Danielle Casanova

Casanova, Danielle 

Born Jan. 9, 1909, in Ajaccio, Corsica; died May 9, 1943, in Oświęcim. Heroine of the French Resistance Movement.

The daughter of a Corsican teacher, Casanova went to Paris in 1927 to study medicine. She was active in the student movement and the Communist Youth Organization and joined the French Communist Party in 1933. In 1932, Casanova was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth Organization and became chairman of the French Girls’ Union in 1936. In 1935 she came to Moscow to attend the congress of the Communist Youth International and was elected a member of the Executive Committee. During the occupation of France by fascist Germany (1940–44), Casanova was one of the organizers of French youth and women for the struggle to liberate her country. She was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1942 and died of typhus in a fascist concentration camp in May 1943. A street in Paris is named after Casanova.

REFERENCE

Tery, S. Serdtse, polnoe solntsa. [Moscow] 1958. (Translated fromFrench.)