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January |
Three Resistance movements combine to form Mouvements Unis de la Resistance (MUR)
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October 21 |
Anise is deported following two months in Romainville, a transit camp where many female prisoners are sent prior to deportation. She and Germaine Tillion travel in a third-class passenger car to Germany. She and Germaine meet for the first time that day, though they have called out to one another for many months from their cells at Fresnes. They become fast friends.
Soon after arriving at Ravensbruck, Anise and Germaine learn of Auschwitz extermination camp from women who had been imprisoned there and transferred to Ravensbruck. Anise and Germaine are told they have been labeled labeled NN (Nacht und Nebel), a designation for political prisoners who are supposed to disappear in the “night and fog” and never be heard from again.
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June 6 |
D-day invasion of Normandy
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August 15 |
Allied landing in southern France
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August 25 |
Liberation of Paris
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February 2 |
An order comes from Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi leader responsible for organizing the mass extermination of Jews and others in the death camps, to kill 60 Polish girls in Ravensbruck who have survived medical experiments. This leads to a fantastic show of solidarity among all the prisoners in the camp to hide the girls and save them from execution. The prisoners succeed in protecting the girls right up to the liberation of the camp. Later, the girls are able to provide key testimony in the prosecution of practitioners of the medical experiments in the camps.
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March 2 |
The camp commander at Ravensbruck orders all NN prisoners to be transferred to another camp. Anise’s Czech friends tell her to avoid this transport at all costs, that certain death awaits those who depart. Anise manages to hide, bringing Germaine and Mme. Tillion with her. But Germaine is extremely ill and is admitted to the “infirmary.” The next day, Anise and Mme. Tillion are forced to line up for another “selection” for the gas chamber. Despite all Anise’s efforts to save her, Mme. Tillion is selected for death.
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Germaine’s mother, Mme. Tillion |
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March 9 |
Mme. Tillion is gassed at Ravensbruck.
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May 7 |
Unconditional surrender of Germany
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June |
Anise returns to France and marries another member of the Resistance, André Postel-Vinay. They have three children.
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Anise and André
Postel-Vinay
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