In Memoriam: Raymond Aubrac

Click on the PLAY button above to view an excerpt from Raymond Aubrac's 2008 AFS Legacy Project interview.

AFS is saddened to report the death of Raymond Aubrac, one of the leaders of the French Resistance during World War II and a former AFS French Fellow, who passed away on April 10, 2012, in Paris, France. 

Aubrac was born Raymond Samuel on July 31, 1914, in Vesoul, France.   He went on to study civil engineering at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées.   Though he initially applied for another scholarship in 1937, Aubrac instead received funding from the American Field Service Fellowships for French Universities program to attend college in the United States for a year, where he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and took courses at Harvard. 

Following his return to France in 1938 after the completion of his AFS French Fellowship, Aubrac became an engineering officer in the French Army.  He was taken as a prisoner of war in June 1940, the same month an armistice was signed between France and Nazi Germany following the latter’s victory in the Battle of France.  After escaping from prison with the help of his wife, he became involved in the French Resistance and helped begin the underground newspaper of the Resistance group based in Lyon, the Libération-Sud.  In June 1943 he was captured by the Gestapo during a meeting of Resistance leaders.  Again with the help of his wife, a fellow member of the Resistance, Aubrac escaped and later went to London to assist Charles de Gaulle’s government in exile. Aubrac used several pseudonyms during the war, and continued to use one, “Aubrac,” as his surname after the war.

Raymond Aubrac was interviewed in France on March 27, 2008, when he was 94 years old.  The interview was conducted by former AFS Archivist Eleanora Golobic for the AFS Legacy Project, an oral history initiative coordinated by AFS Intercultural Programs to document the history and founding of the organization.  In the short clip from the interview featured above, Aubrac talks about his return to France after studying in the United States on an AFS French Fellowship, including his marriage to Lucie Bernard in 1939 and his participation in the French Resistance during World War II.  The full interview, which includes information about his time as an AFS French Fellow and his experience in World War II, is available in the AFS Archives, and can be viewed through a scheduled research appointment.

Posted May 3, 2012 by Nicole Milano