David Rousset (18 January 1912 in

Roanne Roanne (; frp, Rouana; oc, Roana) is a commune in the Loire department, central France. It is located northwest of Lyon on the river Loire. It has an important Museum, the ''Musée des Beaux-arts et d'Archéologie Joseph-Déchelette'' (Fre ...

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhôn ...

– 13 December 1997) was a French writer and political activist, a recipient of

Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the ...

, a French literary award. A survivor of the

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, t ...

and the

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

Nazi concentration camp, he is famous for his books about

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

s.Jean-Paul Monferran
"David Rousset: mort d'un grand témoin" (obituary)
''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'', 15 December 1997. Rousset was the first person to use the term "

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

" in the French language, revealing to the French the Soviet system of

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (espec ...

s. In 1949, learning that while the concentration camps in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

had been destroyed, camps still existed in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, he appealed to former inmates of Nazi camps to form a commission to inspect the USSR camps, which became the "International Commission Against Concentrationist Regimes". For his efforts he was attacked by

Pierre Daix Pierre Georges Daix (24 May 1922, Ivry-sur-Seine – 2 November 2014, Paris) was a French journalist, writer and art historian. He was a friend and biographer of Pablo Picasso. As a young man, Daix was an ardent Stalinist. He joined the French C ...

in the French communist newspaper ''

Les Lettres Françaises ''Les Lettres Françaises'' (French for "The French Letters") is a French literary publication, founded in 1941 by writers Jacques Decour and Jean Paulhan. Originally a clandestine magazine of the French Resistance in German-occupied territory, i ...

'', which accused him of slandering the Soviet Union, forging the texts of the Soviet laws, and spreading misinformation. Rousset brought libel charges against the newspaper, and in 1951 he won the case. Along with

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialist, existentialism (and Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter ...

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature The 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded the French writer Alb ...

and Gerard Rosenthal, Rousset was a founder of the left-wing ''Rassemblement démocratique révolutionnaire'' (Revolutionary Democratic Rally), which called for a European federation on democratic socialist lines. In 1968 he was elected as a deputy to the French National Assembly as a left-wing

Gaullist Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle wi ...

. He resigned in November 1970.

Bibliography

* ''The Other Kingdom'' (Reynal & Hitchcock Inc., 1947) * from '' L'Univers concentrationnaire'' (French)
"The Drama of Political Confrontation"
''Telos'' 44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press. * ''Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution: A Critical History of the USSR, Volume 1'' (translated by Alan Freeman; London: Allison & Busby, 1982) * ''The Crisis in the Soviet System'' (1986)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rousset, David 1912 births 1997 deaths People from Roanne Gulag Prix Renaudot winners Buchenwald concentration camp survivors Neuengamme concentration camp survivors French male writers Deputies of the 4th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic 20th-century French male writers