Josette Molland, who died at age 100 in France on Feb. 17, was a young member of the French Resistance during World War II when she was captured by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Nazi forced-labor camps for women. He survived, after witnessing and enduring repeated episodes of brutality. Later, after returning to France, he spoke to students about his experiences over the years.
In the 1980s, however, concerned that his story was not reaching them, he decided that telling the youth of his life in the camp was not enough. He had to show them. So she began to paint, from painful memories, scenes of the cruel imprisonment she and many other female prisoners suffered. He made 15 paintings in total, in the folk-art style. Here are five of them, along with the text he wrote to accompany them.
‘the bathroom’
“A place where one washes. No soap, toothbrush, or towel. Cold water flowing in a kind of narrow, awkward trough.”
’50 shots of “Gummi”‘
“It is almost always fatal if the woman is thin. Here, the blows are administered by our block captain, a German common-law prisoner (Green Triangle).”
‘At the dentist’
“Naked, so there’s nothing to hide with clothes. He was looking for gold (used at the time). He pulled out the crowns, using his teeth. Here the bucket is full of gold.”
‘He Cut a Tree’
“He collapsed from exhaustion. The “auseherin” (guard) finished him with a bullet in the back of the head.”
‘Liberation of the Camp of Polish Partisans at Horseback’
“They surprised the SS, were ready to flee, and mined the camp.”
