Early life Beaumanoir was born in
Brittany on 30 October 1923, in
Guildo, a commune in the
Arrondissement of Dinan in the
Côtes-du-Nord department, the daughter of
restaurateurs Jean and Marthe Beaumanoir.
Second World War During the
Second World War, Beaumanoir was a medical student and a clandestine militant member of the
French Communist Party (PCF). Her parents regularly sent food parcels to her through friends. One day in June 1944, these friends informed her that there would be a raid the following night in the
13th arrondissement of Paris, and asked her to warn a woman called Victoria, who was hiding a Jewish family. Although she knew that the PCF frowned on unauthorised rescue missions, Beaumanoir went to Victoria's apartment to warn her. She was introduced to the Lisopravski family, and its two youngest members, the son, Daniel, aged 16, and the daughter, Simone, aged 14, agreed to go with her. Beaumanoir was initially kept in solitary confinement but was then tasked with teaching fellow prisoners how to read and write, and writing letters for them. Because she was pregnant, she was provisionally released after serving eight months in order to give birth. After the birth of her son, she escaped to Tunisia, where she joined the FLN, serving as a neuropsychiatrist under
Frantz Fanon.
Recognition Beaumanoir was recognised as one of the
Righteous Among the Nations on 27 August 1996 by
Yad Vashem, along with her parents. In 2016, investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker
Denis Robert and his daughter Nina Robert co-produced a documentary on Beaumanoir's life titled ''Une vie d'Annette''. == Notes ==