Anne Beaumanoir

Anne Beaumanoir, born Raymonde Marcelle Beaumanoir on October 30, 1923, in Créhen, Côtes-du-Nord, and died on March 4, 2022, in Quimper, Finistère, was a French neurologist, neurophysiologist, and communist activist, a pioneer in the application of electroencephalography in epileptology. For her help to Jews in Brittany during World War II, she was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. She is also known for her involvement in the Algerian War with the FLN and for her various other commitments.

Anne Beaumanoir, born in Brittany, joined the Resistance at a very young age during the Occupation, after becoming involved in communist circles. She helped save two young Jews, an act that later earned her and her parents the title of Righteous Among the Nations. After the war, she resumed her medical studies, became a neurologist, and pursued a hospital-university career, notably in Marseille and then Geneva, where she distinguished herself in the fields of neurophysiology and epileptology. Her professional path was never separate from her convictions: she campaigned against fascism, defended the oppressed, and remained committed to the left, even when she distanced herself from the Communist Party.

In Paris, she conducted medical research. She sided with the Algerian FLN and provided them with assistance, which led to her arrest and, in 1959, her sentence of ten years in prison. At the Baumettes prison, she was initially held in solitary confinement, then tasked with teaching the female prisoners to read and write their letters. While pregnant, she was temporarily released to give birth. After the birth of her child, she escaped and went to Tunisia. Joining the Algerian army, she succeeded Frantz Fanon as a neuropsychiatrist. After the Évian Accords and the end of the Algerian War, Anne Beaumanoir became a member of the cabinet of the Minister of Health in Ben Bella's government. When Ben Bella was overthrown in 1965, she was evacuated to Switzerland, where she took over the neurophysiology department at Geneva University Hospital.