Simone Berbain

Simone Berbain (1915–1949) was a French historian and archivist.

Born in Paris on 31 January 1915, Berbain spent her childhood in Indochina.

She attended École Nationale des Chartes where she trained as an archiviste paléographe. In 1939 Berbain completed her thesis on a French trading post in West Africa in the 18th century. Published in 1942 as "Le comptoir français de Juda (Ouidah) au XVIIIe siècle," the work was a well-received contribution to the history of the role France in the Atlantic slave trade.

Berbain's interest in questions of social history and the human elements that drove economic systems led to her involvement in various organizations during and immediately after the war. Bénet was heavily involved in the French Resistance, and later was involved in advocating for POWs, deportees and refugees in France, during and after the Second World War. Les comités d'organisation: un bilan : octobre 1944. (1945)