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.

7 January 2016

Marie-Jo Chombart de Lawe

Resistance, for a young girl of 16 years old, is primarily small refusals. Refusal to allow the pavement to occupants, wearing conspicuous tricolored clothing, looking without graciousness. The Germans, she saw them for the first time at L’Arcouest, the boarding point for the l’Ile de Bréhat where she lived. Two of them in a Jeep. On the wings, they hung the hats of French sailors. This was an insult. A provocation. And then came the feeling of suffocation, of inexistence. Parents, rightists, 14-18 year olds, didn’t like it at all, their uniforms taking the street as if it belonged to them. Very quickly, her family began to help those who wanted to join the English. It was spontaneous. The spontaneity was organised, the path was short. The escape division connected with London worked wonders. They began the recovery of airmen shot down over France and planned their return to England.

Posted by at