Remembering the Occupation and Liberation of France
Happy civilians climbing on a military car following their liberation from the Germans. 25 August, 1944. Photographer unknown.
On the 81st anniversary of the Liberation of France join the Alliance Française and the Minnesota JCC at the University Club of St Paul to hear testimonies from direct and indirect witnesses of this time, with Prof. Bruno Chaouat from the University of Minnesota and Prof. Sharon Marquart from Gustavus Adolphus College. Our special guests Sarah Chaouat, Nelly Hewett and Jacqueline O'Brien will share how WWII affected them and their families, their remembrance of Occupation, Liberation and their lasting consequences.
The conversation will be moderated by Valerie Tremelat and will be followed by a Q&A and light refreshments.
Tickets are limited.
$10 AF members / $15 Non-members
Free for University Club members - registration is mandatory through the U Club member portal.
Registration closes on September 9.
Please consider a $10 donation to support our cultural programs like this one. Your support matters.
Meet our speakers
Sarah Chaouat was born in 1940 in Paris. During the War, she was hiding with her family in "zone libre". Growing up she dedicated her life to teaching children how to read. She is also a visual artist and has shown her works in many places in France.
Nelly Trocmé Hewett grew up in the French Plateau Vivarais-Lignon and the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a place of safety and shelter for Jewish refugees during WWII. Hewett's parents, Pastor André Trocmé and his wife Magda, were among the leaders of the rescue operations. The remarkable efforts of ordinary people from this area are described in the book A Good Place to Hide: How One French Community Saved Thousands of Lives During World War II by Peter Grose.
Jacqueline Foley O’Brien is the daughter of Parisian born Jacqueline Blanc O’Brien and Thomas Foley O’Brien, WWII pilot from St. Paul. Her parents met during the war. Jacqueline is a retired Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She has many passions, the greatest of which are continuing to learn about her Franco-American history and swimming in Lake Superior. She has spent her summers on Madeline Island since birth.
Bruno Chaouat is Professor of French and Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is a Honorary Fellow at the Center for the Study of Jewish Culture, Society and Politics, Durham University, UK, and Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques. After publishing on the French romantic writer Francois-René de Chateaubriand, and especially on the question of autobiography, experience and death (Je meurs par morceaux. Chateaubriand, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1999), he focused his research on testimony and Holocaust studies. More recently he published a book on French responses to the resurgence of antisemitism, and the relations between postmodern thought and those responses (Is Theory Good for the Jews? French Thought and the Challenge of the New Antisemitism, Liverpool University Press, 2016). His book appeared last year in a German translation. His newest book, Out of This World: Gnostic Encounters in French Literature and Thought (Liverpool University Press, 2024), explores the uncanny echoes of ancient gnostic themes in French modernity. He is currently working on the Russian emigres in interwar Paris and their impact on the renewal of French thought.
Professor Sharon Marquart is a Professor of French and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College. She is the author of On the Defensive: Reading the Ethical in Nazi Camp Testimonies (University of Toronto Press, 2015), co-editor of a volume of essays on Auschwitz survivor Charlotte Delbo, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Trauma, French Forum, H-France Forum, The Romanic Review, Ethnologies, and various essay collections on World War II and the Holocaust.
This event is co-hosted by Alliance Française Minneapolis St/Paul, Minnesota JCC and the University Club of St Paul. Thank you to Charles Horwitz for being an event sponsor.
