Almost 70 years ago on November 16th, 1944, two French women were sentenced to death for their anti-Nazi campaign. Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe were gender norm-defying artists, better known by their artist names Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, who used their art to courageously defy the Nazi occupation of their chosen home, the British Channel Island of Jersey.
Over the course of four years, Schwob and Malherbe wrote and distributed anti-Hitler notes, insults and calls to desert – a tactic known as “Paper Bullets”- written under the disguise of a Nazi soldier called “The Soldier with No Name,” meant to sway other soldiers from believing in the Nazi rhetoric.
Join Jeffrey H. Jackson, author of the new book Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis, for an introduction to Schwob and Malherbe. Courageously out lesbian partners known for their provocative photography - Schwob was also half-Jewish and they had Communist ties. The pair were eventually betrayed by a neighbor in 1944 and sentenced to death for their actions; however even in jail, they continued to fight the Nazis by reaching out to other prisoners—including imprisoned German soldiers—to spread a message of hope.
Please join us to learn more about these heroes of resistance, and then you’ll be able to ask questions via our online platform.
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