by Clemens Egger (he/him), 30 April 2023

Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwob was born in 1894 in Nantes, France. She was born into a literature enthusiast, Jewish, middle-class household. Lucy lived mostly with her grandmother, as her mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital shortly after her birth. Her uncle and father left their mark on her, as they were politically active editors. Her father used to work for the French paper Phare de la Loire, a major regional magazine where he published various writings on economics and politics. Her uncle was the co-founder of the journal Mercure de France and one of the key figures of literary symbolism in France.

When Lucy was introduced to her stepsister in 1909, she not only found her confidant but the love of her life: Suzanne Malherbe. She was born in 1892 in Nantes, France. After her widowed mother met Lucy’s father, the story of a life-long artistic collaboration and indispensable love began.

Long before terms like non-binary or gender-nonconforming were known, the lesbian couple knew that they didn’t fit the binary. Lucy and Suzanne have been using different artistic names for their work. Suzanne changed her name to Marcel Moore in 1913, seven years before Lucy also adapted her artistic name to her real name. Claude and Marcel were these two lesbians, gender-bending, provocative, and surrealist artists who sought to deconstruct their gender through their artistic work. While not fitting the binary, they defined their relationship to gender through art and activism. In Claude’s autobiography Disavowals or Cancelled Confessions, she describes herself as neither male nor female, but neuter (being a noun or pronoun of a type that refers to things; not masculine or feminine; can be understood as non-binary in today’s understanding**):**

*“Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me. ” - *Claude Cahun: Disavowals or Cancelled Confessions. S. 151

The gender-nonconforming lesbian couple moved to Paris in 1917. They created art in their own art salon for almost 15 years. Meanwhile, Claude studied at Sorbonne University philosophy and philology, ending up as a surrealist photographer, performer, and writer. Marcel Moore worked as an illustrator, designer, and photographer. The artistic power couple connected with important figures of the surrealist and queer intellectual art scenes like André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, and René Crevel. Some of Claude’s most striking and innovative self-portraits were created by that time. But she published only one of these images during her lifetime. Besides their artistic work, they also contributed to avant-garde theater activities as well as the first homosexual magazine in France Inversion by the time. There she wrote:

“My view of homosexuality and homosexuals is exactly the same as my view of heterosexuality and heterosexuals: everything depends on the individual and the circumstances. I advocate the universal freedom of mores.” (Claude Cahun)

Claude’s texts have always been very political. With her left-anarchist stance, she clearly turned against fascism and, until 1936, wrote pamphlets against fascism and for France's Popular Front policy under the alliance name "Contre-Attaque" with André Breton and Georges Bataille, among others.

Due to the increase of antisemitism in Paris in 1937, Moore and Cahun settled on the Channel Island Jersey where Claude used to spend her summer holidays with family. After the invasion of German troops on the island on the first of July in 1940, Claude and Marcel decided to stay. Despite the fear of them finding out about Claude’s Jewish background. During the German occupation of Jersey, they became involved as resistance fighters and propagandists, writing leaflets, printing posters, and organizing actions. In the most creative ways, they tried to make their voice heard without being recognized as the opposition. They dressed up as soldiers, attended gatherings and events, and prepared flyers – all signed with “the nameless soldier” (Der namenlose Soldat). To deceive the occupation troops into thinking there was a conspiracy on the island, Cahun and Moore wrote a series of coded notes and letters in German. Marcel was fluent in German, so she translated Claude’s writings to distribute them to the soldiers. Marcel also took the biggest chances, placing her notes in the pockets of German soldiers or in German staff automobiles. There are even stories of how the two Nazi-fighting lesbians put their leaflets into the soldier's cigarette packs. Additionally, they once threw leaflets from the church tower of St. Brelade with the inscription:

“Jesus is big, but Hitler is bigger. Jesus died for the people, but the people die for Hitler.”

So, while pretending to be disgruntled soldiers the Nazi-fighting couple secretly delivered sarcastic poems, demoralizing dialogues, and scandalous jokes. That’s what author Jeffrey H. Jackson writes about the couple in his book “Paper Bullets”. Their messages were intended to deceive the Nazis into thinking a conspiracy was underway, and they were successful. For four years, the Germans searched in vain for the person who was eroding this troop morale.

Words were their weapons, or in the words of Jeffrey H. Jackson their “Paper Bullets”. But not only that. Their love for each other was just as much of a weapon in the fight against the Nazis as their political poetry. When the secret police received an anonymous hint that it was Claude and Marcel who plotted against the military, they were subjected to interrogations in a rigged trial. And at a crucial moment, Claude broke the silence:

“I am on my father’s side of Jewish origin.”

In an effort to take the fall for Marcel’s arrest, Claude outed herself by disclosing that her family is Jewish. For the partner she loved, Claude was prepared to risk her own life. As selfless as this was, in the end, both were sentenced to death in 1945. Luckily, they were pardoned, and the sentence wasn’t carried out. Nevertheless, both remained imprisoned until the liberation of Jersey on May 8th, 1945. Although Claude never fully recovered from the experiences in prison, she and her partner kept on working. Unfortunately, most of their work was destroyed by the Gestapo during their incarceration.

The story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, the Nazi-fighting lesbian couple, is a love story like no other. These two women defied societal norms, expressed themselves through their art, and fought against the Nazi occupation of Jersey during World War II. They used their creativity to subvert the Nazis' efforts, risking their own lives to spread messages of resistance and hope. Claude and Marcel were not only partners in love, but in art and activism as well. The world will always remember the iconic couple who never gave up on their beliefs and each other.