Independent Lens . SISTERS IN RESISTANCE . Their Stories

Germaine Tillion was raised in a Catholic family. Her father died of pneumonia when she was 18 and her mother assumed the role of family breadwinner, becoming an editor at Hachette Publishers. Germaine, who had studied archaeology and pre-history, began an ethnographic fieldwork in southeastern Algeria In 1934. She returned from her final fieldwork mission on June 9,1940, at the age of 33, five days before the Germans entered Paris.

Germaine is in Bavaria and sees the Nazis parading for the first time.She has a strong feeling that France will surely be attacked.

September

Germans invade Poland

Great Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany

	May	Germaine returns to France from an anthropological mission in Algeria. She has been working under the auspices of France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) for several years.		1939, The German Armored Divison invades Poland, marking the beginning of WWII Photo: Library of Congress
	June	Italy declares war on France; government leaves Paris, arrives several days later in Bordeaux Germans enter Paris, declared an Open City Marshal Philippe Pètain forms new government From London, Charles de Gaulle issues appeal for continued resistance to French population French and Germans sign an armistice that divides France into two zones. Three fifths of the country is placed under German military occupation, the remainder controlled by a puppet French government set up in Vichy, about 175 miles southeast of Paris.

June

In the days following the the signing of the French-German armistice, Germaine's family gives their identity papers to a Jewish family with whom they are friendly. Germaine and Paul Houet, an elderly former army colonel, begin to resist the German occupation. As a front to hide their illegal activities, they run an office in which volunteers send packages to foreign prisoners of war on French soil. In the meantime, she and Colonel Houet engage in a variety of activities that include securing false identity papers for escaped POWs and Jews and passing military information to London.

Germaine becomes one of four heads (and the only woman) of a network of Resistance groups.

	July	National Assembly at Vichy votes full powers to Pètain, who becomes head of state the next day, establishing the Vichy regime
	October	Vichy passes first statute on Jews Shortly after meeting with Adolf Hitler, Pètain announces he is embarking upon “the path of collaboration”
	November/ December	First clandestine newspapers appear

February

The first arrests occur in Germaine's group. Those arrested are tried before a German tribunal. Seven are condemned to death one year later.

June 22

Germany invades Soviet Union, violating the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact