Book Details

And There Was Light: The Autobiography of a Blind Hero in the French Resistance

Jacques Lusseyran

Price:	£9.99
Publication Date:	01 Mar 1985
Availability:	Available to buy
Restrictions:	Not available to buy in USA Canada

'Light is in us even if we have no eyes.'

It is a rare man who can maintain a love of life through the infirmity of blindness, the terrors of war, and the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. Such a man was Jacques Lusseyran, a French underground resistance leader during the Second World War. This book is his compelling and moving autobiography.

Jacques Lusseyran lost his sight in an accident when he was eight years old. At the age of sixteen, he formed a resistance group with his schoolfriends in Nazi-occupied France. Gradually the small resistance circle of boys widened, cell by cell. In a fascinating scene, the author tells of interviewing prospective underground recruits, 'seeing' them by means of their voices, and in this way weeding out early the weak and the traitorous.

Eventually Jacques and his comrades were betrayed to the Germans and interrogated by the Gestapo. After a fifteen month incarceration in Buchenwald, the author was one of thirty to survive from an initial shipment of two thousand.

Reviews

'This was the most inspiring autobiography I read this year.'
-- Jill Hawkes, Towards Wholeness, Autumn 2000

'This is a remarkable true story by a remarkable man. This makes gripping reading and left me feeling uplifted and greatly strengthened. Highly recommended.'
-- Stephanie Sorrell, New Vision, September 2000

About the Author(s)

Jaqcques Lusseyran later became a university professor in the United States. He died in a car accident in 1971.

Of Further Interest

Also available by Jacques Lusseyran:
What One Sees Without Eyes