Camille Senon, a feminist and union activist who narrowly escaped the Nazi massacre in her French village in Oradour-sur-Glane died Thursday at the age of 100, said the mayor’s office.
Senon was a young woman when the Elite SS unit of Third Reich walked in Oradour on June 10, 1944, killing 642 villagers, including all his family.
“I was working in Limoges, but I would go back to Oradour this weekend. That day, I took the tram as usual, and we quickly saw black smoke in the distance,” said Senon to AFP in 2017.
“They kept us for several hours, explaining to us what they had done in Oradour and letting us believe that they might also kill us,” she said.
“What I saw then is difficult to speak. There was no more living soul.”
Most of the victims were women and children.
After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Liberation of France, Senon joined the CGT Union and the Communist Party.
She noted the ranks dominated by the men of the union movement to lead one of the most important female sections of the CGT in Paris.
Throughout his life, Senon, who was called “eternal rebellious”, has never given up fighting for women’s rights.
“When I started working, you have to imagine … Women still had to ask their boss permission to get married! Misogyny and daily sexism were everywhere, including unions,” said Senon, who celebrated his 100th birthday in June.
In 2014, she presented herself for municipal elections in Limoges on a leftist ticket and protested a visit to the city by Dieudonne, a comic and controversial comic strip condemned for speech of hatred, anti -Semitism and defense of terrorism.
Two years later, she refused the national order of France’s merit, saying that she did not want to “give up all my life of activism for greater justice and solidarity, freedom, fraternity and peace”.
“It is important to remind young people not to compromise their values and to remain optimistic, whatever the circumstances,” she said.
“Because even if the world we face is worrying, life showed me that it is never time to despair.”
KAL / SB / JHB
