Boris Vildé
Boris Vildé | |
---|---|
Mont Valérien | |
Resting place | Ivry Cemetery, Ivry-sur-Seine |
Occupation(s) | linguist and ethnologist |
Boris Vildé (25 June
Biography
He was born in
He met
Vildé was active in the French Resistance during World War II. In July 1940, Vildé together with Paul Rivet created one of the first resistance groups.[2] During the Resistance he led the scientists and lawyers of the Groupe du musée de l'Homme in producing an anti-Nazi and anti-Vichy newspaper, called Résistance. He had married in 1934 Irène Lot, the daughter of historian Ferdinand Lot and had become a French citizen in 1936.[1]
The group, one of the first Résistance units, was infiltrated by a Vichy supporter and, as a result, most of them were arrested, tried and the men among them sentenced to death. Vildé was killed by firing squad, together with Léon-Maurice Nordmann, Georges Ithier, Jules Andrieu, René Sénéchal, Pierre Walter and Anatole Lewitsky, on 23 February 1942 at Fort Mont-Valérien. They are buried in the cemetery at Ivry-sur-Seine.[3]
Boris Vildé last words before being executed by the Nazis were:
- “I love France. I love this beautiful country. Yes, I know it can be small-minded, selfish, politically rotten and a victim of its old glory, but with all these faults it remains enormously human and will not sacrifice its stature.” [4]
References
- ^ a b c Benfoughal, Tatiana (2018). "De Saint-Pétersbourg au Mont Valérien : biographie de Boris Vildé, ethnologue des peuples finno-ougriens et résistant". Bérose-Encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l'anthropologie. Bérose. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ Ousby, Ian Occupation The Ordeal of France, 1940–1944, New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000 page 213.
- ^ "French Resistance". Archived from the original on 2008-11-03. Retrieved 2008-11-11. French Resistance WWW.schoolnet.co.uk
- ISBN 978-1-84739-156-8.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-7475-9597-7(American title: Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War, Bloomsbury, US, 2008)
- Vildé, Boris, Journal et lettres de prison, 1941–1942, Editions Allia, Paris, 1997
- Benfoughal, Tatiana, « De Saint-Pétersbourg au Mont Valérien : biographie de Boris Vildé, ethnologue des peuples finno-ougriens et résistant » in Bérose, encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l’anthropologie, 2018.