Jump to content

Germaine Tillion: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→Ravensbrück: important translation correction
Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit
FredBeal (talk | contribs)
159 edits
 
(45 intermediate revisions by 27 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|French anthropologist, member of the French Resistance in World War II (1907–2008)}}
{{expand French|date=May 2024|topic=bio}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| image = Germaine Tillion.jpg
| image = Germaine Tillion.jpg
| image_size = 150px
| image_size = 150px
| name = Germaine Tillion
| name = Germaine Tillion
| caption =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|5|30|df=y}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|5|30|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Allègre]], [[Haute-Loire]], [[France]]
| birth_place = [[Allègre]], France
| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|4|18|1907|5|30|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|4|18|1907|5|30|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Saint-Mandé]], France
| death_place = [[Saint-Mandé]], France
| nationality = [[French people|French]]
| nationality = French
| education = [[École du Louvre]]<br>[[École Pratique des Hautes Études]]<br>[[École des langues orientales]]
| education = [[École du Louvre]]<br>[[École Pratique des Hautes Études]]<br>[[École des langues orientales]]
| occupation = Anthropologist
| occupation = Anthropologist
| mother = [[Émilie Tillion]]
| resting_place = [[Panthéon]], Paris
}}
}}


'''Germaine Tillion''' (30 May 1907 &ndash; 18 April 2008) was a [[France|French]] [[ethnology|ethnologist]], best known for her work in [[Algeria]] in the 1950s on behalf of the French government. A member of the [[French resistance]], she spent time in the [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]].
'''Germaine Tillion''' (30 May 1907 &ndash; 18 April 2008) was a French [[Ethnology|ethnologist]], known for her work in [[Algeria]] in the 1950s on behalf of the [[Government of France]]. A member of the [[French Resistance]] in [[World War II]], she spent time in [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]].


== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Tillion was born on May 30, 1907, in Allegre ([[Haute-Loire]]) in south-central France.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Bernard|title=Women and War, Volume 1|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2006|isbn=1-85109-770-8|location=Santa Barbara, CA|pages=587|language=en}}</ref> She was the daughter of Lucien Tillion, a magistrate, and [[Émilie Tillion|Émilie Cussac Tillion.]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Tillion, Germaine (1907—) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tillion-germaine-1907|access-date=2021-03-05|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Her mother was also noted as an art historian and a French resistance fighter.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=2008-04-25|title=Germaine Tillion, French Anthropologist and Resistance Figure, Dies at 100 (Published 2008)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/world/europe/25tillion.html|access-date=2021-03-05|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> She had a sister called Francoise and they were raised Catholic.<ref name="Curtis2019">{{cite book |last1=Curtis |first1=Lara R. |title=Writing Resistance and the Question of Gender: Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion |date=2019 |publisher=Springer Nature |location=Switzerland |isbn=978-3-030-31241-1 |pages=12 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Ne5DwAAQBAJ&dq=Delbo&pg=PR12 |language=en |chapter=1. Introduction: Writing resistance and the question of gender - Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion}}</ref>


=== Youth and studies ===
=== Youth and studies ===
Tillion spent her youth with her family in [[Clermont-Ferrand]]. She left for [[Paris]] to study [[social anthropology]] with [[Marcel Mauss]] and [[Louis Massignon]], obtaining degrees from the [[École pratique des hautes études]], the [[École du Louvre]], and the [[INALCO]]. Four times between 1934 and 1940 she did [[fieldwork]] in [[Algeria]], studying the [[Berber people|Berber]] and [[Chaoui]] people in the [[Aures, Algeria|Aures]] region of northeastern Algeria, to prepare for her [[doctorate]] in [[anthropology]].
Tillion spent her youth with her family in [[Clermont-Ferrand]]. She left for [[Paris]] to study [[social anthropology]] with [[Marcel Mauss]] and [[Louis Massignon]], obtaining degrees from the [[École pratique des hautes études]], the [[École du Louvre]], and the [[INALCO]]. Four times between 1934 and 1940 she did [[fieldwork]] in [[Algeria]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Reid|first=Donald|title=Germaine Tillion, Lucie Aubrac, and the Politics of Memories of the French Resistance|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=2009|isbn=978-1-84718-144-2|location=Newcastle upon Tyne|pages=14}}</ref> studying the [[Chaoui]] [[Berber people|Berber]] people in the [[Aures, Algeria|Aures]] region of northeastern Algeria, to prepare for her [[doctorate]] in [[anthropology]].


=== French Resistance ===
=== French Resistance ===
Line 24: Line 29:
As Tillion returned to [[Paris]] from the field in 1940, [[France]] had been invaded by Germany. As her first act of resistance, she helped a Jewish family by giving them her family's papers. She became one of the members in the [[French Resistance]] in the [[Groupe du musée de l'Homme|network of the Musée de l'Homme]] in Paris. Her missions included helping prisoners to escape and organizing intelligence for the allied forces from 1940 to 1942.
As Tillion returned to [[Paris]] from the field in 1940, [[France]] had been invaded by Germany. As her first act of resistance, she helped a Jewish family by giving them her family's papers. She became one of the members in the [[French Resistance]] in the [[Groupe du musée de l'Homme|network of the Musée de l'Homme]] in Paris. Her missions included helping prisoners to escape and organizing intelligence for the allied forces from 1940 to 1942.


Betrayed by the priest [[Robert Alesch]] who had joined her resistance network and gained her confidence, she was arrested on August 13, 1942.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} She was transported in the ''[[Convoi des 31000]]'' in 1943.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moorehead|first=Caroline|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ieCRl3ZJUJAC&newbks=0&hl=en&redir_esc=y|title=A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship and Survival in World War Two|date=2011-11-01|publisher=Random House of Canada|isbn=978-0-307-36667-2|language=en}}</ref>
Betrayed by the priest [[Robert Alesch]] who had joined her resistance network and gained her confidence, she was arrested on August 13, 1942.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} She was transported in the ''[[Convoi des 31000]]'' in 1943.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moorehead|first=Caroline|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieCRl3ZJUJAC|title=A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship and Survival in World War Two|date=2011-11-01|publisher=Random House of Canada|isbn=978-0-307-36667-2|language=en}}</ref>


===Ravensbrück===
===Ravensbrück===
On 21 October 1943 Tillion was sent to the [[Nazi concentration camps|German concentration camp]] of [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]], near [[Berlin]] with her mother, Émilie Tillion, also a resistante. From her arrival on 21 October 1943 to the fall of the camp in spring 1945, she secretly wrote an [[operetta]] comedy to entertain the fellow prisoners. "Le Verfügbar aux Enfers" describes the camp life of the "Verfügbar" (German for "available", the lowest class of prisoners who could be used for any kind of work).{{citation needed|date=March 2015}} At the same time she undertook a precise ethnographic analysis of the concentration camp. Other prisoners included [[Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz]], [[Jacqueline Fleury]] and Fleury's mother.
On 21 October 1943, Tillion was sent to the [[Nazi concentration camps|German concentration camp]] of [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]], near [[Berlin]] with her mother, Émilie, also a resistante. From her arrival on 21 October 1943 to the fall of the camp in spring 1945, she secretly wrote an [[operetta]] comedy to entertain the fellow prisoners. "Le Verfügbar aux Enfers" describes the camp life of the "Verfügbar" (German for "available", the lowest class of prisoners who could be used for any kind of work).<ref>''Le Verfügbar aux enfers : une opérette à Ravensbrück'' / Germaine Tillion. Paris : La Martinière, 2005.</ref> At the same time she undertook a precise ethnographic analysis of the concentration camp. Other prisoners included [[Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz]], [[Jacqueline Fleury]] and Fleury's mother.


Her mother was killed in the camp in March 1945. Tillion escaped Ravensbrück in the spring of that year in a rescue operation of the Swedish [[Red Cross]] that had been negotiated by [[Folke Bernadotte]].
Her mother was killed in the camp in March 1945. Tillion escaped Ravensbrück in the spring of that year in a rescue operation of the Swedish [[Red Cross]] that had been negotiated by [[Folke Bernadotte]].


[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0417-15, Ravensbrück, Konzentrationslager.jpg|thumb|right|Female prisoners in [[Ravensbrück]]]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0417-15, Ravensbrück, Konzentrationslager.jpg|thumb|right|Female prisoners in [[Ravensbrück]]]]
In 1973, she published ''Ravensbruck: An eyewitness account of a women's concentration camp'',<ref name="Tillion-1973">{{cite book |last=Tillion |first=Germaine |author-link=Germaine Tillion |title=Ravensbrück: An eyewitness account of a women's concentration camp |translator-last=Satterwhite |translator-first=Gerald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbHwlwEACAAJ |access-date=<!-- dd MON yyyy --> |edition=Anchor Books |year=1975 |orig-year=1st pub. [[Éditions du Seuil]]:1973 (French) |publisher=Doubleday Publishing |location=Garden City, New York |language=en |isbn=978-0-385-00927-0 }}</ref> detailing both her own personal experiences as an inmate as well as her remarkable contemporary and post-war research into the functioning of the camps, movements of prisoners, administrative operations and covert and overt crimes committed by the SS. She reported the presence of a [[gas chamber]] at Ravensbruck when other scholars had written that none existed in the Western camps, and affirmed that executions escalated during the waning days of the war, a chilling tribute to the efficiency and automated nature of the Nazi "killing machines."
In 1946, she published a text entitled “A la recherche de la verité” ("In search of truth"), in the collective volume ''Ravensbrück'' (Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fabry-Tehranchi |first=Irène |date=21 October 2024 |title=Ravensbrück (1946), Germaine Tillion and Jeannette L’Herminier |url=https://languagecollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/2024/10/21/ravensbruck-1946-germaine-tillion-and-jeannette-lherminier/ |work=Languages across Borders}}</ref> In 1973<ref name="Tillion-1973">{{cite book |last=Tillion |first=Germaine |author-link=Germaine Tillion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbHwlwEACAAJ |title=Ravensbrück: An eyewitness account of a women's concentration camp |publisher=Doubleday Publishing |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-385-00927-0 |edition=Anchor Books |location=Garden City, New York |language=en |translator-last=Satterwhite |translator-first=Gerald |access-date=<!-- dd MON yyyy --> |orig-year=1st pub. [[Éditions du Seuil]]:1973 (French)}}</ref> and 1988,<ref>''Ravensbrück'' / Germaine Tillion ; suivi de ''Les exterminations par gaz à Ravensbrück'' / Anise Postel-Vinay. ''Les exterminations par gaz à Hartheim, Mauthausen et Gusen'' / Pierre Serge Choumoff. Paris : Seuil, 1988.</ref> she published revised and expanded versions detailing both her own personal experiences as an inmate as well as her remarkable contemporary and post-war research into the functioning of the camps, movements of prisoners, administrative operations and covert and overt crimes committed by the SS. She reported the presence of a [[gas chamber]] at Ravensbruck when other scholars had written that none existed in the Western camps, and affirmed that executions escalated during the waning days of the war, a chilling tribute to the efficiency and automated nature of the Nazi "killing machines."


She documents the dual but conflicting purposes of the camps; on the one hand, to carry out the [[Final Solution]] as quickly as possible, and on the other, to manage a very large and profitable slave labor force in support of the war effort (with profits reportedly going to SS leadership, a business structure created by [[Himmler]] himself).
She documented the dual but conflicting purposes of the camps; on the one hand, to carry out the [[Final Solution]] as quickly as possible, and on the other, to manage a very large and profitable slave labor force in support of the war effort (with profits reportedly going to SS leadership, a business structure created by [[Himmler]] himself).


Finally, she gives chilling vignettes of prisoners, prison staff, and the "professionals" who were central to the operation and execution of increasingly bizarre Nazi mandates in an attempt to explore the twisted psychology and outright evil behavior of often average participants who were instrumental in allowing, and then nurturing the death machines.
Finally, she gives chilling vignettes of prisoners, prison staff, and the "professionals" who were central to the operation and execution of increasingly bizarre Nazi mandates in an attempt to explore the twisted psychology and outright evil behavior of often average participants who were instrumental in allowing, and then nurturing the death machines.


===After the war===
===After the war===
After the war Tillion worked on the history of the Second World War, the war crimes of the Nazis and the Soviet [[Gulag]]s from 1945-1954. She started an education program for French prisoners. As a professor (directeur d'études) of the [[École des hautes études en sciences sociales]] she undertook 20 scientific missions in North Africa and the Middle East.
After the war, Tillion worked on the history of the Second World War, the war crimes of the Nazis and the Soviet [[Gulag]]s from 1945 to 1954. She started an education program for French prisoners. As a professor (directeur d'études) of the [[École des hautes études en sciences sociales]] she undertook 20 scientific missions in North Africa and the Middle East.


=== Algerian war ===
=== Algerian war ===
Tillion returned to Algeria in 1954 to observe and analyze the situation at the brink of the [[Algerian War of Independence]]. She described as the principal cause of the conflict the pauperization ("clochardisation") of the Algerian population. In order to ameliorate the situation, she launched 'Social Centers' in October 1955, intended to make available higher education as well as vocational training to the rural population, allowing them to survive in the cities.
Tillion returned to Algeria in 1954 to observe and analyze the situation at the brink of the [[Algerian War of Independence]]. She described as the principal cause of the conflict the pauperization ("clochardisation") of the Algerian population. In order to ameliorate the situation, she launched 'Social Centres' in October 1955, intended to make available higher education as well as vocational training to the rural population, allowing them to survive in the cities.


On 4 July 1957 during the [[Battle of Algiers (1957)|battle of Algiers]], she secretly met with [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] leader [[Yacef Saadi]], at the instigation of the latter, to try to end the spiral of executions and indiscriminate attacks. Tillion was among the first to denounce the use of torture by French forces in the war.
On 4 July 1957, during the [[Battle of Algiers (1957)|battle of Algiers]], she secretly met with [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] leader [[Yacef Saadi]], at the instigation of the latter, to try to end the spiral of executions and indiscriminate attacks. Tillion was among the first to denounce the use of torture by French forces in the war. At the same time, she attended the ''International Meetings'' of the [[monastery of Toumliline]] in Morocco, conferences on contemporary challenges and [[interreligious dialogue]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pont |first1=Daniel |title=Pont Toumliline English - DIMMID |url=https://dimmid.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B647E5337-0D2E-42C0-B307-75D22155DE77%7D |website=dimmid.org |access-date=25 January 2024 |date=June 2022}}</ref>


===Later life===
===Later life===
Line 52: Line 57:
* for the emancipation of women in the Mediterranean
* for the emancipation of women in the Mediterranean


In 2004 along with several other French intellectuals, she launched a statement against torture in Iraq.
In 2004, along with several other French intellectuals, she launched a statement against torture in Iraq.


To celebrate her 100th birthday, her operetta "Le Verfügbar aux Enfers" premiered in 2007 at the [[Théâtre du Châtelet]] in Paris. She was Honorary Professor at France's School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences ([[EHESS]]) at the time of her death in 2008.
To celebrate her 100th birthday, her operetta "Le Verfügbar aux Enfers" premiered in 2007 at the [[Théâtre du Châtelet]] in Paris. She was Honorary Professor at France's School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences ([[EHESS]]) at the time of her death in 2008.
Line 58: Line 63:
==Honours==
==Honours==


=== Medals and awards ===
* [[Légion d'honneur|Grand-croix de la Légion d'honneur]] (Only five women ever received this award.)
* [[Légion d'honneur|Grand-croix de la Légion d'honneur]] (Only five women ever received this award.)
* [[Ordre national du Mérite|Grand-Croix de l'Ordre national du Mérite]]
* [[Ordre national du Mérite|Grand-Croix de l'Ordre national du Mérite]]
* [[Prix mondial Cino Del Duca]] (1977)
* [[Prix mondial Cino Del Duca]] (1977)
* [[Croix de guerre|Croix de guerre 1939-1945]]
* [[Croix de Guerre|Croix de Guerre 1939-1945]]
* [[Médaille de la Résistance]]
* [[Médaille de la Résistance]]
* Médaille de la déportation et de l'internement pour faits de Résistance
* Médaille de la déportation et de l'internement pour faits de Résistance
* [[Bundesverdienstkreuz|Grand Cross of the German Merit]] (2004)
* [[Bundesverdienstkreuz|Grand Cross of the German Merit]] (2004)
* On 21 February 2014 French President [[Francois Hollande]] announced that she will be interred in the [[Panthéon]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Eveleth|first1=Rose|title=Paris is Adding Two More Women to the Pantheon (New Total: Three)|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/paris-adding-two-more-women-pantheon-new-total-three-180949864/?no-ist|website=Smithsonian.com|access-date=1 November 2014}}</ref> She was interred there in May 2015<ref>{{cite web|author=Angelique Chrisafis in Paris |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/27/french-president-hollande-honours-female-resistance-heroes-in-pantheon |title=France president Francois Hollande adds resistance heroines to Panthéon &#124; World news |publisher=The Guardian |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2015-05-30}}</ref> in a symbolic burial. The coffin of Germaine Tillion at the Panthéon does not contain her remains but soil from her gravesite, because her family didn't want the body itself moved.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/paris-celebrates-wwii-resistance-heroes-pantheon-ceremony-151542446.html |title=Paris celebrates WWII resistance heroes in Pantheon ceremony |author=AP |date=May 26, 2015 |website=Yahoo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417071400/https://www.yahoo.com/news/paris-celebrates-wwii-resistance-heroes-pantheon-ceremony-151542446.html |archive-date=2016-04-17 |access-date=2016-04-17}}</ref>
* On 21 February 2014, French President [[Francois Hollande]] announced that she will be interred in the [[Panthéon]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Eveleth|first1=Rose|author-link=Rose Eveleth |title=Paris is Adding Two More Women to the Pantheon (New Total: Three)|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/paris-adding-two-more-women-pantheon-new-total-three-180949864/?no-ist|website=Smithsonian.com|access-date=1 November 2014}}</ref> She was interred there in May 2015<ref>{{cite web|author=Angelique Chrisafis in Paris |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/27/french-president-hollande-honours-female-resistance-heroes-in-pantheon |title=France president Francois Hollande adds resistance heroines to Panthéon &#124; World news |work=The Guardian |date=27 May 2015 |access-date=30 May 2015}}</ref> in a symbolic burial. The coffin of Germaine Tillion at the Panthéon does not contain her remains but soil from her gravesite, because her family didn't want the body itself moved.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/paris-celebrates-wwii-resistance-heroes-pantheon-ceremony-151542446.html |title=Paris celebrates WWII resistance heroes in Pantheon ceremony |author=AP |date=26 May 2015 |website=Yahoo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417071400/https://www.yahoo.com/news/paris-celebrates-wwii-resistance-heroes-pantheon-ceremony-151542446.html |archive-date=17 April 2016 |access-date=17 April 2016}}</ref>
* On 11 May 2015, the Maison des Sciences Humaines (MSH) at the [[University of Angers]], a social science research center, was renamed after her and became Maison de la Recherche Germaine Tillion.
* On 11 May 2015, the Maison des Sciences Humaines (MSH) at the [[University of Angers]], a social science research center, was renamed after her and became Maison de la Recherche Germaine Tillion.

=== Tributes ===

* The [[Musée de l'Homme]] paid tribute to Germaine Tillion with the exhibition “Germaine Tillion: Ethnologue et résistante” (May 30, 2008 - September 8, 2008).
* On February 21, 2014, President [[François Hollande]] announced the transfer of her remains to the [[Panthéon]] alongside resistance fighters [[Pierre Brossolette]] and [[Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz|Geneviève de Gaulle]], as well as former minister [[Jean Zay]].
* Exhibitions-tributes to Germaine Tillion presented from May 26 to September 20, 2015 by the [[Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation à Grenoble|Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation]] and museum Comtois in the [[Citadel of Besançon|Citadelle of Besançon]].


== Publications ==
== Publications ==
* {{cite book | title = L’Algérie aurésienne | others = a collaboration with Nancy Woods | year = 2001 | language = fr | isbn =2-7324-2769-1}}
* {{cite book | title = L'Algérie aurésienne | others = a collaboration with Nancy Woods | year = 2001 | language = fr | isbn =2-7324-2769-1}}
* {{cite book | title = Il était une fois l’ethnographie. Biographie | year = 2000 | language = fr | isbn = 2-02-025702-5 }}
* {{cite book | title = Il était une fois l'ethnographie. Biographie | year = 2000 | language = fr | isbn = 2-02-025702-5 | last1 = Tillion | first1 = Germaine }}
* {{cite book | title = Les ennemis complémentaires | year = 1960 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book | title = Les ennemis complémentaires | year = 1960 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book | title = Le harem et les cousins | year = 1966 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book | title = Le harem et les cousins | year = 1966 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book | title = Algeria: The Realities | year = 1958 | publisher = Knopf |translator=Ronald Matthews }}
* {{cite book | title = Algeria: The Realities | year = 1958 | publisher = Knopf |translator=Ronald Matthews }}
* {{cite book | title = L’Algérie en 1957 | year = 1956 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book | title = L'Algérie en 1957 | year = 1956 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book | title = L'Afrique bascule vers l'avenir | year = 1959 | language = fr }}'''
* {{cite book | title = L'Afrique bascule vers l'avenir | year = 1959 | language = fr }}
* {{cite book |last=Tillion |first=Germaine |author-mask=3 |author-link=Germaine Tillion |title=Ravensbrück: An eyewitness account of a women's concentration camp |translator-last=Satterwhite |translator-first=Gerald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbHwlwEACAAJ |edition=Anchor Books |year=1975 |orig-year=1st pub. Les cahiers du Rhône:1946 (French) |publisher=Doubleday Publishing |location=Garden City, New York |language=en |isbn=978-0-385-00927-0 |oclc=1256078 }}
* {{cite book |last=Tillion |first=Germaine |author-link=Germaine Tillion |title=Ravensbrück: An eyewitness account of a women's concentration camp |translator-last=Satterwhite |translator-first=Gerald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbHwlwEACAAJ |edition=Anchor Books |year=1975 |orig-year=1st pub. Les cahiers du Rhône:1946 (French) |publisher=Doubleday Publishing |location=Garden City, New York |language=en |isbn=978-0-385-00927-0 |oclc=1256078}}


==References==
==References==
Line 92: Line 104:
==External links==
==External links==
* [http://www.germaine-tillion.org/ Germaine Tillion's website]
* [http://www.germaine-tillion.org/ Germaine Tillion's website]
* [http://marranci.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/in-memory-of-the-anthropologist-germaine-tillion/ In memory of the anthropologist Germaine Tillion]
* [http://marranci.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/in-memory-of-the-anthropologist-germaine-tillion/ In memory of the anthropologist Germaine Tillion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718102219/http://marranci.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/in-memory-of-the-anthropologist-germaine-tillion/ |date=2011-07-18 }}
* [http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/04/19/french_resistance_hero_germaine_tillion_dies_at_100/ French resistance hero Germaine Tillion dies at 100]
* [http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/04/19/french_resistance_hero_germaine_tillion_dies_at_100/ French resistance hero Germaine Tillion dies at 100]


Line 103: Line 115:
[[Category:People from Haute-Loire]]
[[Category:People from Haute-Loire]]
[[Category:French anthropologists]]
[[Category:French anthropologists]]
[[Category:Algerian War]]
[[Category:French women anthropologists]]
[[Category:Women in the Algerian War]]
[[Category:Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:French centenarians]]
[[Category:Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur]]
[[Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit (France)]]
[[Category:Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Resistance Medal]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Resistance Medal]]
[[Category:School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences faculty]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences]]
[[Category:Prix mondial Cino Del Duca winners]]
[[Category:Female recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France)]]
[[Category:Female recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France)]]
[[Category:People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust]]
[[Category:People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust]]
[[Category:Female resistance members of World War II]]
[[Category:Female resistance members of World War II]]
[[Category:Women centenarians]]
[[Category:French women centenarians]]
[[Category:French women in World War II]]
[[Category:French women in World War II]]
[[Category:20th-century anthropologists]]
[[Category:20th-century French anthropologists]]
[[Category:20th-century French women scientists]]

Latest revision as of 20:40, 28 November 2024

Germaine Tillion
Born(1907-05-30)30 May 1907
Allègre, France
Died18 April 2008(2008-04-18) (aged 100)
Saint-Mandé, France
Resting placePanthéon, Paris
NationalityFrench
EducationÉcole du Louvre
École Pratique des Hautes Études
École des langues orientales
OccupationAnthropologist
MotherÉmilie Tillion

Germaine Tillion (30 May 1907 – 18 April 2008) was a French ethnologist, known for her work in Algeria in the 1950s on behalf of the Government of France. A member of the French Resistance in World War II, she spent time in Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Biography

[edit]

Tillion was born on May 30, 1907, in Allegre (Haute-Loire) in south-central France.[1] She was the daughter of Lucien Tillion, a magistrate, and Émilie Cussac Tillion.[2] Her mother was also noted as an art historian and a French resistance fighter.[2][3] She had a sister called Francoise and they were raised Catholic.[4]

Youth and studies

[edit]

Tillion spent her youth with her family in Clermont-Ferrand. She left for Paris to study social anthropology with Marcel Mauss and Louis Massignon, obtaining degrees from the École pratique des hautes études, the École du Louvre, and the INALCO. Four times between 1934 and 1940 she did fieldwork in Algeria,[5] studying the Chaoui Berber people in the Aures region of northeastern Algeria, to prepare for her doctorate in anthropology.

French Resistance

[edit]
French resistance in 1944

As Tillion returned to Paris from the field in 1940, France had been invaded by Germany. As her first act of resistance, she helped a Jewish family by giving them her family's papers. She became one of the members in the French Resistance in the network of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. Her missions included helping prisoners to escape and organizing intelligence for the allied forces from 1940 to 1942.

Betrayed by the priest Robert Alesch who had joined her resistance network and gained her confidence, she was arrested on August 13, 1942.[citation needed] She was transported in the Convoi des 31000 in 1943.[6]

Ravensbrück

[edit]

On 21 October 1943, Tillion was sent to the German concentration camp of Ravensbrück, near Berlin with her mother, Émilie, also a resistante. From her arrival on 21 October 1943 to the fall of the camp in spring 1945, she secretly wrote an operetta comedy to entertain the fellow prisoners. "Le Verfügbar aux Enfers" describes the camp life of the "Verfügbar" (German for "available", the lowest class of prisoners who could be used for any kind of work).[7] At the same time she undertook a precise ethnographic analysis of the concentration camp. Other prisoners included Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Jacqueline Fleury and Fleury's mother.

Her mother was killed in the camp in March 1945. Tillion escaped Ravensbrück in the spring of that year in a rescue operation of the Swedish Red Cross that had been negotiated by Folke Bernadotte.

Female prisoners in Ravensbrück

In 1946, she published a text entitled “A la recherche de la verité” ("In search of truth"), in the collective volume Ravensbrück (Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière).[8] In 1973[9] and 1988,[10] she published revised and expanded versions detailing both her own personal experiences as an inmate as well as her remarkable contemporary and post-war research into the functioning of the camps, movements of prisoners, administrative operations and covert and overt crimes committed by the SS. She reported the presence of a gas chamber at Ravensbruck when other scholars had written that none existed in the Western camps, and affirmed that executions escalated during the waning days of the war, a chilling tribute to the efficiency and automated nature of the Nazi "killing machines."

She documented the dual but conflicting purposes of the camps; on the one hand, to carry out the Final Solution as quickly as possible, and on the other, to manage a very large and profitable slave labor force in support of the war effort (with profits reportedly going to SS leadership, a business structure created by Himmler himself).

Finally, she gives chilling vignettes of prisoners, prison staff, and the "professionals" who were central to the operation and execution of increasingly bizarre Nazi mandates in an attempt to explore the twisted psychology and outright evil behavior of often average participants who were instrumental in allowing, and then nurturing the death machines.

After the war

[edit]

After the war, Tillion worked on the history of the Second World War, the war crimes of the Nazis and the Soviet Gulags from 1945 to 1954. She started an education program for French prisoners. As a professor (directeur d'études) of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales she undertook 20 scientific missions in North Africa and the Middle East.

Algerian war

[edit]

Tillion returned to Algeria in 1954 to observe and analyze the situation at the brink of the Algerian War of Independence. She described as the principal cause of the conflict the pauperization ("clochardisation") of the Algerian population. In order to ameliorate the situation, she launched 'Social Centres' in October 1955, intended to make available higher education as well as vocational training to the rural population, allowing them to survive in the cities.

On 4 July 1957, during the battle of Algiers, she secretly met with National Liberation Front leader Yacef Saadi, at the instigation of the latter, to try to end the spiral of executions and indiscriminate attacks. Tillion was among the first to denounce the use of torture by French forces in the war. At the same time, she attended the International Meetings of the monastery of Toumliline in Morocco, conferences on contemporary challenges and interreligious dialogue.[11]

Later life

[edit]

Tillion remained vocal on several political topics:

  • against the pauperization of the Algerian population
  • against the French use of torture in Algeria
  • for the emancipation of women in the Mediterranean

In 2004, along with several other French intellectuals, she launched a statement against torture in Iraq.

To celebrate her 100th birthday, her operetta "Le Verfügbar aux Enfers" premiered in 2007 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. She was Honorary Professor at France's School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) at the time of her death in 2008.

Honours

[edit]

Medals and awards

[edit]

Tributes

[edit]

Publications

[edit]
  • L'Algérie aurésienne (in French). a collaboration with Nancy Woods. 2001. ISBN 2-7324-2769-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Tillion, Germaine (2000). Il était une fois l'ethnographie. Biographie (in French). ISBN 2-02-025702-5.
  • Les ennemis complémentaires (in French). 1960.
  • Le harem et les cousins (in French). 1966.
  • Algeria: The Realities. Translated by Ronald Matthews. Knopf. 1958.
  • L'Algérie en 1957 (in French). 1956.
  • L'Afrique bascule vers l'avenir (in French). 1959.
  • Tillion, Germaine (1975) [1st pub. Les cahiers du Rhône:1946 (French)]. Ravensbrück: An eyewitness account of a women's concentration camp. Translated by Satterwhite, Gerald (Anchor Books ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday Publishing. ISBN 978-0-385-00927-0. OCLC 1256078.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Cook, Bernard (2006). Women and War, Volume 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 587. ISBN 1-85109-770-8.
  2. ^ a b "Tillion, Germaine (1907—) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
  3. ^ Martin, Douglas (2008-04-25). "Germaine Tillion, French Anthropologist and Resistance Figure, Dies at 100 (Published 2008)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
  4. ^ Curtis, Lara R. (2019). "1. Introduction: Writing resistance and the question of gender - Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion". Writing Resistance and the Question of Gender: Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion. Switzerland: Springer Nature. p. 12. ISBN 978-3-030-31241-1.
  5. ^ Reid, Donald (2009). Germaine Tillion, Lucie Aubrac, and the Politics of Memories of the French Resistance. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-84718-144-2.
  6. ^ Moorehead, Caroline (2011-11-01). A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship and Survival in World War Two. Random House of Canada. ISBN 978-0-307-36667-2.
  7. ^ Le Verfügbar aux enfers : une opérette à Ravensbrück / Germaine Tillion. Paris : La Martinière, 2005.
  8. ^ Fabry-Tehranchi, Irène (21 October 2024). "Ravensbrück (1946), Germaine Tillion and Jeannette L'Herminier". Languages across Borders.
  9. ^ Tillion, Germaine (1975) [1st pub. Éditions du Seuil:1973 (French)]. Ravensbrück: An eyewitness account of a women's concentration camp. Translated by Satterwhite, Gerald (Anchor Books ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday Publishing. ISBN 978-0-385-00927-0.
  10. ^ Ravensbrück / Germaine Tillion ; suivi de Les exterminations par gaz à Ravensbrück / Anise Postel-Vinay. Les exterminations par gaz à Hartheim, Mauthausen et Gusen / Pierre Serge Choumoff. Paris : Seuil, 1988.
  11. ^ Pont, Daniel (June 2022). "Pont Toumliline English - DIMMID". dimmid.org. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  12. ^ Eveleth, Rose. "Paris is Adding Two More Women to the Pantheon (New Total: Three)". Smithsonian.com. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  13. ^ Angelique Chrisafis in Paris (27 May 2015). "France president Francois Hollande adds resistance heroines to Panthéon | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  14. ^ AP (26 May 2015). "Paris celebrates WWII resistance heroes in Pantheon ceremony". Yahoo. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2016.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Adams, Geoffrey (1998). The Call of Conscience: French Protestant Responses to the Algeria War, 1954-62. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
  • Aussaresses, General Paul. The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955-1957. (New York: Enigma Books, 2010) ISBN 978-1-929631-30-8.
  • Charrad, Mounira (2001). States and Women's Rights. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Horne, Alistair (1978). A Savage War of Peace. New York: Viking Press.
  • Kahler, Eric (1957). The Tower and the Abyss: An Inquiry into the Transformation of the Individual. New York: Braziller.
  • Kraft, Joseph (1958). "In North Africa Peace Alone Will Not Be Enough." New York Times. July 6.
  • Michalczyk, John (1998). Resisters, Rescuers, and Refugees. Kansas City: Sheed and Ward.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Germaine_Tillion&oldid=1260096715"