The Aubrac Controversy
Hannah Diamond and Claire Gorrara examine recent debates over resistance to the German occupation of France.
Memories of the Second World War continue to make headlines in France and never so controversially as in the cases of Maurice Papon and Raymond and Lucie Aubrac. On the face of it, Maurice Papon, former Vichy civil servant tried for crimes against humanity in 1998, and the Aubracs, celebrated members of the Resistance, would seem to have little in common. However, recent media debates around their wartime actions have thrown up questions about the writing of history in present-day France.
Until recently, Raymond and Lucie Aubrac represented the heroism of the French Resistance. They were founding members of the Resistance group Libération-Sud, based in Lyon, and met and worked with Jean Moulin, the man who did more than anyone else to spearhead and unify resistance in France. Raymond developed an operational role in the Resistance that led him to be nominated an inspector for the Secret Army in 1943. Lucie was known as an organiser of daring prison escapes. Her spectacular actions culminated in an attack on an armed German escort on October 21st, 1943, freeing her husband as well as other detainees.
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