Claudine Chomat (7 February 1915 – 15 October 1995) was a French communist militant and a member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Chomat was born at Saint-Etienne (

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) 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 Rhône. It rises in the so ...

), her father having died a few months earlier, while on active service in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. She committed herself to the French Communist Party in 1934 and helped found the Union of Young Girls in France (l'Union des Jeunes Filles de France) in 1936, with

Danielle Casanova Danielle Casanova (; born Vincentella Perini; 9 January 1909 – 9 May 1943) was a French communist activist and member of the French Resistance during World War II. A dentist by occupation, she was a high-ranking figure within the Communist Yo ...

Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier (; née Vogel; 3 November 1912 – 11 December 1996) was a French Resistance member in World War II as well as a photojournalist, deported to Auschwitz in 1943. She survived the war and became a Communist politici ...

, and Jeannette Vermeersch. In 1937, she married , a communist leader; the marriage lasted ten years. At the end of 1939, she participated in the reorganization of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

(PCF) which had been made illegal by the Edouard Daladier government. She led the women's resistance committees beginning in 1941, she founded the Union of French Women (today called ''Femmes solidaires'') in 1944, and she served as secretary-general of that organization. In 1950, she joined the central committee of the PCF. In 1948, she became the second wife of the communist leader,

Laurent Casanova Laurent Casanova (9 October 1906 — 20 March 1972) was a French politician and resistance fighter. He was a Communist deputy for Seine-et-Marne from 1945 to 1958 and Minister of Veterans and War Victims in 1946. Biography Political career Born ...

. As Casanova's wife, she suffered the disgrace of the party following the Servin-Casanova scandal in 1961. She died in

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris ...

(

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...

), aged 80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chomat, Claudine 1915 births 1995 deaths French activists French women activists French communists French feminists Communist members of the French Resistance French socialist feminists 20th-century French women