Maïti Girtanner (1922–2014)

Maïti Girtanner was born in Switzerland to a Swiss father and a French mother. She moved to France after the early death of her father. She was a talented pianist at a young age and was considered a brilliant student at the Paris Conservatoire; but her career was interrupted by the German Occupation of France in World War II. At age 18, she became involved with the French Resistance, was arrested in 1943 and subjected to prolonged torture which destroyed her ability to play the piano. She was rescued by the Red Cross after being left for dead by the Gestapo. She became a professor of philosophy. In 2006, she published a memoir written with Guillaume Tabard, Même les bourreaux ont une âme (Even the Executioners Have a Soul).