Hélène Rytmann (15 October 1910 – 16 November 1980) was a French revolutionary and sociologist. She was active as a Communist militant in the

French resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

. A member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

, she was expelled after accusations of

Trotskyism Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

and having participated in

summary execution In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, a ...

s of former Nazi collaborators. Rytmann was murdered by strangulation in 1980 by her husband

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

. Her murder attracted much attention from the French media and there were requests to sentence Althusser as an ordinary criminal, but he was instead declared unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric institution for three years.

Early life

Rytmann was born in Paris in 1910 to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and Lithuanian origin. According to Althusser, Rytmann was sexually abused as a child by her family doctor. At age 13, the doctor forced Rytmann to administer a lethal dose of morphine to her father who was suffering from terminal cancer; the following year, Rytmann was forced to administer another lethal dose to her terminally ill mother. However, this story could have been invented by Althusser, who admitted to incorporating "imagined memories" into his "traumabiography." Her brother Joseph Rytmann owned several cinemas in Paris.

Resistance activities

During the German occupation of France, Rytmann refused to wear the yellow star mandated by the Nazis and instead joined the French resistance. As a militant, she was a comrade of

Jean Beaufret Jean Beaufret (; 22 May 1907, Auzances7 August 1982, Paris) was a French philosopher and Germanist tremendously influential in the reception of Martin Heidegger's work in France. Life After graduating from the École Normale Supérieure and c ...

and was affiliated with the "Pericles" division of the French resistance. She joined the

, but was later expelled for "Trotskyist deviation" and "crimes". It was alleged that she had participated in summary executions of former Nazi collaborators in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. Hélène Rytmann is also sometimes known as Hélène Legotien or Hélène Legotien-Rytmann because her cover name during the French Resistance was "Legotien", a name she continued to use.

Murder

On 16 November 1980, Rytmann was murdered by her husband by strangulation at their apartment at the

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

. Her husband crushed her larynx and killed her. The murder was never thoroughly investigated. In January 1981, Althusser was deemed unfit to serve trial under Article 64 of the French penal code, with Althusser claiming "diminished responsibility" due to mental illness. Rytmann is buried in the Jewish section of Cimetière parisien de Bagneux in Paris.

Legacy

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...

's 2002 novel ''

Shroud Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to ''burial sheets'', mound shroud, grave clothes, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the Jewish '' ...

'' was partly inspired by the scandal of Rytmann's murder. ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...

'' has cited Rytmann as an example of an historically important Jewish woman who had "changed France" and that it was "high time that Hélène Rytmann be remembered with dignity as an individual" for her role in the French Resistance.

Bibliography

*Althusser, Louis; Althusser, Hélène; Corpet, Olivier. ''Lettres à Hélène : 1947–1980'', Grasset, Paris, 2011. *

Francis Dupuis-Déri Francis Dupuis-Déri (born 1966, in Montreal) is a French Canadian researcher and professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is best known for his political commentary on anti-feminism and anarchism, for his books ''L’Erreur huma ...

, « La banalité du mâle : Louis Althusser a tué sa conjointe, Hélène Rytmann-Legotien, qui voulait le quitter », ''Nouvelles Questions Féministes'', 2015/1 (Vol. 34), p. 84-101.

References

External links

Tatiana Istomina's Philosophy of the Encounter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rytmann, Hélène 1910 births 1980 deaths Burials at the Cimetière parisien de Bagneux Communist members of the French Resistance Female murder victims 20th-century French Jews French murder victims French people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent French people of Russian-Jewish descent French women sociologists Jewish communists Jewish sociologists Jews in the French resistance Murdered Jews Politicians from Paris Deaths by strangulation 20th-century French women politicians People murdered in Paris