Jacques Lusseyran
Jacques Lusseyran was a French Author
and Political Activist.
He was born on September 19, 1924
in Paris, France.
He became Completely Blind during
an Accident at School in May 1932 when he was 7 years old. His Parents decided
to teach him Braille and he returned to his Regular School in October 1932
using a Braille Typewriter.
Hearing reports on French Radio
about Adolf Hitler’s Germany he taught himself German and became fluent by the
time Germany annexed Austria in 1938.
Jacques was 15 years old when
German Forces invaded his France in May 1940 and, by the age of 17, Jacques formed
a Resistance Group called the Volunteers of Liberty with other Students from
the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Lycée Henri-IV. He was put in charge of
recruitment.
Jacques was put in charge of
recruitment due to his ability to hear what he called, “moral music.” Through
perceptive listening, he could identify deceit or sincerity in a potential
recruit’s tone of voice. His knowledge of German also helped.
The Group later merged with
another Resistance Group called Défense de la France.
Jacques helped write and distribute
an Underground Resistance Newsletter with 250,000 copies.
He was arrested by the Gestapo on
July 20, 1943 and imprisoned in Fresnes
Prison in France for 6 months. In January 1944, he was transferred to the
Compiègne Camp in France.
On January 20, 1944 he was deported
to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. After a stay in the Quarantine
Section, he was placed in the Invalids' Block.
His survival depended, on the one
hand, on the fact that he was hired as an Interpreter by the Nazi Administration
of Buchenwald, thus not having to endure the terrible Forced Labor of the work
"Kommandos", but also on the fact that he was helped on a daily basis
by other Prisoners because of his Blindness. He put his memory and language
skills to work by translating and deciphering war updates for his fellow Prisoners
– helping them too.
On April 11, 1945 the American
Army liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
Jacques Lusseyran was sent back
to France on April 18, 1945 where he got his Degree in Literature.
Jacques taught at the Lay Mission
of Salonika, Greece, then at the Alliance Française in Paris, while also teaching
for Foreigners at the ENS de Saint-Cloud and the Sorbonne.
In 1955, he was offered a
position in Virginia, at Hollins College. From there, he moved on to Western
Reserve University in Cleveland; finally, in 1969, he became the holder of the Chair
of French Literature at the University of Hawaii.
He died together with his third Wife
Marie in a car accident in France on July 27, 1971.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.