French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Wieviorka, They Were Jewish, Resistance Fighters, Communists (new revised and expanded edition)
History, Politics and Society
They Were Jewish, Resistance Fighters, Communists
Annette Wieviorka
Publication date: 23/08/2018
Publisher: Perrin
ISBN: 978-2-262-04164-9
EAN: 9782262041649
No. of pages: 420 p.
Their names were Victor Zigelman and Henri Krasucki, Jacquot Szmulewicz and Etienne Raczymow, Paulette Shlivka and Esther Rozencwajg. In 1940, the youngest was fourteen, the oldest under thirty. They or their parents, born in Poland or Romania, had come to France in search of bread, freedom, and, so they believed, safety, for all of them were Jewish. All of them were also, or became, communists and organized resistance fighters within the Main-d'oeuvre immigrée (MOI).
The history of these few hundred young people, children of Belleville or of the Rue des Immeubles Industriels in Paris, has remained largely unknown. Yet, its significance is crucial not only for the Jewish community itself, but also for the history of the Resistance and the highly debated history of the French Communist Party (PCF) during the Occupation. The oblivion into which they fell is all the more surprising given the disproportionate price they paid for their actions.
Only a minority survived. How heavily did their Jewish identity—which hung over them as a permanent threat—weigh against their communist commitment, which subordinated everything to the defense of the Soviet Union? This dilemma was tragic for many of them, notably for the notorious Lucienne Goldfarb, known as "la Rouquine" ("the Redhead"), whose extraordinary fate led her after the war to become a brothel madam with a passion for opera.
This striking group portrait sheds light on a dark, heroic, and controversial chapter of the "dark years" that continue to haunt collective memory.
Annette Wieviorka, Director of Research Emerita at the CNRS, was a member of the Mission on the Spoliation of Jewish Property in France and chairs the History of Antisemitism and the Shoah Commission of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah. A world-renowned specialist in the history of the Holocaust and French communism, her publications include The Eichmann Trial (1989), Deportation and Genocide: Between Memory and Oblivion (1992), The Era of the Witness (1998), Auschwitz Explained to My Daughter (1999), Maurice and Jeannette: Biography of the Thorez Couple (2010), and, published by Perrin, Inside the Drancy Camp, co-authored with Michel Laffitte (2012).
The history of the Second World War in France encompasses complex dynamics regarding political allegiance, foreign immigration, and clandestine military action. The Main-d'oeuvre immigrée network played a prominent role in urban guerrilla warfare and clandestine operations against the German occupation forces. Within this framework, Jewish immigrants and their children frequently faced difficult choices balancing their cultural or religious heritage with internationalist political ideologies. These dimensions remain central to ongoing historical discussions concerning the wartime conduct and internal politics of the French Communist Party during the dark years of the Occupation.
Annette Wieviorka is Director of Research Emerita at the CNRS and a specialist in the history of the Holocaust and French communism. Readers interested in twentieth-century French history and the historiography of the Holocaust may find this work relevant to their pursuits.