In May 1871 it was the burial site for several of those sentenced to summary execution after the fall of the Paris Commune. Estimates vary from 650 according to the fiercely anti-Commune Maxime Du Camp, 5000 according to Camille Pelletan and 15,000 according to Xavier Raspail. The third of these estimates would make it the largest Communard burial site, though only excavation would allow a more precise number to be reached.
After the Second World War the Parti communiste français (PCF) acquired an important plot, known as the "carré des fusillés", in the 39th division. It was the PCF's equivalent of the Pantheon.9 It includes the graves of several resistance fighters executed in the clearing at the Fort Mont-Valérien, including Missak Manouchian (1906–1944), Marcel Rajman (1923–1944), Fernand Zalkinow (1923–1942) and several members of the Affiche rouge, a resistance group made up of recent immigrants to France. Also in the plot are the grave of ethnologist, linguist, resistance fighter and founder of the groupe du musée de l'Homme Boris Vildé (1908–1942) and wall plaques in memory of Olga Bancic (1912–1944), symbol of foreign female volunteers in the French Resistance, and Pierre Rebière (1909–1942). International Brigades and author of L'Aveu Artur London (1915–1986) and his wife Lise London (1916–2012), both PCF resistance fighters, are both also buried there.
From 1885 to 1972 those executed at the prison de la Santé were buried in the "carré des suppliciés" division 27 of the cemetery, totalling 128 burials.10 They include:
They were all buried in unmarked graves. At the end of the 1990s all the remains were removed on government orders11 and either placed in an ossuary or returned to their families and reburied elsewhere.12 Today only the paving stones marking the plot's boundaries survive.13
48°48′45″N 02°22′03″E / 48.81250°N 2.36750°E / 48.81250; 2.36750
(in French) "QualiPARIS, la qualité au quotidien". https://www.paris.fr/pages/qualiparis-la-qualite-au-quotidien-2354 ↩
(in French) Lucille Metout, « Ivry : le cimetière parisien regorge de vie sauvage », Le Parisien 10 November 2016 http://www.leparisien.fr/ivry-sur-seine-94200/ivry-le-cimetiere-parisien-regorge-de-vie-sauvage-10-11-2016-6312855.php ↩
(in French) Jean-Pierre A. Bernard, « La liturgie funèbre des communistes (1924–1983) », Vingtième Siècle : Revue d'histoire, no 9, January–March 1986, p. 43 doi:10.3406/xxs.1986.1446 /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩
(in French) « Cimetière parisien d’Ivry : 128 guillotinés y sont entrés « la tête entre les jambes » », Le Parisien, 31 October 2017 http://www.leparisien.fr/val-de-marne-94/cimetiere-parisien-d-ivry-128-guillotines-y-sont-entres-la-tete-entre-les-jambes-31-10-2017-7365183.php ↩
(in French) « Tueur en série : le mystère de l'effrayant docteur Petiot », Atlantico, 27 July 2014 http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/tueur-en-serie-mystere-effrayant-docteur-petiot-claude-quetel-perrin-1679097.html ↩