Black Heroines of World War II: Women Who Fought the Nazis

As spies, nurses and clandestine couriers, Black French women played vital, overlooked roles in the anti-Nazi war effort.   Paulette Nardal issued a call to arms against fascism in the 1930s. Eugénie Éboué-Tell joined the women’s auxiliary corps in Central Africa. Jane Vialle, an operative for Combat in Southern France, was arrested in 1943 for treason, but survived and became a Senator. Josephine Baker’s fight against Hitler’s Regime from Berlin to Portugal has earned her a place in the Pantheon of French heroism. These roles landed them in war zones, concentration camps and led many of the women being declared enemies of the state.  

Annette Joseph-Gabriel, an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of Michigan and author, Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire, details in her book how the activism of these women challenged French imperialism and influenced citizenship that encouraged multiple cultural and racial identities; thus expanding the possibilities of belonging beyond national and even Francophone borders, these women imagined new pan-African and pan-Caribbean identities informed by Black feminist intellectual frameworks and practices.  

Be sure to join us for a live virtual lecture and Q&A with Joseph-Gabriel.  

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