Julia Pirotte collection

Julia Pirotte worked as a journalist and photographer for French newspapers during World War II. She participated in the resistance at Marseilles and was a member of the underground. She avoided trial for her alleged communist beliefs prior to the war. The collection consists of eyewitness testimonies to Nazi atrocities garnered from memoirs of Polish farmers. The memoirs concern their experiences during the Nazi occupation, with particular emphasis on the fate of Jews in their neighborhoods. Julia Pirotte collected the testimonies of eyewitnesses to Nazi atrocities during a contest for best memoirs among readers of "Chtopska Droga" (Peasant Path), a publication for Polish farmers, in 1958. The testimonies by Polish farmers concern events from 1939 to 1945. Pirotte discovered several testimonies concerning the fate of Jews during that era and made typed copies of the testimonies.