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| name = Tereska Torrès
| image = Tereska Torrès.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Tereska Szwarc
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| death_place = Paris, France
| death_cause =
| other_names =
| known_for =
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'''Tereska Torrès''' (born '''Tereska Szwarc'''; 3 September 1920{{spnd}}20 September 2012)<ref name="New York Times Orbituary">{{citation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/books/tereska-torres-writer-of-lesbian-fiction-dies-at-92.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www |title=Tereska Torrès, 92, Writer Of Lesbian Fiction, Dies |access-date=25 September 2012 | work=The New York Times |first=Margalit |last=Fox |date=24 September 2012}}</ref> was a French writer known for the 1950 book ''[[Women's Barracks]]'', the first "original paperback bestseller." In 2008 historians credited the republished book as the first [[Pulp magazine|pulp fiction]] book published in America to candidly [[Lesbian literature|address lesbian relationships]], although Torrès did not agree with this analysis.<ref name=telobit/>
==
Torrès was born Tereska Szwarc to the Jewish Polish sculptor [[Marek Szwarc]] and his wife Guina Pinkus in [[Paris]]. Her paternal uncle [[Samuel Schwarz (historian)|Samuel Schwarz]] was a noted historian of the [[Jewish diaspora]] and [[crypto-Judaism]].<ref name="goldenberg-18june">{{cite web |last1=Goldenberg |first1=Flora |title=A Journey around the World with the Szwarc's: A Family of All Graces |url=https://jewish-paris-tours.com/2020/06/a-journey-around-the-world-with-the-szwarcs-a-family-of-all-graces/ |website=Jewish Tours Paris 2020 |access-date=3 September 2020 |date=18 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="goldenberg-26may">{{cite web |last1=Goldenberg |first1=Flora |title=A Curious Virgin Mary in the Heart of the Jewish Quarter: The Szwarc/Schwarz Family Saga – Part 1 |url=https://jewish-paris-tours.com/2020/05/a-curious-virgin-mary-in-the-heart-of-the-jewish-quarter/ |website=Jewish Tours Paris 2020 |access-date=3 September 2020 |date=26 May 2020}}</ref>
== Second World War ==
Torrès fled her native country in 1940 via [[Lisbon]] to [[England]] when [[Second Armistice at Compiègne|France surrendered]] to [[Nazi Germany]] after the [[Battle of France]]<ref name="szwarcbio">{{citation |url=http://www.marek-szwarc.com/biography.htm |title=Marek Szwarc Biography |access-date=16 December 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008212551/http://www.marek-szwarc.com/biography.htm |archive-date=8 October 2007 }}</ref> while her father—serving in the [[Polish Armed Forces in the West]]—was evacuated from [[La Rochelle]] by the [[British Home Fleet]]. Her family was able to escape because they received visas signed by [[Portugal|Portuguese]] vice-consul Manuel Vieira Braga (following instructions from [[Aristides de Sousa Mendes]]) in [[Bayonne]], France, in June 1940.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sousamendesfoundation.org/pinkus-szwarc/ |title=Pinkus/Szwarc » Sousa Mendes Foundation |work=sousamendesfoundation.org |year=2012 |access-date=30 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415204756/http://sousamendesfoundation.org/pinkus-szwarc/ |archive-date=15 April 2013 }}</ref> It is possible the efforts and intervention of Samuel Schwarz, who resided in [[Portugal]], helped secure the transit visas.<ref name="biblioteca">{{cite web |title=Samuel Schwarz: Vida & Obra (Samuel Schwarz: Life & Work) |url=https://bibliotecasamuelschwarz.fcsh.unl.pt/vidaobra/ |website=Biblioteca Samuel Schwarz (Samuel Schwarz Library) |publisher=Universidade Nova de Lisboa |access-date=3 September 2020 |language=pt}}</ref>
At the age of 19, Torrès enlisted in the [[Corps des Volontaires françaises]] of [[Charles de Gaulle]]'s [[Free French Forces]], and worked as a secretary in de Gaulle's London headquarters.<ref name="powells">{{citation |title=Women's Barracks |url=http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=155861494X |access-date=16 December 2007 |periodical=Powell's Books Bookstore }}</ref> In October 1944 when she was five months pregnant, her first husband 20-year-old Georges Torrès—stepson of prewar French-Jewish Prime Minister [[Léon Blum]]—died while fighting with the [[2nd Armored Division (France)|2nd Free French Armoured Division]] in [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://sousamendesfoundation.org/torres/ |title=Torrès » Sousa Mendes Foundation |work=sousamendesfoundation.org |year=2012|access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref>
== Post war ==
In 1947 Torrès accompanied American novelist [[Meyer Levin]] while he filmed the documentary ''Lo Tafhidunu'' (''The Illegals'') about [[Berihah|Jewish refugees]] who fled Poland after the [[Holocaust]] and tried to reach [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.salon.com/2005/08/09/torres_3/|title=Sapphic soldiers|last=Smallwood|first=Christine|date=9 August 2005|work=Salon|access-date=1 September 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> Her diary about her experiences on this journey from Poland's destroyed cities through the [[displaced persons camp]]s in Western Europe to [[Israel]] and her imprisonment there by British forces has so far only been published in German, under the title ''Unerschrocken'' (''Unafraid'').<ref name="theillegals">{{citation |title=The Illegals |periodical=Jewish Film Week |url=http://www.jfw.at/alte_jahre/1998/body_the_illegals.html |access-date=16 December 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071019001526/http://www.jfw.at/alte_jahre/1998/body_the_illegals.html |archive-date=19 October 2007 }}</ref>
[[File:Cover of Women's Barracks by Tereska Torrès 1950.jpg|alt=Several women in a barracks in various stages of undress while a fully-dressed woman in uniform looks on|left|thumb|1950 cover]]
In 1948 Torrès married Meyer Levin in Paris. He urged her to publish the diary she wrote while serving in the Free French Forces. In 1950 Torrès published the book ''Women's Barracks'' in the United States. A fictional account of her wartime experiences, it "quickly became the first paperback original bestseller," selling over two million copies in its first five years.<ref name=":0" /> In total, four million copies of the book were sold in the United States, and it was translated into 13 different languages. In 1952, the [[House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials]] used ''Women's Barracks'' as an example of how paperback books promoted moral degeneracy.<ref name="glbtq">{{citation |last=Theophano |first=Teresa |title=Pulp Paperbacks and Their Covers |periodical=[[glbtq.com]] |year=2002 |url=http://www.glbtq.com/arts/pulp_paperbacks.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105055112/http://www.glbtq.com/arts/pulp_paperbacks.html |archive-date=5 November 2007 }}</ref> When [[New York City|New York]]-based The [[Feminist Press]] republished the book in 2003, it was acclaimed as having inspired a whole new genre of [[lesbian literature|lesbian]] and [[feminist literature]] in the United States.<ref name="lichfield">{{citation |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20070616/ai_n19310147 |title=O! What A Steamy War |periodical=[[The Independent]] |date=16 June 2007 |first=John |last=Lichfield |access-date=16 December 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080203195153/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20070616/ai_n19310147 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 3 February 2008}}</ref> Torrès was credited with writing the first book to candidly address lesbian relationships in America. However, she felt the book was innocent and that her publishers had exploited her.<ref name=telobit>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/9566294/Tereska-Torres.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Tereska Torrès | date=25 September 2012|access-date=25 September 2012 }}</ref>▼
== Writing career ==
Torrès did not allow ''Women's Barracks'' to be published in France during her lifetime because she felt readers might come away thinking Free French Forces acted frivolously in London. A revised edition was finally released in 2002. Instead her wartime diary was published as ''Une Française Libre'' (''A Free Frenchwoman''). ▼
In 1948 Torrès married Meyer Levin in Paris. He urged her to publish the diary she wrote while serving in the Free French Forces. In 1950 Torrès published the book ''Women's Barracks'' in the United States. A fictional account of her wartime experiences, it "quickly became the first paperback original bestseller," selling over two million copies in its first five years.<ref name=":0" /> In total, four million copies of the book were sold in the United States, and it was translated into 13 different languages.
▲
In 1963 Torrès accompanied Levin to [[Ethiopia]] where he filmed "the Fellashas", the first documentary about the life of [[Beta Israel]] Jews in Ambover.{{cn|date=September 2020}}▼
▲Torrès did not allow ''Women's Barracks'' to be published in France during her lifetime because she felt readers might come away thinking Free French Forces acted frivolously in London. A revised edition was finally released in 2002. Instead her wartime diary was published as ''Une Française Libre'' (''A Free Frenchwoman'').
▲In 1963 Torrès accompanied Levin to [[Ethiopia]] where he filmed "the Fellashas", the first documentary about the life of [[Beta Israel]] Jews in Ambover.{{
Torrès wrote 14 additional books, which Levin often translated into English.<ref name="powells"/> Her still-unpublished diary notebooks are preserved by [[Boston University]] as part of Levin's papers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archives.bu.edu/collections/collection?id=122328 |title=Levin, Meyer -(1905-1981) |website=Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center |publisher=Boston University |access-date=1 September 2018 }}</ref>
Torrès died on 20 September 2012 in Paris.<ref name="New York Times Orbituary"/><ref name="jardin"/> She was one of the last surviving members of the [[Corps des Volontaires françaises|Volontaires françaises]], the
== Works ==
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== Legacy ==
In 2019 a public garden called ''jardin Tereska Torrès-Levin'' (Tereska Torrès-Levin Garden) was dedicated to her memory in Paris.<ref name="jardin">{{Cite web|url=http://a06.apps.paris.fr/a06/jsp/site/plugins/odjcp/DoDownload.jsp?id_entite=48878&id_type_entite=6|title=Council of Paris|access-date=3 September 2020}}</ref> This memorial park is situated in the central [[8th arrondissement of Paris]] on Rue Laure Diebold between the [[Champs-Élysées]] and [[Parc Monceau]].<ref name="jardin"/>
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
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* [http://www.ajpn.org/personne-Tereska-Szwarc-Torres-Levin-449.html Tereska Torres at AJPN (French)]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Tereska}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century French women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century French Jews]]
[[Category:French soldiers]]
[[Category:Women in war in France]]
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[[Category:French women in World War II]]
[[Category:Pulp fiction writers]]
[[Category:French expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
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