Josette Molland died in France on February 17 at the age of 100. A young member of the French Resistance during World War II, she was captured by the Gestapo and imprisoned in a Nazi women’s forced labor camp. She survived after witnessing and enduring repeated atrocities. Later, back in France, she would tell her students about her experience.
However, in her 80s, fearing that her story would not make sense to them, she concluded that telling them about her life in the camp was not enough. She had to show them. So she began drawing scenes from the harsh confinement she and many other female prisoners endured, based on painful memories. In total she created 15 paintings in the folk art style. Here are five of them, along with the words she wrote for them.
“Toilet”
“The place had been washed. No soap, toothbrushes or towels. Cold water ran into a kind of narrow, awkward sink.”
“50 Blows of ‘Fudge’”
“If the woman was thin, it was almost always fatal. Here the beatings were carried out by our captain, a German common law prisoner (Green Triangle).”
“Polish Partisans on Horseback Liberate Concentration Camps”
“They surprised the SS who were preparing to escape and planted mines in the camp.”
“visit dentist”
“Naked, so nothing could be hidden in clothes. He was looking for gold (which was used during that period). He pulled out crowns and teeth. The barrels here are filled with gold.”
“She just cut down a tree”
“She collapsed from fatigue. The ‘auseherin’ (guard) ended her life with a bullet to the back of her head.”