Lucie Aubrac: The French Resistance Heroine Who Outwitted the Gestapo by Siân Rees

Lucie Aubrac: The French Resistance Heroine Who Outwitted the Gestapo by Siân Rees

Author:Siân Rees [Rees, Siân]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography, Autobiography, Women, Historical, World War II
ISBN: 9781613735701
Google: YZ8dDAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B010B34E7U
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2016-05-31T23:00:00+00:00


Then there was a handshake, Max told Lucie he looked forward to meeting her again tomorrow at a dinner arranged for after the meeting, and left. ‘There was never a tomorrow,’ she would recall half a century later. ‘All I knew of Jean Moulin was two hours in my life. A handshake when I met him, and two hours later another handshake when he said goodbye.’6 Despite the brevity of their contact, Moulin was to have a lasting and profound effect on her life.

Among the Secret Army leaders invited to meet Max was André Lassagne, the old, lively friend of the David brothers who had come to the Samuels’ very first discussions, back when they were still opposants. Max had asked Lassagne to find a place for the meeting and he had suggested the premises of his old friend Dr Dougoujon in the northern suburb of Caluire. Before her husband left that Monday morning, Lucie drilled him on all aspects of his new identity. Where was Claude Ermelin born? How old was his father when he died? His mother? What was the exact date of his demobilization? What wounds had he sustained, what illnesses had he suffered, what was the date of his first communion, the name of his primary school, his first teacher, his aunts, cousins … every detail had to be perfect. ‘Goodbye, my darling, see you tonight at six-thirty, place Tolozan. Don’t be late, but not too early either. There are too many people meeting by the river.’7 After giving Boubou a ride on his shoulders upstairs for his nap, Raymond left.

In Dr Dougoujon’s waiting room that afternoon, nine résistants found themselves sitting with a few genuine patients. The password was ‘I have come for the special treatment.’ The first few to arrive exchanged wary glances, waiting for Max. The only man who had not been expressly invited was Combat’s René Hardy, who turned up with Henri Aubry. Jean Moulin arrived forty-five minutes late and as he took a seat next to Raymond, a Gestapo patrol led by Klaus Barbie burst in, smashed the place up, spread round the house and handcuffed everyone they found. Max reacted fast, asking Raymond to take a paper from his pocket and get rid of it. As the Gestapo officers broke the furniture and shoved everyone out, he ate it. Outside, where they gathered in the sunshine, pushed and kicked by the soldiers, they saw that only one man had not been handcuffed. He made a run for it, the Germans fired a few desultory shots, and although one wounded him, none brought him down. That man was René Hardy.

In the Avenue Esquirol, Lucie dressed, did her hair, kissed her son goodbye and left him with Maria. At half past six she entered the restaurant in Place Tolozan. A quarter of an hour passed. Twenty minutes. Half an hour. She knew that something was wrong. Raymond never kept her waiting, it was not his way of doing things. Quietly she left



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