Soldiers of Faith behind the Lines: religious women and community patriotism during the First World War in France

Abstract

On the eve of World War I, considerable tensions existed among French Catholics, Protestants, and Jews and between Catholics and the French state. The crisis provoked by the First World War allowed these faith groups to prove their worth to France through adherence to the Union sacrée. The wartime activities of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish women became important symbols of each faith community's solidarity with France. The war made women representatives of their communities' devotion to France. Religious communities' portrayal of their women's wartime work illuminates the divergent goals for the Union sacrée among different faith communities.