Violette Lecoq (1912 – 2003) was a French nurse, illustrator, and a resistance member during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She is known for her

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

s from the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

, which were also used as

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

at the first Ravensbrück Trials in 1946.

World War II

At the outbreak of World War II Lecoq worked as a

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

with the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

. She was also affiliated with the

French resistance movement The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

. She was arrested in 1942 and held one year in isolation, and then brought to the

in 1943, as a

Nacht und Nebel ''Nacht und Nebel'' (German: ), meaning Night and Fog, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, who were to ...

prisoner. She worked as a nurse at block ten, the block for

tuberculous Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

and

mentally ill A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

. From this hut she witnessed the murder of women who were not longer capable of working. Lecoq managed to organize pencil and paper, and made several illustrations from the life in the camp, with the intention of publishing the drawings some day. She was evacuated with the Swedish Red Cross in April 1945. In 1946, she was a witness at the Ravensbrück Trials in Hamburg, along with

Odette Sansom Odette Sansom (28 April 1912 – 13 March 1995), also known as Odette Churchill and Odette Hallowes, code named Lise, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during the Second World War. S ...

, Irène Ottemard, Jaqueline Hereil, Helene Dziedziecka, Neeltje Epker and others. Her drawings were used as evidence at the trials. In 1948 she published ''Ravensbrück, 36 dessins à la plume'', a collection of her drawings from the Ravensbrück camp. The drawings are pencil sketches from the "everyday life" in the camp. Examples are the series "-Welcome...", and "Deux heures après", showing individual women entering the camp, and the transition two hours later. The drawing "" (in en, The law of the strongest) shows the humiliation of the prisoners by brutality from the staff. Several of her illustrations had been included in

Sylvia Salvesen Sylvia Salvesen (25 January 1890 – 1973) was a member of the high society in Norway, and a resistance pioneer during World War II. She was arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. She witnessed at the Hamburg Rave ...

's book ''Tilgi – men glem ikke'' from 1947. Some of the illustrations were later included in

Kristian Ottosen Kristian Ottosen (15 January 1921, Solund – 1 June 2006, Oslo) was a Norwegian non-fiction writer and public servant. While still a student, he was also active in the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II and was imprisoned as a Nach ...

's book on Ravensbrück from 1991. Lecoq was awarded the French Resistance medal, and the French

Croix de guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

. She died in Paris in 2003.

Selected works

* ''Ravensbrück, 36 dessins à la plume'' (1948)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lecoq, Violette 1912 births 2003 deaths French illustrators French Resistance members French women illustrators People from Indre Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) 20th-century French women