Charlotte Delbo collection

Charlotte Delbo was born on August 10, 1913 in Seine-et-Oise, near Paris, France. She joined the French Young Communist Women’s League in 1932. Two years later, in 1934, she married George Dudach. In the late 1930s, Charlotte moved to Buenos Aires as part of a theatre group, but chose to return to France in late 1940 after hearing of one of her friends had been executed for his involvement in the Communist underground. She joined George, who was already a member of the French Resistance, publishing underground newspapers and pamphlets, and worked with him until they were both arrested on March 2, 1942. Two months after their capture, Dudach was executed. Charlotte spent a total of ten months in French prisons before being deported to Auschwitz on January 24, 1943. A year later, she was transferred to Ravensbrück, where she was eventually liberated in April of 1945. After a brief period of recovery in Sweden, she returned to France after the war. Charlotte wrote essays and poetry about her experiences, including the trilogy "Auschwitz and After."