"After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the liberation of France, Senon joined the CGT union and the Communist Party. She rose up the ranks of the male-dominated trade union movement to head one of the CGT's most important women's sections in Paris. Throughout her life, Senon, who styled herself as an "eternal rebel", never gave up fighting for women's rights."
""When I started working, you have to imagine ... women still had to ask their boss for permission to get married! Misogyny and everyday sexism were everywhere, including in trade unions," said Senon, who celebrated her 100th birthday in June. In 2014, she ran for municipal elections in Limoges on a left-wing ticket and protested against a visit to the city by Dieudonne, a comic and controversialist convicted for hate speech, antisemitism and advocating terrorism."
""I was working in Limoges, but I would return to Oradour at the weekend. That day I took the tramway as usual, and we quickly saw the black smoke in the distance," Senon told AFP in 2017. "They kept us for several hours, explaining to us what they had done to Oradour and letting us believe that maybe they would kill us too," she recounted."
Camille Senon escaped the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of June 10, 1944, which killed 642 villagers including her family. She witnessed black smoke and survivors held by SS who suggested they might be killed. After liberation she joined the CGT union and the Communist Party and rose to lead a major women's section in Paris. She fought lifelong for women's rights, criticizing workplace misogyny and sexism, and remained an "eternal rebel". She ran for municipal office in 2014, protested a Dieudonne visit, and in 2016 refused France's National Order of Merit to preserve her activism and values.
Read at The Local France
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