Lucie Aubrac

Lucie Aubrac, a hero of the French Resistance whose dramatic life story became a hit film, has died. She was 94. Aubrac, whose maiden name was Lucie Bernard, died Wednesday at a hospital in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux where she had spent the last two months, said her daughter, Catherine Vallade. Born on June 29, 1912, in the eastern city of Macon, Aubrac was working as a history and geography teacher when she and her husband, engineer Raymond Samuel, helped create the Resistance network known as Liberation-Sud, or Liberation-South. Liberation-Sud was one of the first networks set up by the Resistance, a French movement to continue warfare against Germany after France's 1940 defeat in World War II. It linked civilians and armed bands of partisans working secretly to oppose the Nazi occupation of France. The couple adopted the nom de guerre Aubrac in the Resistance. In 1943, Aubrac helped orchestrate her husband's escape from a Lyon prison after his arrest. She persuaded the local Gestapo leader, Klaus Barbie, to let her meet with her imprisoned husband. During the meeting, she informed him of the Resistance's plan to attack the German truck that was to transfer him. The couple and their children fled to London in February 1944. She received the Legion of Honor, France's highest award, for her work in the Resistance. French director Claude Berry made the hit 1997 movie "Lucie Aubrac," starring Carole Bouquet in the title role. Two other films, Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 "The Army of Shadows" and the 1991 "Boulevard of the Swallows" by Jose Yanne, were also based on Aubrac's story. In 2000, Aubrac published "The Resistance Explained to my Grandchildren," a book about her experiences. Aubrac is survived by her husband and three children.