My Project

I am developing this blog as my presentation for the Scottish Baccalaureate. As a feminist, I have always been interested in women's side of history, a side which is often overlooked and forgotten about. When first thinking about the French Resistance I knew names such as Charles De Gaulle, Jean Moulin or Raymond Aubrac; surely women had to have been a part of this movement too? I worked on the assumption that because men lead the battles, the physical confrontations, that women must have played the underground roles. I began my research online, discovering that the majority of women's stories from this time were available exclusively in French, though overall the most talked about stories of Resistance action remained those of the men. After exploring the scarce internet resources, I went to Lyon, the Resistance centre of World War Two France. I have explored the archives of Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance, and Montluc Prison in Lyon to find the stories featured. Upon returning to Scotland, I have begun translation work to allow these French stories to be shared with the rest of the world. These women played diverse roles in the Resistance movement: they hid escaped prisoners; they delivered messages; they recruited agents; they distributed propaganda; they were brave fighters and their stories deserve to be told.

10 January 2016

France Pejot

France and her sister were involved very early in the ranks of the Franc-Tireur movement, without ceasing to keep control of the shop which their family had in Lyon. She hid documents in the apartment which her parents had left to her. Thanks to her unexpected acting skills, she managed to be released from prison many times, and save many important men of the resistance. After she was arrested for the third time, she was deported to a work camp and then to Ravensbruck. 
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