“Nature is my source of life, my sacred refuge where I find peace and inspiration.”
Joséphine BAKER
Who is Josephine Baker?
Icon of the Roaring Twenties, courageous resistance fighter and civil rights activist, Josephine Baker is a major figure of the 20th century. Although she remains associated above all with Paris and the Château des Milandes, her career also crossed paths with Brittany, in a more discreet but no less symbolic way.
Born in the United States in 1906, Josephine Baker made a meteoric rise in France thanks to her daring shows, which left their mark on the collective imagination. But behind the artist lay a deeply committed woman: during the Second World War, she joined the intelligence services of Free France and used her fame as a cover.
This is where Brittany comes into the picture. Its ports, notably Lorient and Brest, served as strategic points of passage for resistance and exfiltration networks. Although precise archives are rare, several eyewitness accounts mention her travels in Brittany, disguised or accompanied, on confidential missions.
Beyond the historical facts, Joséphine Baker found in Breton culture an echo of her own struggles. Proud, resilient, rich in tradition, Brittany embodied a form of independence and dignity that she admired.
Even today, a number of cultural initiatives in Brittany evoke her passage and her commitment, as a discreet but powerful reminder of this free woman who, for the duration of a war, was also a little Breton.