French women: the villains of French resistance?

For years the world has believed in the warped account of the French resistance fed by De Gaulle: while French men valiantly fought the enemy, the women treacherously sided with the Nazis and gushed about their “bare chests”. Post-war, these women considered to be Nazi collaborators, had their heads shaved and were paraded in public. There were also misguided attempts to push women into kitchens and towards a more conventional femininity. According to estimates by historians, between 80,000-100,000 Franco-German babies were born.

However, a new narrative is emerging. Journalist Anne Sebba has dug deeper into the role of women in war with her book, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s.

Interviews in the book talk about fierce women who transported grenades, tore down German art, and openly supported their Jewish friends. Typical of France, defiance was woven with fashion; Parisian women wore chic turbans when shampoo ran out during German occupation.

There is also an interesting aspect in the interviews. Cowed down by years of humiliation, many of the interviewed women, when speaking about the role they played in the resistance, usually downplayed their heroic deeds. In their own words, what they did was “nothing, really”, and of “little importance”.

Of the thousand medals given to French fighters, only six went to women. Sebba’s work is perhaps an attempt to make France acknowledge and honour its forgotten heroes.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, July 17th, 2016