Madeleine Barot (4 July 1909 in

Châteauroux Châteauroux ( ; ; ) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Châteauroux te ...

– 28 December 1995 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French activist and theologian, who was influential in Protestant, humanist, and human rights movements.

Biography

Madeleine Barot was the daughter of Alexandre Auguste Barot, a literature teacher from

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...

, and Madeleine Kuss. From 1927 to 1934, she began her studies at Sorbonne University in Paris, where she achieved both a graduate degree in History and a diploma in library/archives. In 1934, she became an intern at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. She was then hired as a librarian at the

École française de Rome The École française de Rome (EFR) is a French research institute for history, archaeology, and the social sciences; overseen by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and a division of the Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et ...

, where she worked from June, 1935 to June, 1940. Barot was active in young Protestant associations through the French Federation of Christian Student Associations, founded in 1895. In July–August 1939, she chaired a committee at the World Conference of Christian Youth in Amsterdam, organized by

Willem Visser 't Hooft Willem Adolph Visser 't Hooft (20 September 1900 – 4 July 1985) was a Dutch theologian who became the first secretary general of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and held this position until his retirement in 1966. Biography Visser 't H ...

, which promoted the amalgamation of Protestant movements. She thus became involved in the prewar resistance movement, inspired by Swiss pastor

Karl Barth Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Reformed theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Decl ...

. A friend of pastor

Marc Boegner Marc Boegner, commonly known as ''pasteur'' Boegner (; 21 February 1881 – 18 December 1970), was a French theologian, pastor, essayist, notable member of the French Resistance and a notable voice in the ecumenical movement. Biography Marc B ...

, Barot was named Secretary General of

Cimade The Cimade is a French NGO founded at the beginning of the World War II by French Protestant student groups, in particular the Christian activist and member of the French Resistance Madeleine Barot, to give assistance and support to people uproot ...

during a meeting of the heads of young Protestant movements on August 15, 1940, replacing Georgette Siegrist. She held that position until 1956. Madeleine Barot was directly responsible for the presence of

in camps, by first forcing her own way into the Gurs camp thanks to her relentless negotiations with the authorities and then making it a customary feature in all camps. A committed Christian, she also proved to be energetic and well connected nationally as well as internationally. In 1953, Madeleine Barot was put in charge of the "Men and Women in the Church and Society" department by the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...

. There, she began important work in carving out a space for women within the church. She was involved in several important organizations: * A Commission for Church support in development; * France's Protestant Federation * Christian Action For the Abolition of Torture * A Conference of Religions for Peace She also continued her work with

. In 1988, she was given the status of

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

on the

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

Holocaust Memorial, which honours people throughout Europe who directly or indirectly helped to protect and support Jews during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. Barot died on December 28, 1995.

Notes and references

Bibliographic resources

* Jacques (André), ''Madeleine Barot. Une indomptable énergie'', Genève, éditions du Cerf et Labor et Fides, 1989 * Barot (Madeleine) dir., ''Itinéraires socialistes chrétiens : jalons sur le christianisme social hier et aujourd’hui : 1882-1982'', Genève, Labor et Fides, 1983 * Kévonian (Dzovinar), Dreyfus-Armand (Geneviève), Blanc-Chaléard (Marie-Claude), Amar (Marianne) dir., ''La Cimade et l'accueil des réfugiés. Identités, répertoires d'actions et politiques de l'asile, 1939-1994'', Paris, Presses universitaires de Paris-Ouest, 2013, 265 p. * Mayeur (Jean-Marie), Encrevé (André), ''Les Protestants, dictionnaire du monde religieux dans la France contemporaine'', Beauchesne / CNRS, 1993, 534 pages, , p. 58.

External links

Madeleine Barot
– her activity to save Jews' lives during the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, at

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Barot, Madeleine 1909 births 1995 deaths French Protestant theologians Calvinist pacifists 20th-century French theologians 20th-century Protestant theologians Women Christian theologians People from Châteauroux French Righteous Among the Nations