Germaine Tillion: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|French anthropologist, member of the French Resistance in World War II (1907–2008)}}

| birth_place = [[Allègre]], [[Haute-Loire]], [[France]]

| nationality = French

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

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>

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]] and [[Chaoui]] people in the [[Aures, Algeria|Aures]] region of northeastern Algeria, to prepare for her [[doctorate]] in [[anthropology]].

She documentsdocumented 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).

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.

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 CentersCentres' 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. 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>

* 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>

* [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 }}

[[Category:Women in the Algerian War]]

[[Category:Grand CroixCross of the LégionLegion d'honneurof Honour]]

[[Category:Grand Cross of the NationalOrdre Ordernational ofdu Merit (France)Mérite]]

[[Category:Academic staff of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences faculty]]