Yvonne Picard (1 August 1920 – 9 March 1943) was a French philosopher and a member of the

French Resistance 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 ...

during the

Second World War 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 and her brother, the historian

Gilbert Charles-Picard Gilbert Picard, called Gilbert Charles-Picard, (15 October 1913 – 21 December 1998) was a 20th-century French historian and archaeologist, a specialist of North Africa during Antiquity. The son of Hellenist Charles Picard (1883–1965), h ...

, were the children of the archaeologist Charles Picard. Yvonne Picard was born in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Greece, her father being head of the

French School at Athens The French School at Athens (french: École française d’Athènes, EfA; el, Γαλλική Σχολή Αθηνών ''Gallikí Scholí Athinón'') is one of the seventeen foreign archaeological institutes operating in Athens, Greece. History ...

at the time. She obtained a degree in Philosophy and became an adherent of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

. She began teaching at the École normale supérieure at Sèvres. In 1941, she joined the "Socialisme et Liberté" group founded by the philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

, and also joined the Resistance. She soon left Sartre's group, believing it "amateurish", instead joining the Communist Youth. The police traced her through her connection with a member of the

Francs-Tireurs et Partisans The ''Francs-tireurs et partisans français'' (FTPF), or commonly the ''Francs-tireurs et partisans'' (FTP), was an armed resistance organization created by leaders of the French Communist Party during World War II (1939–45). The communist par ...

, and obtained her address from her unsuspecting parents. Her Paris associates included Raoul Lévy and Bianca Lamblin. Along with her fiancé, Gaston Étiévent, she was arrested in May 1942. Étiévent was shot without trial in August 1942, and Yvonne Picard was imprisoned at

Fort de Romainville Fort de Romainville, (in English, ''Fort Romainville'') was built in France in the 1830s and was used as a Nazi concentration camp in World War II. Use in World War II Fort de Romainville was a Nazi prison and transit camp, located in the outs ...

; she was later deported to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, leaving Compiègne by a transport of 24 January 1943. They were taken to the women's prison at Birkenau. Suffering from

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

, Picard was admitted to the hospital called the "Revier", where she died shortly afterwards.

Publications

*"Le Temps chez Husserl et chez Heidegger", ''Deucalion'', 1946, 1, * Alphonde de Waelhens, Jean Wahl, Aimé Patri, Yvonne Picard, "Remarques sur une nouvelle doctrine de la liberté", ''Deucalion'', 1946, 1,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Picard, Yvonne 1920 births 1943 deaths Writers from Athens French Resistance members French Marxists 20th-century French philosophers Deaths from dysentery French expatriates in Greece French people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp