Women in resistance

The mobilization of women during the war was unprecedented. Yet their place in the resistance movements, as the reality of the Jewish resistance have long been ignored. The exhibition proposed by the Memorial with Casterman editions does them justice.

This exhibition was presented from 8 March to 23 October at the Shoah Memorial

The publication by Casterman of a series of albums dedicated to women in the resistance during the Second World War, whose latest opus is devoted to the French resistance fighter Mila Racine, offers the opportunity to pay tribute to the Jewish resistance while saluting the vitality of the graphic and editorial creation of historical comics.

These women fought against the enemy, both in France and occupied Europe, concentration camps and death centres.

Composed of many original archival documents and photographs, about sixty objects and comic strips, this exhibition realized in partnership with Casterman portrays these women without whom, according to the quote of Henri Rol-Tanguy, “half of our work would have been impossible”.

exposition

In their vast majority, the resisters have deployed an activity that does not imply either clandestinity or even an apparent break with expectations related to their gender. Defending the values of democracy, rejecting anti-Semitism and xenophobia, wanting to save threatened people... were the common points of their commitment, itself specific by its precocity, its spontaneity, and its anchoring in the heart of the home.

In view of the political and legal status of women, as well as their low previous commitment to activism, this mobilization was unprecedented. Yet the place of women in all the movements of the Resistance, and the place of the specifically Jewish Resistance in this same set, have long been understated, or ignored.

In partnership with : logo-partenaire-Casterman

Coordination

Sophie Nagiscarde, Caroline François and Fanny Fernandez, Holocaust Memorial.

Texts

Philippe Boukara, historian, Catherine Lacour-Astol, PhD in contemporary history, member of the Centre d'Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation , Michelle Perrot, professor emeritus, Emmanuelle Polack, art historian.

Research and iconography

Lior Lalieu-Smadja, Caroline Didi and Cécile Fontaine, photo library of the Holocaust Memorial. Karen Taieb, Cécile Lauvergeon and Marie Lainez, archives of the Shoah Memorial.
Coordination team for the assisted exhibition of Ludivine Hebert.