Edith Bernardin

Edith Bernardin
Born(1903-07-21)21 July 1903
Vernaison, France
Died15 August 1994(1994-08-15) (aged 91)
Schiltigheim
Academic background
EducationUniversité de Strasbourg
ThesisJean-Marie Roland, Ministre de l'intérieur : essai sur l'administration révolutionnaire 1792 -1793 (1957)

Edith Bernardin (21 July 1903 – 15 August 1994) was a French librarian and historian.

She was appointed to the National Academic Library of Strasbourg, where she headed a department of the Office of Private Property and Interests [fr] and supervised the restitution of books that the Nazi regime had looted in Alsace during the Second World War .

She was awarded the knight of the Legion of Honour and a commander of the Ordre des Palmes académiques.

Early life and education

Bernadin was born in Vernaison on 21 July 1903, the daughter of Henri Louis Bernadin and Isabelle Humbert. She studied at the University of Paris and the University of Lyon.

In 1957 she completed a doctoral thesis in history titled Jean-Marie Roland, Minister of the Interior. Essay on the Revolutionary Administration, 1792–1793.

Career

She started as an intern at the National Academic Library in Strasbourg in 1928, and over time was promoted to librarian, curator, and chief curator. Starting on 27 August 1939, Bernardin was responsible for storing the library's documents to protect them from the Nazis.

In 1945, Bernardin returned to Strasbourg and took part in the library's reorganization. Starting in 1947 she coordinated this work with the Office of Private Property and Interests. She directed the service for the restitution of books that the Nazi authorities had looted when annexing Alsace. Her mission was to sort the works that the German administration of the library had abandoned three years earlier at the Liberation of Strasbourg in 1944, and then to identify their legitimate owners. She was brought into contact with the librarian Jenny Delsaux [fr], who was supervising the books subcommittee within the Commission for Artistic Recovery in Paris. This work continued until the office closed on 15 June 1950.

From 1962 until her retirement in 1973, Bernardin was chief curator at the library.[citation needed]

While retired she continued her historical research on civil status in Strasbourg during the French Revolution.

Selected publications

Honors and awards

She was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour and the Ordre des Palmes académiques.: 119 [when?]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "BERNARDIN Édith Émilie". Fédération des Sociétés d'Histoire et d'Archéologie d'Alsace (in French). Retrieved 19 October 2024.
  2. 1 2 Antonutti, Isabelle (2024). Bâtisseuses de la lecture publique: une histoire des premières bibliothécaires, 1900–1950. Papiers. Villeurbanne: Presses de l'ENSSIB. p. 119. ISBN 978-2-37546-181-5.
  3. ↑ Poulain, Martine (2008). Livres pillés, lectures surveillées: les bibliothèques françaises sous l'Occupation. NRF essais. Paris: Gallimard. p. 180. ISBN 978-2-07-012295-0.
  4. ↑ Delsaux, Jenny (1976). La Sous-commission des livres à la récupération artistique: 1944–1950 (in French). éditeur inconnu. p. 44.
  5. ↑ Sumpf, Alexandre; Laniol, Vincent; Rolland, Denis (2012). Saisies, spoliations et restitutions: archives et bibliothèques au XXe siècle [actes du colloque, Strasbourg, 22–23 octobre 2010]. Histoire. Arts, civilisation et histoire de l'Europe, Groupe de recherche Frontières, acteurs et représentations de l'Europe. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes. p. 248. ISBN 978-2-7535-1996-1.
  6. ↑ Reviews of Les idées religieuses de madame Roland
  7. ↑ Reviews of Jean Marie Roland et le ministère de l'intérieur 1792–1793
  8. ↑ Ducoudray, E. (1987). "Review of Strasbourg et l'Institution de l'État-Civil laïc. 1792–1793. (Société savante d'Alsace et des régions de l'Est, collection « Grandes Publications », T. XXV)". Annales historiques de la Révolution française (267): 103–106. ISSN 0003-4436. JSTOR 41915532.