David Rousset
Encyclopedia
David Rousset was a French
writer and political activist, a recipient of Prix Renaudot
, a French literary award.
Survivor of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp, he is famous for his books about concentration camps.
He was the first person to use the term "Gulag
" in French language, revealing to French the Soviet system of labor camp
s. In 1949, learning that the concentration camps destroyed in Nazi Germany
still existed in the Soviet Union
, he appealed to former inmates of Nazi camps to form a commission to inspect the USSR camps, which became the "International Commission Against Concentrationist Regimes".
For his efforts he was attacked by the French communist newspaper French Letters
(:fr:Les Lettres françaises), which accused him of slander of the Soviet Union, forging the texts of the Soviet laws, and misinformation. Rousset brought charges against the newspaper, and in 1951 he won the case.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
writer and political activist, a recipient of Prix Renaudot
Prix Renaudot
The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot is a French literary award which was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of the deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt....
, a French literary award.
Survivor of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp, he is famous for his books about concentration camps.
He was the first person to use the term "Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
" in French language, revealing to French the Soviet system of labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
s. In 1949, learning that the concentration camps destroyed in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
still existed in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, he appealed to former inmates of Nazi camps to form a commission to inspect the USSR camps, which became the "International Commission Against Concentrationist Regimes".
For his efforts he was attacked by the French communist newspaper French Letters
French Letters
Les Lettres Françaises is a French literary publication, founded in 1941 by writers Jacques Decour and Jean Paulhan. Originally a clandestine magazine of the French Resistance in German-occupied territory, it was one of the many publications of the National Front resistance movement...
(:fr:Les Lettres françaises), which accused him of slander of the Soviet Union, forging the texts of the Soviet laws, and misinformation. Rousset brought charges against the newspaper, and in 1951 he won the case.