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Month: March 2018

Tour of Resistance Sites

Published March 19, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

Some photos of our tour of resistance spaces and places in the 16e last week. Thank you to those who came along, and to Emily the photographer.

 

The stairs where SOE agent Forest Yeo-Thomas was arrested, at Passy metro.

Pierre Brossolette’s bookstore, a hub for some of the early resisters in Paris.

The home of communist resister and Auschwitz survivor, Charlotte Delbo.

The address of half-Indian agent Noor Inayat Khan’s safehouse, and the scene of her betrayal.

By the lycée Janson de Sailly

Some loitering résistantes 

Sauntering through the seizième.

The headquarters of the Gestapo and German security services, on Avenue Foch.

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Resistance Tour – Sources

Published March 14, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

Thanks to those of you who came along today. Here are just a few sources to follow up if you’re interested:

Yeo-Thomas: http://nigelperrin.com/soe-yeo-thomas.htm. A blue plaque was unveiled outside his London home in 2010: http://dailym.ai/2phAJVJ

Pierre Brossolette: there are no books dedicated to him in English, but he is covered in Matthew Cobb’s The Resistance: http://amzn.to/2GtEXRd. He also appears in some wartime newsreel footage here: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/rivals-join-de-gaulle/query/Gaulle

Noor Inayat Khan: http://nigelperrin.com/soe-noor-inayat-khan.htm. Shrabani Basu’s book Spy Princess is probably the most easily available biography: http://amzn.to/2pbuQJh . If you search online, you may also find BBC’s Timewatch programme from 2006, The Princess Spy. A memorial in London was unveiled in 2012: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20241322

Charlotte Delbo: her collected works in English are published under the title Auschwitz and After – http://amzn.to/2DtadN7

Odette Sansom: http://nigelperrin.com/odette-hallowes.htm. Jerrard Tickell’s book, on which the film Odette was based, is still in print – http://amzn.to/2IrFYdo. As we discussed, the video includes cameos by SOE’s French section head, Maurice Buckmaster, and Odette’s future husband and fellow agent, Peter Churchill: http://nigelperrin.com/peterchurchill.htm.

Vera Atkins and the search for SOE’s missing agents: http://amzn.to/2tNRkoH

 

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A Few Signs of Revolution…

Published March 7, 2018 by Nigel Perrin

This is a plaque to commemorate the work of Charles Comtesse, who in 1625 completed the bell tower of the church of Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet, on rue des Bernadins, here: http://bit.ly/2s0nj3Z. Revolutionaries scratched out Comtesse’s name (because of its aristocratic ties) and references to the King. (If you go into the church, you’ll also find a monument to favourite painter of Louis XIV, Charles Le Brun, who decorated Versailles, and is buried here along with his mother.)

Rue (Saint) André des Arts, one of the many streets that lost its religious connection under the revolution. Around the corner is another example, rue (Saint) Séverin:

Coats of arms were erased from many buildings, such as the old Hotel Carnavalet (now the Musée Carnvalet):

And revolutionary graffiti in the seventeenth century Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis church, in the Marais. Despite repeated attempts to remove it, the declaration  “French Republic or death”, refuses to budge. Perhaps the communard who wrote it also defended the barricade outside, on rue Saint-Antoine, during the “bloody week” of May 21-28, 1871.

 

 

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Images en lutte

Published March 5, 2018 by

Some photos from the ‘Images en lutte’ exhibition showing at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris until May 20th.

The exhibition explores the visual culture surrounding revolutionary activity through May 68 and beyond, including work by the Atelier Populaire.

Further info: https://www.beauxartsparis.fr/fr/

 

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