Marietta Martin

Marietta Martin (1902–1944) was a French writer, journalist and French Resistance worker. She was an editor of fr:La France Continue, a clandestine Resistance newspaper, transformed, after her death, into Ici Paris.

Early years and education

Marietta Martin (also called Marietta Arthur-Martin or Marietta Martin-Le Dieu) was born 4 October 1902 at Arras (Pas-de-Calais). She was the daughter of Arthur Martin, editor-in-chief of Le Courrier du Pas-de-Calais, and Henriette Martin-Le Dieu. When she was four, her father died, and she lived with her mother, a piano teacher at Arras, and her sister Lucie. During the German offensive in the north of France in August 1914, the family took refuge in Paris.

After attending high school at the fr:lycée Molière, she enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine then switched to study for a degree in literature. She learned several languages, becoming fluent in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Danish. She was a musician, playing the piano and the violin. She travelled in several countries, and had long stays in Poland, where she lived with her sister and her brother-in-law, fr:Adam Rosé, a diplomat and minister. Her travels inspired her to write an essay on Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin.