| CLAREMONT, Calif., Feb. 22, 2006 (AScribe Newswire) -- Monique Saigal was only three years old when she was sent to the South of France as World War II raged around her. Her father had died in the war and, during her stay, her grandmother died at Auschwitz. An uncle wrote to Saigal's hosts  asking if she could extend her stay. To help protect their Jewish visitor, her hosts had her baptized. Saigal returned to her biological mother in 1950 as a "good Catholic."
Her mother wouldn't talk about the war years, but Saigal longed to know more about her personal history. She has spent the last five years researching women who were part of the French Resistance in WWII. Since 2001, she interviewed and filmed 20 women who were in the Resistance.
The results thus far are: the play "Sisters in the Resistance," to be performed at Pomona College, Feb. 23-26; the book "Heroines Francaises 1940-1945. Courage, Force et Ingeniosite. 'La Puissance dans l'Impuissance'" (Les Editions du Rocher, forthcoming 2006); and six DVDs of the interviews with English subtitles translated by her students.
Thomas Leabhart, professor of theatre at Pomona College, heard about her research and asked if he could read the translations. He chose excerpts from  three of the stories and created the play, which follows the stories of Raymonde Tillon, Andree Warlin and Maiti Girtanner, who fought the Nazis during the German Occupation of France in WWII. The actors share the women's true stories of valor and courage, in their own words.
"With a group of students I created a dry cleaners service for German soldiers in submarines so we could discover the number written on their uniforms. But every time there were different submarines, and they always left for England three days later. So I got in contact with a big network that used a transmitter - something that I didn't have - in order to warn the English that in three days such-and-such English submarine was going to leave for Pas-de-Calais. They were sunk." -- Mme Girtanner
Show times are Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 23-25, at 8 p.m.; and on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 25-26, at 2 p.m. Performances will be held in the Pomona College Seaver Theatre (300 E. Bonita Ave., Claremont). Tickets cost $5 for Claremont Colleges students, staff and faculty, as well as senior citizens. General admission is $10. The box office is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Contact: (909) 621-8525.
A roundtable discussion on the Resistance will be held on Sunday, March 26, at 4 p.m., featuring Saigal; Marthe Cohn, a former Resistance fighter and author of "Behind Enemy Lines"; Gabriele Silten, a concentration camp survivor; Margaret Collins-Weitz, author of the book "Sisters in the Resistance"; and John Roth, a professor at Claremont McKenna College and director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights.
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CONTACTS:
Monique Saigal, Professor of Romance Languages and Literature, Pomona College, 909-621-8951, Monique.Saigal@pomona.edu
Online Profile: http://bryson.pomona.edu/4d.acgi$ViewFacultyMember379
Thomas Leabhart, Resident Artist and Professor of Theatre, Pomona College, 909-607-4381 or 909-621-8186, Thomas.Leabhart@pomona.edu
ABOUT THE COLLEGE: Pomona College, founded in 1887, is one of the nation's premier liberal arts institutions. Its hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for student research. Visit Pomona College on the web at http://www.pomona.edu . |
