Danielle Bleitrach

Danielle Bleitrach (born 1938) is a French sociologist and journalist. From the 1970s through the end of the century, she was CNRS researcher and lecturer at the Aix-Marseille University, focusing on the sociology of the working class and urbanization. From 1981 to 1996 she was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of France, then the National Committee of the Party. She was also assistant editor-in-chief of the party weekly Révolution. She has contributed to La Pensée, Les Temps Modernes and Le Monde Diplomatique. In the 2000s and 2010s, after retiring from teaching, she co-authored texts on Cuba, Nazism and Ukraine. Born in 1938 to a Jewish family, Bleitrach's early childhood was marked by "the flight from nazism." In September 1943, she and her family were refugees in Cannes during the German Occupation of France and she narrowly escaped a round-up by the Gestapo in the Palace Bellevue where refugees were housed. In the 1960s, Bleitrach was a student at the University of Provence at Aix-en-Provence. She earned a licence (bachelor's degree) in history followed in 1966 by a diplôme d'études supérieures (master of arts degree) with a focus on Provençal medieval religious iconography. The 1967 Revue d'histoire de l'Eglise de France found that "her description of the sculptures of the Montmajour and Saint-Paul de Mausole cloisters was a fine job and her study of religious mentalities was interesting." Her thèse de 3e cycle (doctoral dissertation) in urban sociology (Structure sociale et organisation urbaine : les élus locaux et les actions régionales d'aménagement), presented in 1972, dealt with the attitude of French local elected officials to regional development policies. In 1972-73 and 1973–74, Bleitrach delivered a course on "the sociology of the State" at the Grenoble Institute of Political Studies. Bleitrach was part of the (Marxist) French School of urban sociology. She was involved with the Laboratoire de sociologie industrielle (Laboratory of Industrial Sociology) at the sociology and ethnology department of the University of Provence, at Aix-en-Provence.