This year will mark the 30th anniversary of Madeliene Barot's death, so it seems entirely appropriate to look back on her life and celebrate her achievements in this blog.
Madeleine Barot was born on the 4th of July in Châteauroux, central France. Her parents were Alexandre Auguste Barot, a literature teacher from Clermont-Ferrand, and Madeleine Kuss. Madeleine was educated at the local secondary school in Clermont-Ferrand and in Versailles.
In 1927, she began studying at the Sorbonne University, Paris, and by the time she left, she had gained a graduate degree in History and a diploma in Library/archives. In 1934, she became an intern at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France before taking up a role as a librarian at the École Francaise de Rome from June 1935 until June 1940. She joined the student “Fédé” movement, the French branch of the Universal Federation of Christian Students’ Association (founded 1895), and was a very active member. She chaired a committee at the World Conference of Christian Youth in Amsterdam, that keenly promoted the amalgamation of Protestant movements. This led to her involvement in the prewar Resistance movement, the brainchild of Swiss pastor Karl Barth.
Almost immediately after Italy entered WWII, Barot was repatriated to France and appointed Secretary General of the Cimade by her good friend, Pastor Mark Boegner, in August 1940. She continued in this role until 1956 and threw herself wholeheartedly into this job. Barot was directly responsible for the presence of Cimade in internment camps, relentlessly battling to ensure they were routinely included. One camp in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department situated at Gurs Barot was particularly strenuous in her efforts to aid the approximate 40,000 foreigners and Jews who were forcefully gathered together there under the Vichy regime. Reception Centres at places such as Chambon-sur-Ligon were also high on her visiting list.
In 1941, she became part of the research group that wrote the ‘Thèses de Pomeyrol’ that emphasises the resistance of the French Reformed Church to Nazism.
By 1953, Barot had become Director of the Department of Cooperation between men and women within the Church and the Society of the Ecumenical Council of Churches. In 1968, she began working with the SODEPAX (Society for the Development of Peace) under the supervision of the COE (Ecumenical Council of Churches) and the Catholic Church, during this time, she travelled widely in West Africa and South America, where she won international recognition for her support of women’s rights.
From 1974 to 1979, she was secretary to the International and Economic Social Affairs Committee of the French Protestant Federation. The following year, she became Vice-President of ACAT (Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture).
In 1988, she was nominated Doctor Honoris Causa of the theology faculty of Paris, and she was given the status Righteous Among the Nations on the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, which honours those who directly or indirectly helped to protect and support Jews during the Third Reich.
Further reading
Jacques (André) Barot Madeliene Une Indomptable énergie. Genève. Éditions du Cerf et labor et Fides. 1989.
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