Contenu du sommaire : Les invisibles de la Résistance

This introduction presents the development of the historiography of the Resistance in a new light: it shows the recent evolution of the field and updates the usual interpretation of the phases of historiography. An approach based on regimes of visibility or memorial regimes allows us to understand the variations over time in the analysis of the past without having to resort to notions drawn from other disciplines such as “concealment”, “taboo” or the “reappearance of the repressed”. Political, social and cultural factors influence the way we look at the past, changing its visibility and sometimes even its meaning. These contextual combinations produce historiographical sequences, which evolve not “from memory to history”, but from memory to memory. In addition to the two already well-known phases – the first focused on the organisation, combat and heroism of the Resistance (1945-1970), and the second which, while retaining this martial and political approach, nuanced and made it more complex (1970-2000) – there is now a third, more social phase which looks at the Resistance in diffuse terms, the Resistance of “non-consent”, which was of vital importance for the organisations and for the victims of oppression.

Death was a constant companion of resistance fighters, often coming hand in hand with the risk of disappearing without a trace, particularly in concentration camps. A handful of deported resistance fighters chose to continue their struggle by depicting scenes of camp life and/or of their fellow prisoners. This article is based mainly on the 203 drawings produced by the Frenchman Camille Delétang between mid-September 1944 and early April 1945, when he was interned in the “Hecht” kommando of Buchenwald camp. Produced with the help of a network of accomplices, these drawings provide information about the resistance in action at Buchenwald and then at “Hecht”. They also demonstrate a willingness to a desire to combat the planned dehumanisation and invisibilisation of prisoners. Lost during the evacuation of the kommando, rediscovered in 2012, these drawings are a reminder of the silence that often accompanied the end of the Nazi concentration camp system and the deportees' homecoming from the camps.