A feminist who carried anti-fascism into clandestine resistance
“Life is not worth much, and dying is not important. What matters is living according to one’s honour and ideal.”
Berty Albrecht was a French activist who joined feminism to anti-fascism, publishing a journal that defended contraception and abortion rights. Her early warning about Nazism and aid to German refugees led to cooperation with Henri Frenay and the formation of the clandestine Resistance movement Combat. She helped produce Les Petites Ailes and Vérités and organized Combat’s social services, continuing after arrest, imprisonment and escape. Captured and tortured in 1943, she died in Fresnes prison and was posthumously named a Companion of the Liberation.
Career Timeline
- 1912Qualified as a nurse
- 1918–1931Lived in the Netherlands and London; encountered feminism and birth-control activism
- 1933–1935Founded and edited Le Problème sexuel
- 1933–1940Aided German refugees, worked against fascism, and collaborated with Henri Frenay
- 1940–1941Produced the underground papers Les Petites Ailes and Vérités
- 1941–1943Leadership collaborator and social-services organizer in Combat
- 1943Arrested and tortured; died in Fresnes prison