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Article: Gertrude Stein took the War like a man. (Essay).(lesbian author Gertrude Stein's struggle with gender identity during World War II)
- Article from:
- The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide
- Article date:
- March 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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HOW DID Gertrude Stein, a Jew who was also a homosexual in Paris during the Nazi occupation of 1940-1945, manage to survive--both physically and psychologically--during the Second World War? On the first question, that of physical survival, most of Stein's biographers have concluded that the head of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Bernard Fay, protected Stein and her female companion Alice B. Toklas as the two waited out the war in Bilignin, France, during Marechal Petain's Vichy regime. In an interview before his death, Fay claimed to have had Petain write a letter and to have made frequent phone calls to the sous-prefet of Belley, despite the fact that thousands of ...