From Paris David Pike sent a much appreciated contribution to the WAIS survival and development fund. On the envelope were two stamps, which I will pass on to the WAIS honorary treasure, Fred Hansson. Too bad stamps are disappearing, since they are beautiful and informative. One of the stamps bears a portrait of Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, the niece of the General, Born in 1920, she died in 2002. The stamp commemorates her noble life, as told in the film "Sisters in Resistance" "It tells the story of four French women of uncommon courage: Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillon, Anise Postel-Viany and Jacqueline Pery d'Alincourt, who, in their teens and twenties, risked their lives to fight the Nazi occupation of their country. Neither Jews nor Communists, they were in no danger of arrest before they joined the Resistance. They could have remained safe at home. But they chose to resist. Within two years all four were arrested by the Gestapo and deported as political prisoners to the hell of Ravensbrück concentration camp, where they helped one another survive. Today, elderly but still very active, they continue to push forward as social activists and intellectual leaders in their fields. The film captures their amazing lives, and reveals an uncommon, intense bond of friendship that survives to this day". The other stamp shows a woman, unidentified, leaning over a table. It may well be Geneviève, an appropriate name, since Saint Geneviève (420-512), the patron saint of Paris, reassured the Parisians that they had nothing to fear from Attila the Hun, whon would fail to take the city, Too bad she could not thwart the modern Attila, Hitler, She was honored in the 18th century with a huge church, which the secular government took over and renamed the Pantheon. It is the burial place for "all the gods",and dedicated to the great men by the grateful fatherland, What male chauvinism! The building is still decorated with paintings telling the life of Sainte Geneviève, but whether her bones survived the revolutionary turmoil I do not know. Madame Curie is buried there (an honorary man). The resistance leader Jean Moulin is buried there, so certainly Geneviève de Gaulle deserves to be. I do not know where she is buried. She was a devout Catholic (she was arrested as she left Notre Dame, where she had attended mass). She might not feel comfortable surrounded by all those anticlerical men-
Speaking of stamps, I have received a letter from Linda Nyquist bearing large stamps showing a beagle. This comes just after I posted the item about Jaqui White with her beagle. Has the US gone beagle crazy? Seen one beagle, seen 'em all. "Beagle" comes from the French "beguele". meaning wide throat, referring to its bark. This may disappoint Jaqui, who is crazy about the bald eagle, abridged to beagle. Sorry,Jaqui. All they have in common is your admiration for them.
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