Olga Bancic

Olga Bancic / Bančik , [ ɔlɡa bant͡ʃɪk ], born Golda Bancic ( Russian урожд Гольда Ноих-Бенционовна Банчик. ) Under its French nom de guerre Pierrette known (* 10. May 1912 in Chisinau / Russian: Kishinev (Кишинёв), Russian Reich ; † May 10, 1944 in Stuttgart , German Reich ) was a Romanian communist of Jewish descent who became known for her service in the French Resistance during World War II . She was a member of the Francs-tireurs et partisans - main-d'œuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI) in the Manouchian group .

Early life

Bancic grew up in Chișinău / Kishinev in a large Jewish family. Bessarabia belonged to the end of the First World War the Russian Empire and was in 1918 by Romania annexed . She worked in a mattress factory when she was twelve. Despite her age, she and others were arrested and beaten because she went on a strike.

Political activities

Because of her membership and her strong involvement in the local workers' organization (1933 to 1939) she was arrested several times, but saw this as an occupational risk. She became a member of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR, Partidul Comunist Român ). In 1938 she traveled to France , where she made contact with left-wing activists and helped them smuggle weapons for the International Brigades into Spain during the Spanish Civil War . At this time the PCR (Romanian Communist Party) was subjected to reprisals and subsequently split into several groups. Like the Romanian Gheorghe Gaston-Marin , who studied in Grenoble and also became a member of the Resistance, Bancic became a member of the French Communist Party (parti communiste français) .

Marriage and family

In Paris she met Alexandru Jar , a Romanian writer and communist activist, whom she married in 1939. In the same year she gave birth to a daughter whom she named Dolores after a Spanish freedom fighter. After starting her work in the Resistance as a member of the immigrant group FTP-MOI , she gave her daughter to a French family in the country for their protection.

Resistance

Missak Manouchian before his execution

After the occupation of Paris by the Wehrmacht , Bancic and her husband Jar joined the FTP-MOI ( Francs-Tireurs et Partisans de la Main d'Oeuvre Immigrée ), an immigrant group of the French Resistance that was active in Paris. 1930s Paris was a cultural draw for intellectuals from around the world. There were also many immigrants who came as refugees, such as Armenians who fled the Armenian genocide in Turkey in 1915–1917 ; Jews who fled the persecution in Germany and Eastern Europe as well as communists from different countries.

Bancic was a member of the Manouchian group of the FTP-MOI , an armed sub -group led by Missak Manouchian , an Armenian poet. Her nom-de-guerre , or alias, was Pierrete . She built explosives and occasionally carried them in her stroller. In total, she took part in around a hundred sabotage actions against the Wehrmacht .

«(...) Les femmes qui transportaient les armes faisaient un travail beaucoup plus dangereux que ceux qui combattaient les armes à la main, elles ne pouvaient se défendre.

Le chef de groupe préparait l'action, puis conduisait ses camarades au rendez-vous. Les femmes -Anna Richter, Olga Bancic- devaient, à l'heure dite, apporter des grenades et des revolvers (nous en avions très peu). Puis il fallait les récupérer après l'action. Ce qui les exposait terriblement, car après le bouleversement d'un attentat, le quartier était tout de suite encerclé par la sécurité allemande, les maisons fouillées et quelquefois les rames de métro arrêtées. Les hommes qui avaient tiré s'enfuyaient immédiatement à vélo, mais Olga qui avait attendu que les combattants aient fini leur travail, ne bougeait pas et elle récupérait les armes près d'un métro. (...) »

“(…) The women who transported the weapons did a more dangerous job than those who fought with the hand weapons , they could not defend themselves.

The head of the group prepared the action, then he led his comrades to the meeting point. The women - Anna Richter , Olga Bancic - had to bring the hand grenades and revolvers (we had very few) [to the meeting point] at the specified hour . It was also necessary to resume this after the action. This exposed them extraordinarily, since after the riot of an attack, the area was surrounded by the German security forces, the houses were searched and the metro cars were stopped. The men who had shot fled immediately afterwards on bicycles, but Olga, who had waited for the men to finish her work, did not move and picked up the guns near a metro stop. (...) "

- Arsène Tchakarian : - Nouvelles du temps, Olga Bancic, contemporary witness report by Arsène Tchakarian

Women in the Resistance

→ Main article : Women in the Resistance

Women in the Resistance had the tactical advantage that they were to a certain extent "invisible" in a predominantly male combat or war environment ( military and resistance ). That is, they could move - without arousing suspicion - more inconspicuously than men in enemy-controlled territory, for example more easily through checkpoints, etc.

“Partisan women of the French Resistance, many of whom were associated with combat groups linked to the French Communist party (PCF), broke the gender barrier by fighting side by side with men. Their purported "invisibility" as women made them ideal underground operatives, whether they participated as fighters or as non-combat members of gender-integrated combat teams. Adaptive behavior and blurred identities explained and excused the trespassing of women into male gender territory. [...] ”

“Partisan women of the French Resistance , many of whom belonged to combat groups related to the French Communist Party (PCF) , broke the gender barrier by fighting side by side with the men. As women, their supposed 'invisibility' made them ideal underground agents, whether they participated as combatants or as non-combatants of gender-integrated combat teams. Adaptable behavior and fuzzy identities explained and excused the intrusion of women into male territory. "

- French Historical Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1989), Paula Schwartz - Partisanes and Gender Politics in Vichy France, abstract

Arrest and death

On November 6, 1943, Olga Bancic was arrested in Paris by the brigade spéciale n ° 2 of the French secret service at a meeting with Marcel Rayman . At the same time, or within a few days, Missak Manouchian and another 21 men from her group were arrested. Bancic was tortured like the others but did not reveal any information.

Between February 17 and 21, 1944, Bancic and the other 22 were sentenced to death in a show trial . The 22 men were executed by firing squad in Fort Mont-Valérien on the last day of the trial . As a French law the Fusiliers forbade women Bancic was not executed, but spent later to Stuttgart. In Stuttgart, Bancic was sentenced to death again. Even after she was sentenced, she was still tortured and finally executed by beheading in the courtyard of the prison on May 10, 1944, her 32nd birthday.

The French and German authorities in Paris in February 1944 a widespread propaganda - posters on which the arrested and executed members of Manouchian group than Armée du crime (Army of the crime) were vilified. The poster came to be known as L'affiche rouge , and it failed completely; it was scrawled everywhere with morts pour la France and served as an inspiration for further resistance against the German occupation forces.

legacy

Farewell letter to her daughter

On the evening before her execution in Stuttgart, Bancic managed to throw a suicide note to her daughter through the window while she was being transported to the place of execution. The letter asked for it to be sent to her daughter Dolores after the war. The letter has been sent and is received.

family

Bancic's husband, Alexandru Jar, and her daughter Dolores survived the war. After the war, Jar returned to Romania with his and Bancic's daughter Dolores , where he worked as a writer again. On May 15, 1956, at a meeting of the members of the Romanian Workers 'Party (that was the name of the Romanian Communist Party until 1965, then again PCR), who were members of the Writers ' Union , he was expelled from the party because of "anti-party" statements.

Postwar Romania

In post-war Romania, ruled by communists, Bancic was revered as a revolutionary heroine and streets were named after her in many cities and small monuments were erected for her. In schools she was venerated as a communist martyr . The Romanian communists took their memory for propaganda purposes . After the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the end of communist rule in 1989 , communist protagonists were spurned and the corresponding monuments were largely removed and street names changed. In Bucharest , Olga Bancic Street (Strada Olga Bancic), located between Strada Polonă and Strada C. Botez, was renamed Alexandru-Philippide Street (Strada Alexandru Philippide) in 1995, and a plaque commemorating Olga Bancic was replaced by one away from the houses. The board contained the following text:

“Olga Bancic. May 10, 1912 - May 10, 1944. Luptătoare antifascistă din România executată de hitlerişti la Stuttgart prin decapitare. Viața, lupta și moartea ei eroică însuflețește azi munca poporului român pe drumul progresului "

“Olga Bancic. May 10, 1912 - May 10, 1944. Anti-fascist fighter from Romania, executed in Stuttgart by the heads of the Hitlerists. Their heroic life, struggle and death inspire the work of the Romanian people on the path of progress today. "

- Bedros Horasangian, "Caragiale, go home!", Published in Ziua on June 29, 2005; antifa.ro, blog, photo of the board

France

In Paris, on the wall of the house 19, rue au Maire, 3ème, Paris is a plaque commemorating the resistance group Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP / MOI), on which Olga Bancic is also inscribed.

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  Memorial plaque in Paris 3 ^e , 19 de la rue au Maire

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  Memorial plaque in Valence for the members of the Manouchian group

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  Rue du Groupe-Manouchian, Paris 20 ^e

Culture

• In 1995 the well-known Romanian painter Alexandru Ciucurencu exhibited a painting entitled Olga Bancic pe eșafod (Olga Bancic on the scaffold).
• L'affiche rouge (The Red Poster), the propaganda poster of the French authorities in occupied France, depicting the photos of 10 of the arrested and executed members of the Manouchian group , was the subject of Louis Aragon's poem l'Affiche rouge .
• In the French movie L'armée du crime from 2009, Olga Bancic is portrayed by the actress Olga Legrand . The film was directed by Robert Guédiguian . The film focuses on the role of immigrants in the Resistance, in particular the Manouchian group.

literature

• Vladimir Tismăneanu : Stalinism pentru eternitate . Editura Polirom, Iași 2005, ISBN 973-681-899-3 .
• Philippe Ganier Raymond: L'Affiche Rouge . Fayard, Paris 1975
• Dicționar Enciclopedic Român . Academia Republicii Popular Române. Editura Politică, Bucharest 1962–1964
• Albert Oriol-Maloire: Les femmes en guerre . Editions Martelle, 1995

photos

• www.usshm.org, Photo: Portrait photo Olga Bancic (year and photographer unknown, accessed on October 14, 2010)
• www.memoire-net.org, Photo: The women of the MOI group Carmagnole-liberté parade in Lyon . Olga Bancic can also be seen in the picture. The photo is reprinted in Albert Oriol-Maloire, Les femmes en guerre , Editions Martelle, 1995 (year and photographer unknown, accessed October 14, 2010)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Golda (Olga) Bancic . Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Retrieved October 9, 2010.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Olga Bancic, quote / contemporary witness report from Arsène Tchakarian, member of the Manouchian group, about Olga Bancic and the activities of the female Resistance members pagesperso-orange.fr; Retrieved October 2, 2010.
3. ↑ Vladimir Tismăneanu - Stalinism pentru eternitate . Editura Polirom, Iași 2005, ISBN 973-681-899-3 .
4. ^ Second World War / Course of the war / The invasion of Paris . German Historical Museum ; Retrieved October 2, 2010.
5. ^ Extrait des archives de la police . ( Memento of January 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) familles-de-fusilles.com; Retrieved October 9, 2010.
6. ↑ Souviens-toi. Olga Bancic . souviens-toi.org; Retrieved October 9, 2010.
7. ↑ Affiche rouge . wikipedia.fr
8. ↑ Philippe Ganier Raymond: L'Affiche Rouge . Fayard, Paris, 1975
9. ^ La dernière lettre d'Olga Bancic ( Memento of January 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Wording of the letter in French; Retrieved October 2, 2010.
10. ^ Last letters of The Manouchian Group May, 1944. Olga Bancic . marxists.org, text of the letter in English, translated by Mitch Abidor; Retrieved October 2, 2010.
11. ↑ Article on Alexandru Jar . wikipedia.ro (Romanian)
12. ↑ Bedros Horasangian: Caragiale, go home! (Romanian writer of Armenian descent), published in Ziua on June 29, 2005
13. ↑ antifa.ro, blog, Memoria unei antifasciste a fost profanata!  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. posted January 4, 2007 (Romanian). The post contains two documentation photos with the condition before and after the memorial plaque was removed; Retrieved October 3, 2010.  
14. ↑ Les Plaques Commémoratives . plaques-commemoratives.org; Retrieved October 2, 2010.
15. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Române - Dicționar Enciclopedic Român . Editura Politică, Bucharest , 1962–1964
16. ↑ Lledelwin's inner world - L'affiche rouge, Poème de Louis Aragon . blogg.org; Retrieved October 2, 2010.
17. ↑ L'armée du crime in the Internet Movie Database (English)