queer-history-class

[queer-history-class]

Claude Cahun: The Nazi fighting, gender non-conforming badass

Feel free to skip to sections that interest you!!!

Background

Claude Cahun (originally named Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob) was born on October 5th, 1894 in France. From a young age they had to deal with a variety of hardship such as their mother's declining mental health, being Jewish during a very antisemitic time and so much more which I won't have time to cover today.

Due to their mother's struggles mental illness and rising antisemitism Cahun was sent to live with their paternal grandmother around 1898. Together they would read about philosophy, theology and more. This was nmfsr from average for a young girl's education for the time and most likely shaped the personality Claude Cahun would develop.

After they attended various different schools, including the University of Paris, they began to explore the arts. This was likely influenced by their family as a large majority of them were creative such as their father and two uncles.

Creative Works

Their photography commonly included themes of gender roles and sense of self. The most famous of these works is likely their series '"I'm in training" In this work they use elements of gender that contrast each other such as the weight they're holding and the dramatic makeup they wear. In all of the photos they have written on their shirt "I am in training, please do not kiss me"

Anti-Nazi Activism

In 1937, at the age of 43, Cahun settled on an island known as Jersey with their partner and creative collaborator Marcel Moore. They lived there peacefully until the island was taken over by Nazis in 1940.

The two lovers decided to fight for their home and peace so they began to create anti-nazi propaganda which they would distribute across the island. They left these papers in various places including shops, restaurants, public benches and they would even slip them into Nazi soldiers' pockets. All of these were distributed under the german pseudonym Der Soldat Ohne Namen (The Soldier With No Name)

At one point they even had Nazi soldiers living in their home yet they weren't caught until 1944. After their arrest they were imprisoned apart from each other and sentenced to death.

Thankfully the island was liberated before the sentence could be carried out. However, Cahun's treatment while in jail left them severely ill and they passed away in October of 1954, just under 1 year before the end of the war.

Last Thoughts

Claude Cahun has been my favourite historical figure since I first learned about them for so many reasons. They're an absolute badass and their work in photography and poetry is incredible aswell as imapctful.

I'd like to touch on why I refer to them as gender non-conforming (GNC) instead of a label like genderfluid or non-binary in a future post so look out for that. I have very strong opinions about the topic lol

Anyways I hope you enjoyed reading this and have a wonderful day!

Sources below the cut

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Intro and Shit

I made this blog after realizing I lost the login to my old history blog ( @gayest-historian ) so here we are

My name is Danni, I'm 19 and I love history (obviously) This blog is meant as a way for me to infodump about my interests surrounding the topic

It won't just be queer history but that's mainly where my interest lies so that'll be a pretty common topic

Anyways yeah, enjoy!!!