Madeleine Marzin

Madeleine Marzin (born July 21, 1908 in Loudéac , † May 27, 1998 in Paris ) was a French politician of the PCF . She took part in the resistance against the German occupation during the Second World War and was a member of the National Assembly from 1951 to 1958 .

Life and career

Early life

Marzin was born in Brittany as the daughter of a day laborer, who mainly worked as a bricklayer, and a clerk . She had four brothers, was raised Catholic by her mother and had to see the death of her war-disabled father in 1925. In 1929, she completed her teaching degree in Saint-Brieuc and then worked in the capital Paris. There she joined the communist party PCF, while at the same time she was involved in a Breton cultural association founded by the socialist politician Marcel Cachin . In addition, she did trade union work, where she held various higher positions in the 1930s, but had to let her political career rest for a few years due to health problems.

Time in resistance

As a result of the occupation of France by German troops in 1940, she resumed her activities, working for the now banned Communist Party and concentrating in particular on maintaining independent educational institutions. On June 1, 1942, Marzin took part in a demonstration against the occupiers in Paris, was arrested and sentenced to death by a tribunal on June 23 . That sentence was reduced to life imprisonment on July 22nd. However, her detention ended in August of the same year, as she was to be taken to Rennes by train and managed to escape at Gare Montparnasse in Paris. She lived underground and worked for the UFF women's movement until France was liberated in 1944. For her services in the resistance she was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance .

Career in political office

Immediately after the liberation, Marzin was elected to the city council of Paris in 1944 and also moved to the general council of the Seine département . In the latter, she took over the office of secretary in 1946. With her candidacies for the constituent national assemblies in 1945 and the regular national assembly in 1946, she tried to get into national politics, which was initially unsuccessful due to her low positions on the list. In the 1951 elections, on the other hand, she was fourth in the list in the Seine department, which included Paris and the immediate vicinity, and thus made it into parliament. In the National Assembly, as a member of the communist faction, she mainly devoted herself to educational issues, mostly contradicting the positions of the then education ministers. On other political issues she consistently supported the respective positions of her group. In 1956 she was re-elected as a member of parliament. In June 1958, she voted against Charles de Gaulle's authorization , who initiated the abolition of the Fourth Republic . Due to the resulting dissolution of parliament, she lost her mandate a little later. She then turned her attention back to local politics, returning to Paris City Council in 1959, where she was represented until 1971. The unmarried politician continued to live in retirement in the capital, where she died in 1998.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Base de données historique des anciens députés , assemblee-nationale.fr