Ceremony in tribute to three female resistance fighters, these “shadows” of the Army of Shadows, in Béziers

These are women, union activists, feminists, members of the PCF or descendants of these three resistance fighters killed by the occupier or the militia, who unveiled the commemorative plaque at the Bourse du travail. Diane Petitmangin

This Thursday, August 29, at 5 p.m., at the Bourse du travail in Béziers, the names of Germaine Fabre-Bousquet, Elise Carbonne-Pignol and Juliette Taixe-Cauquil were placed on the commemorative plaque of the fighters killed under the occupation.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation and at the call of the inter-union CGT, CFDT, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU, the French Communist Party, Arac and the feminist association Les Rosies, a ceremony to pay tribute to the Béziers resistance fighters took place this Thursday, August 29, at 5 p.m., at the Bourse du Travail.

Three women – Élise Pignol (née Carbonne), Germaine Bousquet (née Fabre) and Juliette Cauquil (née Taixe) – saw their names affixed to the commemorative plaque of the fighters killed under the occupation, by the Germans or the militia, and erected in 1954.

A vital but invisible role

Recalling the vital but often invisible, even invisible, role of women, the speakers stressed the fact that “without women, the internal resistance could never have existed”. Typists, radio operators, liaison officers, escorts of escaped soldiers, supply women to the maquis… Their acts of bravery "have often been underestimated or forgotten, with History initially glorifying a warrior and masculine vision of the Resistance".