{"id":2934,"date":"2020-06-09T14:59:28","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T12:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joseph-wresinski.org\/en\/?p=2934"},"modified":"2020-06-09T14:59:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T12:59:28","slug":"international-archives-week-centennial-of-genevieve-de-gaulle-anthonioz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joseph-wresinski.org\/en\/international-archives-week-centennial-of-genevieve-de-gaulle-anthonioz\/","title":{"rendered":"International Archives Week \u2013 Centennial of Genevi\u00e8ve de Gaulle Anthonioz"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 25th, 2020 Genevi\u00e8ve de Gaulle Anthonioz would have been 100 years old.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During this year’s International Archives Week, the Joseph Wresinski Archives and Research Centre will begin a project to make public its\u00a0 archives about this woman, now famous for her work to resist the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. After spending time in a German concentration camp, Genevi\u00e8ve de Gaulle returned to her country and became one of the first ATD Fourth World Allies. She later served as the President of ATD France from 1964 until 1998 when she was succeeded by Paul Bouchet.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> De Gaulle also served as President of the ATD Fourth World Foundation<\/a> from 1971 until her death in February 2002.<\/p>\n

Many people in France and around the world have now heard of Genevi\u00e8ve de Gaulle following her 2015 induction into the French Pantheon for her activism resisting the Nazis. In 2017, a major biography in English, The General’s Niece<\/a><\/em>, was published in the United States. Two autobiographies, Le secret de l\u2019esp\u00e9rance<\/em> (The Secret of Hope<\/em>) <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and Travers\u00e9e de la nuit<\/em> (Crossing the Night<\/em>) <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> have been translated into Chinese.<\/p>\n

But what is less well known about Genevi\u00e8ve de Gaulle is that after World War II she devoted decades of her life to learning from people living in deepest poverty and advocating alongside them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Convinced that others needed to recognize their unique understanding of life, even consider it a valuable topic for research, de Gaulle devoted much of her life to ensuring that people who endure extreme poverty could contribute to improving our world.<\/p>\n

The archives that we are publishing today and every month until 25 October 2020 illustrate how Genevi\u00e8ve de Gaulle firmly believed that people who have been crushed by poverty possess an important form of knowledge \u2013 and that this knowledge is extremely valuable<\/strong>. She also believed that the understanding of people who have suffered deeply can help to make the world a more human place.<\/p>\n

De Gaulle lived out these beliefs through her strong bond with residents of the Noisy-le-Grand emergency housing camp (where ATD started in France) and her regular attendance at sessions of ATD’s Fourth World People’s University. When de Gaulle backed the 1998 French orientation law to fight exclusion, her advocacy was always based on concrete experiences of people with lived experience of extreme poverty, as well as years of listening to their observations and reflections.<\/p>\n

People who live in the deepest poverty often hide their experiences and knowledge behind a thick silence. As is so often true of violence, others don’t want to hear about it.<\/strong> Genevi\u00e8ve de Gaulle knew this silence all too well.\u00a0 Perhaps this was where she connected deeply with Fourth World Activists<\/a>, and where they instinctively recognised themselves in her. It is so hard to talk about your own humiliation, or how it feels when your suffering is ignored.<\/p>\n