Communist Involvement in the French Resistance

This presentation focuses on the memoir Outwitting the Gestapo by Lucie Aubrac in 1984 and translated in English in 1993. Aubrac was a communist-aligned individual in the French Resistance who fought against the German occupation. Outwitting the Gestapo written as her diary that is the account of her resistant activities from February 1943 til about February 1944. The important part of this account is her rescue of her husband and other resistance fighters from the Gestapo. Her husband was held captive by Klaus Barbie. Barbie was the head of the Gestapo in Lyons and is known infamously as the “Butcher of Lyons”. Aubrac successfully broke everyone out of prison, all the while being several months pregnant with their second child. This is connected to my project by showing firsthand how Communists were resisting and worked well with other groups