Rsistance - Agns Humbert

As the grip of the German Occupation tightened on Paris in the summer of 1940, Agns Humbert, a respected art historian, took a leap of blind faith and reckless courage. With the help of a few colleagues, she formed the unlikely but highly effective Muse de l'Homme network, a keystone group within the French Resistance, and very likely the first of its kind. Indeed, the French Resistance was named after the group's newsletter, Rsistance.

In 1941 many of its members, including its charismatic leader Boris Vild and Agns herself, were betrayed to the Gestapo and imprisoned. Seven of the men were condemned to death and executed by firing squad. The women were deported to Germany as slave workers.

These are the events described with electrifying immediacy by Agns Humbert in her secret journal, first published in France in 1946 and never before translated into English. With self-deprecating humor and acerbic intelligence, she offers a uniquely personal and recklessly candid perspective on this dark and dramatic period, while the striking images that draw her artist's eye add a graphic, cinematic intensity to her diary entries. Refusing even in the grimmest days to surrender her compassion, humanity or talent for spotting the absurd, she writes with a deft touch and sardonic wit that belie the palpable depth of her conviction and outrage.

Rsistance is a testament to one woman's indomitable spirit, an eloquent tribute to the sacrifice and courage of her comrades who did not survive. A moving elegy to human dignity, compassion, idealism and endurance, it exemplifies the words inscribed on France's Mmorial de la Dportation: 'Pardonnes, n'oublies jamais' - Forgive, never forget.