Writing Antifascist Resistance, 1939–44

The book, Writing Antifascist Resistance, 1939-44: History Through Last Letters, examines the final letters of five antifascist activists who faced execution during the Second World War, including three teenagers. From Julia Conesa and Guy Môquet, who were given mere hours to write before their executions by firing squad, to Masha Bruskina, Mordechai Anielewicz and Olga Bancic, whose messages were delivered clandestinely, these last letters reveal the human face of resistance against fascism.

Camino traces how these letters travelled through a myriad of intermediaries, including relatives, neighbours, Red Cross workers and prison wardens. This study explores how these final testimonies were often manipulated, consciously or unconsciously, as they passed through different hands, transforming personal farewells into political symbols. Writing Antifascist Resistance treats these letters as items of material culture, memento mori and metonymies of resistance, merging affect with activism in the history of twentieth-century antifascism.

This compelling volume will appeal to historians of the Second World War and resistance movements, students and scholars of memory studies and material culture, and anyone interested in how ordinary people maintained their humanity and defiance in the face of fascist terror.