A member of the French Communist Party, she was expelled after accusations of Trotskyism and having participated in summary executions of former Nazi collaborators.

Her murder attracted much attention from the French media and there were requests to sentence Althusser as an ordinary criminal, but he was instead declared unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric institution for three years.

At age 13, the doctor forced Rytmann to administer a lethal dose of morphine to her father who was suffering from terminal cancer; the following year, Rytmann was forced to administer another lethal dose to her terminally ill mother.

[4] During the German occupation of France, Rytmann refused to wear the yellow star mandated by the Nazis and instead joined the French resistance.

[5] Rytmann is buried in the Jewish section of Cimetière parisien de Bagneux in Paris.