Lucie Aubrac

Lucie Samuel (29 June 1912 – 14 March 2007), born Lucie Bernard, and better known as Lucie Aubrac, was a French history teacher and member of the French Resistance during World War II. In 1938, she earned an agrégation of history (something highly uncommon for a woman at that time), and in 1939 she married Raymond Samuel, who became known as Raymond Aubrac during the war. In 1940, Lucie was amongst the first to join the French Resistance. In Clermont-Ferrand, Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie formed the Resistance group La Dernière Colonne, later known as Libération-sud, with her husband and Jean Cavaillès. During 1941, the group carried out two sabotage attacks at train stations in Perpignan and Cannes. In February, they organised the distribution of 10,000 propaganda flyers, but one of the distributors was caught by the police, leading to the arrest of d'Astier's niece and uncle. At this time, Lucie gave birth to her first child. The group decided to hide, and, after a few months' hiatus, began to work on an underground newspaper, Libération. The first edition was put together with the help of the typographers from a local newspaper and printed on paper supplied by local trade-unionists; 10,000 copies were produced in July 1941. In March 1943, Raymond was arrested. He was released in May, after Lucie intervened with the local Vichy public prosecutor, telling him they were members of the Résistance and he had 24 hours to release Raymond or be killed, and the couple then orga…