Blanche Lefebvre (or Lefevre) (1847 - 23 May 1871) was a communard active in the Batignolles quarter in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. She died defending the Paris Commune during "bloody week".
Blanche Lefebvre was a laundress at the Sainte-Marie des Batignolles laundry. She lived at 34, rue des Maris, in the 10th arrondissement.[1]
During the Paris Commune, she was a member of the, which was founded on 3 May 1871 in the church of ; her husband was the secretary. She was also a member of the executive committee of the French: [[Union des femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés]] ("Women's Union for the Defence of Paris and the Care of the Wounded").[2] She was known to always wear a red sash and carry a revolver.
Abbot Paul Fontoulieu, a strongly anti-communard but otherwise generally reliable contemporary,[3] described Lefebvre as the "queen" of the podium at the Batignolles - and as a "terrible woman", a "fanatic" who "loved the insurrection as others love a man,"[4] capable of making any sacrifice for the Commune. He compared her to Théroigne de Méricourt and Charlotte Corday (not, in his opinion, a flattering comparison), and related a story in which she shot dead a Fédéré captain on 22 May for his cowardice in the face of the Commune's looming defeat.[5]
Lefebvre was one of the women who participated in the defence of Place Blanche on 23 May 1871, along with Élisabeth Dmitrieff, Nathalie Lemel,, and Julia Béatrix Euvrie.[6] She was killed fighting Versailles troops later that day, on the in the 17th arrondissement,[7] on the Batignolles barricade.
A square was created in 2012 with the provisional designation "BY/17". In June 2013, Paris city hall named it "Place Blanche Lefebvre".[8]
fr:Claudine Rey
. 2012. Louise et les autres, le combat des femmes dans la Commune. Les Amies et Amis de la Commune de Paris 1871.