Jacques Lusseyran's life started out like a "fairy tale." But the World War II hero's path got much tougher — and richer.
A school accident in 1931 blinded Lusseyran when he was just 7 years old. But he quickly realized how to sharpen his other senses so he only needed occasional help to get around.
"Every day, I thanked heaven for making me blind as a child," Lusseyran (1924-1971) wrote in his autobiography, "And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II," originally published in 1963.
Lusseyran accepted reality with positivity. "The habits of a boy of 8 are not yet formed, either in body or mind. His body is supple ... ready to settle with life as it is ... and the greatest physical miracles can follow from this acceptance," he wrote.
Understand Your Life Changes
Lusseyran's life didn't turn out how he expected. But he learned how to shift with changes.
"My father was a chemical engineer by profession, my mother, who had studied physics and biology herself, was completely devoted and understanding. Both were generous and attentive. I was a happy child," he said.
But when the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Lusseyran became alarmed. He learned German to monitor their radio broadcasts. Germany invaded France in May 1940. And at 17, Lusseyran organized students into the Volunteers of Liberty, which published a biweekly anti-Nazi newspaper.
But in 1943, the Gestapo arrested him. The Nazis shipped Lusseyran with 2,000 others to the Buchenwald concentration camp in what would become East Germany. He made himself useful as an interpreter and was one of only 31 of his group to survive.
Develop Your Attention, Like Jacques Lusseyran
But before all this, Lusseyran had to contend with his visual challenge. And he didn't lament his loss of sight. He instead focused on turning his remaining senses into superpowers.
"I discovered that in order to live without eyes it is necessary to be very attentive, more than any of my comrades," Lusseyran wrote. "It is said that the loss of seeing immediately causes the other senses to develop further. A blind person discovers the all-powerful and entirely unexplored realm of attention, less distracted by the world."
His parents continued to send him to the same school to learn with sighted students. They helped him to learn to read and write Braille for the blind. They also bought him a Braille typewriter and a regular one so he could prepare his reports for teachers.
"He recovered quickly, and a lot of credit goes to his parents, who refused to treat him as disabled," said Joe Kulin of the JSK Literary Agency, who worked with Lusseyran's daughter to republish the memoir.
"They were students of the spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner and encouraged their son to try to develop his intuition and senses beyond the normal," Kulin said. "He claimed to be able to see colors in his mind and feel the pressure of solid objects before he could touch them."
Lusseyran read everything available, developed his imagination, became adept at doing arithmetic in his head, and became the top student in his class.
Understand Your Challenges Before Taking Bold Action Like Lusseyran
In 1937, on a family trip to Switzerland, the 13-year-old fell in love with the German language. And he began listening to German radio. When he heard about the Nazi annexation of Austria in March 1938, he feared they would eventually invade France. So he started to tune into the BBC for its broadcasts in French or German, since he was not yet fluent in English.
When Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, France declared war. But France fell in June 1940. Lusseyran's peers in Paris feared traitors. They all but gave up.
In May 1941, he and 19 other students formed what they initially called the Resistance Movement. They set up secret cells with Lusseyran as their leader. He was in sole charge of screening new prospects. And he accepted just 600 out of 6,000 interviewed.
"He became a Zen master at listening closely to people and detecting those who were sincere about their commitment to the cause," said Kulin. "The blindness became an advantage because it's all too easy for someone to put on a show to distract an interviewer."
The Volunteers listened to German radio and set up a network of correspondents. This let them find news that was censored from the local papers. They began publishing their own newspaper, Le Tigre.
"Our agents were nearly invisible because they looked like harmless youngsters," he wrote. The Volunteers merged with the larger Defense de la France two years later, and circulation rose to over 250,000.
When Circumstances Change, Find New Ways To Contribute
Nazis arrested Lusseyran on July 20, 1943. So his plans changed again.
One person out of the 600 Lusseyran invited to join the group —whom he was uncomfortable with — betrayed him. But the Nazis found no written records of membership, since Lusseyran memorized all 1,500 phone numbers. They tried to get more information by letting him go, interviewing others, then bringing him back for further questioning 37 times. They finally imprisoned him on Sept. 8.
In January 1944, Lusseyran and 2,000 other Frenchmen were taken by train to the Buchenwald camp near Weimar. The prisoners there were almost entirely other Europeans, but very few Jews. Their fate? Hard labor until they died. Being blind, Nazis exempted Lusseyran from work that required sight.
"Since they were no longer certain of winning the war, mercy had become official with the Nazis," he wrote. But it meant he had to live in the "Invalids' Block," which crammed 1,500 into barracks designed for 300. There, he found his calling: The loudspeakers carried German news and Lusseyran passed on the headlines to appointed agents for all groups of the 30,000 prisoners in his block.
In "Against the Pollution of the I: Selected Writings of Jacques Lusseyran," he described how they kept their spirits alive. Prisoners sung songs and recited poetry until they were liberated. "It was soul food when they had to no food to eat," said Kulin.
Lusseyran: Use Your Skills To Launch A New Career
Lusseyran returned to Paris to find that his newspaper had become the city's most important daily.
The new government awarded him the high honor for heroes, the Croix de Guerre. But a French law prevented disabled people from entering public employment for several more years. He graduated summa cum laude from Sorbonne University with degrees in philosophy and literature and finally, at 25, he was allowed to teach there.
In 1958, he moved with his family to the U.S. and taught at Hollis University in Virginia. Later he taught at Western Case Reserve University in Ohio and the University of Hawaii. He was a popular professor and also lectured widely in the U.S., Canada and Europe on literary and philosophical themes.
He and his wife died in an auto accident in Paris in 1971.
"I have had many people tell me how much his story inspired them, that his memoir was one of the most powerful they had ever read," said Kulin.
Jacques Lusseyran's Keys
- The blind publisher of an anti-Nazi newspaper by the French Resistance.
- Overcame: The need to print and distribute the paper secretly.
- Lesson: "No blindness exists when it is a question of reflecting, intending, planning something or even of helping people to live."
