Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed
In 1943, Charlotte Delbo and 229 other women were deported to a station with no name, which they later learned was Auschwitz. Arrested for resisting the Nazi occupation of Paris, Delbo was sent to the camps, enduring both Auschwitz and Ravensbrück for twenty-seven months. There, she, her fellow deportees, and millions of others were subjected to slave labor and nearly succumbed to typhus, dysentery, and hunger. She sustained herself by reciting Molière and resolved to someday write a book about herself and her fellow deportees, a stunning work called None of Us Will Return. After the camps, Delbo devoted her life to the art of writing and the duty of witnessing, fiercely advocating for the power of the arts to testify against despotism and tyranny.

Ghislaine Dunant's unforgettable biography of Delbo, La vie retrouvée (2016), captivated French readers and was awarded the Prix Femina. Now translated into English for the first time, Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed depicts Delbo's lifelong battles as a working-class woman, as a survivor, as a leftist who broke from the Communist Party, and most of all, as a writer whose words compelled others to see.
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Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed
In 1943, Charlotte Delbo and 229 other women were deported to a station with no name, which they later learned was Auschwitz. Arrested for resisting the Nazi occupation of Paris, Delbo was sent to the camps, enduring both Auschwitz and Ravensbrück for twenty-seven months. There, she, her fellow deportees, and millions of others were subjected to slave labor and nearly succumbed to typhus, dysentery, and hunger. She sustained herself by reciting Molière and resolved to someday write a book about herself and her fellow deportees, a stunning work called None of Us Will Return. After the camps, Delbo devoted her life to the art of writing and the duty of witnessing, fiercely advocating for the power of the arts to testify against despotism and tyranny.

Ghislaine Dunant's unforgettable biography of Delbo, La vie retrouvée (2016), captivated French readers and was awarded the Prix Femina. Now translated into English for the first time, Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed depicts Delbo's lifelong battles as a working-class woman, as a survivor, as a leftist who broke from the Communist Party, and most of all, as a writer whose words compelled others to see.
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Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed

Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed

Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed

Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed

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Overview

In 1943, Charlotte Delbo and 229 other women were deported to a station with no name, which they later learned was Auschwitz. Arrested for resisting the Nazi occupation of Paris, Delbo was sent to the camps, enduring both Auschwitz and Ravensbrück for twenty-seven months. There, she, her fellow deportees, and millions of others were subjected to slave labor and nearly succumbed to typhus, dysentery, and hunger. She sustained herself by reciting Molière and resolved to someday write a book about herself and her fellow deportees, a stunning work called None of Us Will Return. After the camps, Delbo devoted her life to the art of writing and the duty of witnessing, fiercely advocating for the power of the arts to testify against despotism and tyranny.

Ghislaine Dunant's unforgettable biography of Delbo, La vie retrouvée (2016), captivated French readers and was awarded the Prix Femina. Now translated into English for the first time, Charlotte Delbo: A Life Reclaimed depicts Delbo's lifelong battles as a working-class woman, as a survivor, as a leftist who broke from the Communist Party, and most of all, as a writer whose words compelled others to see.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781625345783
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date: 05/28/2021
Pages: 472
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

GHISLAINE DUNANT is the author of five books, among them Brazen and Un effondrement, winner of the Michel Dentan Prize. KATHRYN M. LACHMAN is associate professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction vii

1 In search of Charlotte Delbo 1

2 1939-1942: Early war years; work with Louis Jouvet; Cahiers de la Jeunesse; marriage to Georges Dudach; tours of Switzerland and South America; resistance and arrest 5

3 July 1945-January 1946: Repatriation; None of Us Will Return 53

4 1946: Convalescence in Switzerland; short stories; rupture with Jouvet; employment at the United Nations in Geneva 70

5 1948: Spectres, mes compagnons; first trip to Greece 119

6 1949-1951: A Scene Played on the Stage of Memory; overseas work for the United Nations; love affair with Serge Samarine; the autobiographical text "February" 125

7 1959-1961: Journey to the Soviet Union; A Metro Named Lenin; return to France; employment at the National Center for Scientific Research; opposition to the Algerian war; publication of Les belles lettres; first attempts to publish None of Us Will Return 141

8 1961-1965: First trip to the United States; publication of None of Us Will Return; work with Henri Lefebvre 180

9 1964-1967: Conway to Auschwitz 212

10 1966: Who Will Carry the Word? and Those Who Had Chosen; early chapters of Useless Knowledge 254

11 1969: "The Final Night" 268

12 1969: "At First, We Wanted to Sing" and "The Misanthrope" 279

13 1968-1970: Plays on May 1968, Prague, and Chile; encounter with Rosette Lamont 288

14 1970-1971: First chapters of The Measure of Our Days; French publication of the trilogy Auschwitz and After; American publication of "Phantoms, My Companions" 304

15 1970-1971: The Measure of Our Days 316

16 1970-1979: The Court Sentence, Et toi, comment as-tu fait?, and Le coup d'état; political editorials; "To a Judith" 321

17 1973: Stories of the Station through Which the Train No Longer Passes; publication of "Gaby's Dog" 342

18 1973-1974: Spectres, mes compagnons 355

19 1974-1977: Publication and reception of Spectres, mes compagnons 362

20 1974-1980: Paris production of Who Will Carry the Word?; collaborations with Charles Schumacher and Charles Belmont; Maria Lusitania and Kalvrita of the Thousand Antigones; radio adaptations of plays 372

21 1978: Retirement; political op-eds; writing for Le Monde des Livres 392

22 1979-1982: Days and Memory; lecture tour in the United States 407

23 1982-1985: Days and Memory; "The Seventh Year of the Algerian War"; battle with cancer; final days 439

Acknowledgments 461

Translator's Acknowledgments 463

Chronology 465

Works Cited 469

Permissions 471

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