Jacques Lusseyran

Jacques Lusseyran (1925-1971) was a French blind author.

Lusseyran became totally blind at the age of 7 by smashing his eyes on the sharp corner of a teacher's desk. He soon learned to adapt to being blind and maintained many close friendships, particularly with one boy named Jean. At a young age he became alarmed at the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and decided to learn the German language so that he could listen to German radio broadcasts. By 1938, when the Germans annexed Austria, he had accomplished this task.

When the Germans invaded France in 1940, Lusseyran joined the Free French resistance movement. He eventually became a very important member of the movement, and became adept at recruiting people to join the movement. In July 1943 he organized and participated in a campaign to drop pro-resistance leaflets on trains, and claimed to carry teargas canisters to stop people from interfering, though he never used them.

On July 20, 1943, Lusseyran was arrested. His knowledge of German helped him understand more of the situation than most French prisoners. He was sent to a concentration camp, where, because he was blind, he did not have to participate in forced labor as most other prisoners did. Soon most of his childhood friends and fellow resistance operatives were arrested, and he met some of them in the concentration camps. Lusseyran helped to motivate a spirit of resistance within the camp, particularly within the French and German prisoners.

In April 1945 he was liberated, surviving German massacres of the concentration camps in which some of his friends were killed. Many of his friends had died during the course of the war, including Jean. Lusseyran then spent much time in the United States and wrote books, including the autobiographical "And There Was Light". He was killed in a car accident.

External links

• Stories of the teenage resistance