Jacques Lusseyran

For International Braille Day today (January 4th):

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.