communist component of the French Resistance to Nazi Germany. In May 1943, he was arrested alongside his eldest son, Roger, while under the Italian occupation. They escaped in November 1943 during their deportation to Germany.

During the German occupation, Landini joined the French Communist Party and the FTP-MOI along with his two sisters. On 12 October 1942, he participated in the sabotage of a railway in Saint-Raphaël en route to Cannes, which caused the train's derailment and destroyed German merchandise. He also participated in the sabotage of a bauxite mine Brignoles, attacked an Italian army barracks in Fréjus, and unsuccessfully bombed a hotel in Saint-Raphaël. He was once again arrested on 25 July 1944 by the Milice and sent to Montluc prison. After Liberation, he was hospitalized several times before his demobilization in February 1946. In Montrouge, he was reunited with Mojze Goldman, with whom he became friends. In 2011, he was one of the signatories of the Appel de Thorens-Glières along with Raymond Aubrac, Daniel Cordier, Stéphane Hessel, Pierre Pranchère, Georges Séguy, and other figures of the French Resistance. The appeal demanded that candidates in the 2012 presidential election to rediscover the values of the Liberation embodied by the National Council of the Resistance.

Landini died in Versailles on 21 September 2025, at the age of 99.

Decorations Resistance Medal (1947) Officer of the Legion of Honour (1998) Volunteer Combatant's Cross Cross of the Resistance Volunteer Combatant Friendship Medal of Cuba (2024)

War mémoirs Landini served as president of the Amicale des anciens FTP MOI des bataillons Carmagnole-Liberté. Alongside , he donated archives of the Resistance to the in Champigny-sur-Marne. In 2005, he petitioned for a square in Paris to be named after Joseph Epstein, which was successful thanks to support from Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and Councillor . In 2013, he was featured in a documentary titled , directed by . The documentary covered the story of the . As the last survivor of the FPT-MOI, he was invited to the burial of Missak Manouchian and Mélinée Manouchian at the Panthéon on 21 February 2024. He was welcomed by President Emmanuel Macron and sat next to fellow resistance fighter Robert Birenbaum. He expressed his opposition to the attendance of National Rally members at the burial.